VOLUME 61 | ISSUE 24
WEEK OF JANUARY 16, 2025
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NATIONAL WESTERN ON PARADE Scandal Cold greets stock show P15
clouds water quality tests Latest twist in an expanding scandal at health department BY JOHN INGOLD THE COLORADO SUN
Various horse-drawn carriages were a major attraction Jan. 9 in downtown Denver for the National Western Stock Show Parade. See the story on page 15. PHOTO BY ERIC HEINZ
Colorado feels brunt of crisis in home insurance Ice, fire, ‘wildly different market’ come together to squeeze owners BY ISHAN THAKORE CPR NEWS
A homeowners insurance crisis fueled by escalating natural disasters has arrived in the Centennial State. Home insurance now costs $818 more per year on average compared to 2020, and Colorado now has the fourth-highest insurance premiums nationwide, according to a July research paper by Benjamin Keys and Philip Mulder. In places like Philips County, home insurance is now 55% more costly than just four years ago, the data show. Even filing a single claim can now be a permanent scarlet letter, agents and insurance officials say.
“There is a real risk right now that insurance companies will not renew you if you file a claim,” said Michael Conway, Colorado’s insurance commissioner, during an October insurance town hall. “Does it make sense for people to be non-renewed if they filed one claim in 20 years?” Places like Grand County have seen insurance nonrenewals increase by around 77% in 2023 compared to 2018, according to new data from the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. Colorado homeowners are also scrambling to stave off cancellation notices and keep their mortgages. In October, Trevor Donahue and Trish Krajniak bought their mountain dream home in Nederland and moved from Littleton with their children. The couple bought homeowners insurance from Allstate — the only major carrier that would insure them. They needed insurance to
VOICES: PAGE 8 | CULTURE: PAGE 10 | BRIEFS: PAGE 16
close on the home and for their mortgage; Donahue was surprised by how cheap the rate seemed. An Allstate agent told them there was “nothing incredibly serious” to fix after their home inspection, according to an email shared with CPR News. A few weeks after closing, an insurance cancellation letter arrived from Allstate. Initially, the company gave them until Jan. 11, 2025, to conduct extensive wildfire and hail mitigation on their property, or risk losing their insurance, defaulting on their mortgage and losing their home. “None of it was outlandishly unreasonable, what they were asking,” said Donahue. “The biggest problem is that they gave us a 60-day deadline from when we closed. We’re covered in snow, there’s ice on the roof, and they’re making no exceptions for an extension whatsoever.” SEE INSURANCE, P6
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment suspended testing of drinking water at the state laboratory, the latest twist in an expanding water-testing scandal that’s been going on for a year. The scandal involves at least two chemists accused of cutting corners and falsifying data on quality-assurance tests — essentially practice tests run to make sure their machines are working correctly. The state says it has no evidence that public health was threatened through falsified data on tests of actual water samples sent into the lab for analysis. “At no time did we find levels that we knew would pose an immediate threat to public health,” Dr. Ned Calonge, CDPHE’s chief medical officer, said in an interview. While testing is suspended at the state lab, CDPHE has transferred testing duties to third-party labs that are certified by the federal government. Here’s what else we know so far about the testing scandal. What kind of tests are we talking about?
These are tests conducted on drinking water to look for harmful levels of various things like metals or toxins. The water samples could be submitted by a community or municipal water provider or they could be sent in by individuals whose drinking water comes from a well. The specific test at issue is known as Method 200.7. It looks for metals like barium, chromium and copper. Calonge said this is not the test the state uses to look for lead. To conduct the test, a lab chemist runs a water sample through a machine, which spits out a result. The result is then compared to federal water quality standards to see if it exceeds allowed limits. SEE QUALITY, P31
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