Senate Agriculture & Natural Resources [Apr 23, 2026]

Senators Catlin.

Hinnerksen.

Here. Elton B. Present. Elton R.

Here. And Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, Chairman Roberts, members of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. My name is Michael Cunningham. I serve as the Director of the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety. It is my distinct privilege to appear before you today for this confirmation hearing regarding the Colorado Coal Mine Board of Examiners. Mining is of course an inherently dangerous profession and the safety of the miners must remain the paramount concern. The Board provides essential safety training to coal miners, thereby ensuring that workers return home safely to their families at the conclusion of the workday. The Board is responsible for establishing standards, conducting examinations, and providing training and certification for coal miners in the positions of mine foreman for surface and underground, fire boss, shot firer, surface blaster, and electrician in compliance with the federal mine safety and health administration requirements. The Board convenes and administers certification examinations on a quarterly basis and is comprised of four voting members and one ex officio member. With that, I am pleased to introduce Mr. Eric Popham, who is seated immediately to my right. He's seeking confirmation for his first four-year term. Mr. Popham resides in Rangeley, Colorado, and began his career in the mining industry in 1996. In 2000, he was hired by Blue Mountain Energy to work at the Desereto Mine in Moffett County. Mr. Popham started as a general underground laborer and advanced through various positions at the mine, and became a mine examiner and fire boss in 2009 and in 2024 was promoted to the position of safety inspector and instructor. Additionally, he served on the Desereto Mine rescue team for 17 years. Mr. Popham's tenure at the Desereto Mine makes him an exceptionally well-qualified candidate. Next, I would like to introduce Mr. Mike Zimmerman, seated two seats to my right, who is currently seeking confirmation of his first four-year term on the Coal Mine Board of Examiners. Mr. Zimmerman resides in Fruita, Colorado. He's been the safety manager at Mountain Coal Company's West Elk Mine, located in Delta County since 2025. Previously, he worked for Peabody Energy at the Foydell Mine and served on the Coal Mine Board of Examiners from 2021 to 2023. With 25 years in mining, Mr. Zimmerman's experience spans underground coal mines in roles such as production foreman, general mine foreman, compliance manager, and mine superintendent. These positions require expertise in MSHA regulations, risk management, safety talks, mine plans, and accident investigations. He currently supervises all mine safety training, insurance compliance with MSHA regulations, and coordinates planning and ventilation with mine personnel. Mr. Zimmerman's dedication to miner safety makes him an ideal candidate for the coal mine board of examiners. Chairman Roberts and members of the committee, I respectfully request your support for the appointment of Mr. Eric Popham and Mr. Mike Zimmerman to the coal mine board of examiners. Thank you. Thank you director. Gentlemen welcome. Thanks for making the

you'd like. Yeah my name is Eric Popham. As he said I've been at Desereto for 26 years and I wanted to be on the board of examiners because it gives me the opportunity to directly contribute to the safety, the competence, and the professionalism of the mining industry in Colorado. With my hands-on, underground experience, and years in safety training and inspection, I've seen firsthand how critical proper certification and standards are to protect the miners and maintain the operational integrity. My passion for coal mining is deeply personal. I was raised as the son of a coal miner and grew up firsthand understanding the sacrifices, risk and pride that come with this profession. That background shaped my respect for industry and the people who work in it. Through my own experiences, I build on those values with a strong commitment to safety, training, and doing the job the right way. I take pride in helping ensure miners go home safe and are properly prepared for the work they do. Serving on the Board of Examiners will allow me to give back to industry that has given so much to my family while helping uphold the standards and integrity of the certification process. Serving on the board will allow me to promote miners' safety at a higher level, ensure practical real-world testing standards, support workforce development, just give back to the industry, and bridge the gap between regulation and operations. Great.

Mike Zimmerman My name is Mike Zimmerman. Mining is safer now than it ever has been and mining technology has come a long ways. With that said, the basics still apply in that we have to have the correct people doing the worksite exams and looking for hazards so those hazards can be addressed to make the areas safe. I want to be back on the board to ensure that we are selecting the most qualified individuals who have the right work history and understand mining. I want you to know that mining here in Colorado has been my career and provide for my family for the last 24 years. I want others to be able to provide for their families by working in safe mines here in Colorado. At the end of the day, sending home miners safe is the number one priority.

