AURORA – An interest in creating a hazardous-materials transport route along E-470, the tollway on the eastern edge of the Denver metroplex, is creating some early and strong opposition from the city of Aurora to a piece of legislation that may drop in the upcoming state legislative session.

Board members of the E-470 Public Highway Authority recently floated the idea of their 47-mile long byway becoming a route for carriers of such “hazmat” materials as oil and gas as well as explosives and radioactive materials.

The thoroughfare isn’t currently designated as a hazmat route, unlike the major interstates it connects, I-25 and I-70. Parallel Interstate 225 also offers a route for shipments of hazardous materials.

Neither the public authority nor its board have the legal standing to ask the state to make that designation under Colorado law. Only municipalities can request that a thoroughfare be a hazmat route. But some, like Grier Bailey, director of the Denver-based Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, say that law needs some refreshing.

Bailey’s organization is working on getting a piece of legislation introduced in the 2019 session that would allow more entities than municipalities to request hazmat route designations.

Bailey said that the possible bill would serve as an update to current rules.

“When the statute was first constructed there were no [highway] authorities in Colorado,” Bailey told Colorado Politics. “Our friends at [the Colorado Department of Transportation] are going to embark on that large I-70 project, so one of the things we were thinking about was the feasibility of getting fuel around the state.”

Road construction on a major Colorado interstate could spell trouble for the oil and gas industry, Bailey said. So an E-470 route would be helpful, but getting the designation is the tricky part.

The Colorado State Patrol is charged with conducting an extensive evaluation of any requested route, which is ultimately decided on by CDOT. So, Bailey explained that any route, whether it’s a city, county or public authority requesting hazmat route status, is safe and sufficient for handling any kind of potential problem, like a spill.

Staff members at E-470 said they do have a set of protocols for such events and agreements with surrounding communities in case first responders are needed.

But Aurora city officials aren’t favorable to the idea of E-470 becoming a hazmat route or allowing public transit authorities the ability to make that request.

In a memo from Aurora Fire Chief Fernando Gray to Aurora city council members last month said it would take significant resources to cover a second hazmat route in Aurora – the department is already responsible for the I-225 hazmat route.

A second hazmat team for E-470 would cost about $1.2 million for capital projects alone, according to Gray, who said the “equipment is very specialized and must include sensitive, intricate technology.”

If funding were available, Gray said his department is “willing and able to meet the associated challenges of a secondary corridor.”

E-470 officials said they aren’t opposed to the possible legislation. But they did ask that the bill dictate that the request be a board decision.

The E-470 board is made up of officials from the communities that the tolled highway passes through – Aurora, Adams County, Arapahoe County, Commerce City, Parker, Thornton and Brighton.

Tim Stewart, executive director of the E-470 Public Highway Authority, said that change in the bill is important to them because it would mean the decision to request that a public highway authority route be one for hazmat would come from leaders of various communities and not the paid staff of the agency. Stewart said it’d also contribute to a transparent process.

While Aurora has been working to oppose the potential bill, a member of the city council, Françoise Bergan, does sit on the E-470 board. Stewart said the board has received favorable opinions from Douglas County, Adams County and Thornton on the hazmat route designation.

Aurora council members voted recently to oppose the hazmat-route designation and the legislation.

In letters sent to Sen. Nancy Todd and Rep. Dominique Jackson, both Democrats who represent Aurora and serve on the Transportation Legislative Review Committee, the city said it sees the legislation as a “preemption of the city’s home rule authority.”

That preemption virtually kept the review committee from moving forward with the bill, said Colorado Municipal League Deputy Director Kevin Bommer. He said the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association was “fixated on the preemption” of local governments, which put the bill dead on arrival.

A legislator could attach his or her name to that bill and run it anyway, however.

In the meantime, oil and gas could be traveling down E-470 anyway. Law says that carriers can take the safest and most efficient route to ship materials – that may or may not include hazmat routes.

But Bailey argues that this legislation would keep roadways safer and more prepared if an emergency, like a spill or fire, were to take place.