Is that right? Yes.

Yes, that is correct.

The only reason I left the board the first time is because I had left the coal mine industry for one year, and so when I left, you have to be working at a current coal mine, so that's why I left.

Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Zimmerman, didn't he say you're from Fruita?

Also a long drive. Just also a really long drive to be here with us. We know it's really inconvenient and not as beautiful as where you live, both of you. So thank you for coming this way.

With that, Mr. Chair, I move to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation, the appointments of Eric Popham and Mike Zimmerman to the coal mine board of examiners.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you both for wanting to serve. I know that industry is tough, but our record in Colorado is good. People like you make it good. So I'll be proud to vote yes today.

Senators Catlin. Yes. Hendrickson. Yes. Kipp. Excused. Pelton B. Aye. Pelton R. Aye. Danielson. Yes. Mr. Chair. Aye. That passes unanimously. Madam Vice Chair.

All right. These appointments will be placed on the consent calendar. Congratulations. Thank you all so much. Safe travels home. Okay, now we are going to move into the bills that we have scheduled for today. If I see the minority leaders here, so if it's okay, Senator Pelton, I'll flip these and we'll start with House Bill 1338 by Minority Leader Simpson and myself. And I'll hand over the gavel.

Senator Roberts. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the committee. Good to be here with the minority leader again to present this annual but really important bill, the annual water projects bill. This is the bill that appropriates funding for important water projects all across the state, all done with zero impact to the general fund through the use of Colorado Water Conservation Board cash funds. Most of the available funds are the result of earned or on water project financing, interest earned on water project financing that the CWCB has made around the state. The funding in this bill provides a significant opportunity to leverage other state investments in water with funding from the federal government and other partners. these projects were vetted through an eight-month process that includes approval by the CWCB board and which represents each major basin across the state hopefully you've all had a chance to look through some of the projects in the bill but I'll let my co-prime minor earlier Simpson tell you a little bit about this these years projects and we also have our CWCB director here who can answer any questions and provide more information about any of these projects or how the funding is appropriated. Senator Simpson.

I was going to say, you know, I could weigh in if you wanted me to.

Yes, Madam Chair, I'm here virtually.

Yes, thank you so much, committee. And I'm also here with Kirk Russell, also from the CWCB, who's our finance section chief and puts a lot of work into this bill every year. We really apologize we're not there in person. We're actually just coming back from a water conference in Salida and couldn't make it to the Capitol in time. But that being said, this really is our most important bill every year. And water is top of mind for everyone, I think, given what's going on around the state hydrologically. I really appreciate the words of our bill sponsors. I won't be redundant except to say that this funding, given where we are in our state's budget situation, is all cash funded. And the beauty of CWCB is that with Kirk as Section Chief we run a pretty major loan program where we provide low interest loans to water projects around the state And that in turn generates interest that funds a lot of the projects and programs that are in this year and every year bill It's really the bread and butter of how we do business at CWCB. Just about everything we do at CWCB can be tied back to drought resilience and the efforts that we put into helping water utilities and ag producers around the state forecast what the water supply is going to be and to be more efficient and resilient with how we operate around the state. So I'm happy to take any questions, but I think the bill sponsors covered it really well. Thank you so much.

No, thank you, Madam Chair. I am here to support Director Riss. Happy to field any questions that she needs assistance with.

Hi. Thank you so much. My name is Heather Dutton. I manage the Sandlis Valley Water Conservancy District, and I'm also testifying on behalf of the Colorado Water Congress. The Water Congress voted to support this bill. people around the state participate in the weekly meetings of water congress and the support for this bill was resounding because of what has already been said you know the need to improve our our water infrastructure our resilience in the face of changing conditions our ability to measure measure what water we have is critical and so i just want to thank you for considering this bill and wanted to be sure to just share that you know our district as well as the colorado water congress wholeheartedly support this and would appreciate a yay vote thank you

No.

Huge thanks to the DNR and the CWCB for their work on this and everything they do throughout the year.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1338 to the Committee on Finance with a favorable recommendation.

Senators Catlin. Aye. Henriksen. Aye. Kip. Excused. Telton B. Aye. Telton R. Aye. Roberts. Aye. Madam Chair. Yes.

Senator Roberts. Thank you. Senator Pelton, please tell us about 165. Thank you, Madam Chair. Colleagues, I'm glad that the timing worked out, that we're able to do these two bills together, and glad to do this one with Senator Pelton. This is the other annual bill that the Department of Natural Resources needs to run every year related to Species Conservation Trust Fund projects. And this is an annual bill that will appropriate $5 million from the Severance Tax Operational Fund for the conservation, research, and study efforts on threatened and or endangered species here in Colorado. These funds are allocated based on projects approved by the CPW Commission and the Colorado Water Conservation Board. You'll see in this funding cycle, as far as CPW goes, the bill will appropriate $1.25 million for native terrestrial wildlife conservation, $1.25 million for native aquatic wildlife conservation. through a variety of efforts and projects throughout the state related to a variety of species. So with that, I'll turn it over to my co-prime to share some more information about other projects that are supported by this bill.

Thank you, Senator Pelton. Community members, questions for sponsors? All right. Seeing none, we will go to the witness testimony phase. I have one person signed up to testify. And then from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, I have David Clute signed up for questions only. And I have from the Colorado Water Conservation Board, Michelle Garrison signed up for questions only. so I think what we'll do is we'll go ahead and just hold them for now and we can bring them up if we have with if the committee members do have questions for them otherwise we been informed we actually have two witnesses so those are Sarah Orange and Gaspar Paracone Sarah, you were signed up first. I also see you guys. You can play rock, paper, scissors, however you want to do this. Okay, Sarah, it's all on you then.

thank you thank you mr parricone good afternoon mr chairman members of the committee my name is gaspar parricone i'm here today on behalf of the colorado wildlife conservation project also in support of the bill um colorado's wildlife across the board is foundationally managed under the jurisdiction as you well know of colorado parks and wildlife what's unique about this is so much of the conservation conversation with respect to wildlife falls under the purview of big game discussions. I think it's worth noting that of Colorado's 960 species, only 78 of those are pursued by sportsmen statewide, and only 11 of those are big game animals. Yet the investment that we make in the remaining species of Colorado that play a foundational role in supporting our ecosystem health across the board is fundamentally necessary. The $5 million that we get from the state is also a much needed $5 million as several failed federal legislative efforts to backfill the state's obligation have been stymied in the federal legislative process itself and so it puts an impetus on the importance for this. I'd also be remiss if I didn't note the importance of this to landowners on a variety of different perspectives. Obviously these contributions are going to ensuring that species stay off of the list. Once species go from a candidate listing to an actual listing, the restrictions that are placed on private property ownership, the use of water along the Colorado River for our native trout species that are in peril and others becomes very problematic, not just for Colorado parks and wildlife, but our associated landowners who play a foundational role in supporting wildlife across the state. With that, we are very supportive of it, and we hope you will vote in favor of the bill.

thank you mr. chair members of the committee my name is tim brass i'm the assistant director for parks wildlife and lands with the department of natural resources and i'm here today to testify in support of senate bill 165. as the sponsor is noted senate bill 165 is the annual legislation that dnr runs to provide us with the required authorization to fund important programs and projects to benefit at-risk wildlife species across the state the species conservation trust fund was created in 1998 to fund studies and programs within colorado parks and wildlife and the colorado water water conservation board designed to recover species that are threatened or endangered or at risk of being listed and to research and evaluate species data and information about their genetics and habitat the fy 26 long bill included an appropriation of five million dollars from the severance tax operational fund to the species conservation trust fund for the commission and board approved priorities and projects within this bill that appropriation includes two two point five million for cbw priorities and 2.5 million for cwcb priorities we have representatives here from both cbw and cwcb to speak to some more project specifics and to answer any questions that you may have this bill helps our department and our divisions do what they do best and with that we ask for your support on this annual this important annual dnr bill thank you thank you

Senator Pelton. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just want to thank the people that testified. You know, this is an important bill. We need to protect these species as much as we can to keep them from being listed. And so with that, I'd ask for your support.

Becker, please pull the committee. Senators Catlin.

Kip. Yes. Pelton B. Aye for the prairie chicken. Pelton R. Aye. Danielson. Excuse. Roberts. Aye. Mr. Chair. Aye for the lesser prairie chicken specifically. That passes unanimously and