Two years ago, state health officials predicted that by 2007, the Front Range would generate 91 tons a day of the chemicals that cause ozone pollution. Alarmingly, we now understand next year’s output is likely to be 236 tons a day.
The possible wrath of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the least of Colorado’s worries – the real concern is that rising ozone levels could harm public health. High in the atmosphere, ozone protects the Earth from the sun’s harmful rays, but close to the ground ozone damages human respiratory systems. Ozone is created when other air pollutants are “cooked” by sunshine.
Now air quality specialists at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment are pushing for new rules for energy companies, because they say the increase in ozone-causing chemicals stems from stepped-up oil and gas drilling. No other industry has had a similar jump in emissions, they say.
If the specialists’ bosses agree, the health department could formally propose tougher oil and gas field rules in August and present the plan to the state’s Air Quality Control Commission by November.
Along the Front Range, energy companies already are required to take some actions to curb ozone – in fact, companies say they have spent about $20 million doing so. But the health department wants them to do more. For the first time, officials want the rules to apply statewide, not just on the Front Range, because energy production is intensifying statewide. That’s reasonable, since many other sources of ozone pollution – even neighborhood dry cleaners – already must obey statewide rules.
Specifically, energy companies would have to use the “best available control technology” to curb pollution from diesel engines and other machines that power drill rigs, compressors and other oil field equipment. Drilling companies also would have to better contain flash emissions, the chemicals that escape into the air when natural gas or crude oil is brought to the surface.
Of course, drilling companies should have to clean up their acts, but they’re not the only ones responsible for Colorado’s ozone woes. For example, older cars spew ozone-forming chemicals, so it may be worthwhile to find ways to get aging automobiles off the roads.
Given the big jump in ozone pollution, the state must take stronger action. While tougher gas field rules are justified, Colorado ought to find ways to reduce ozone-causing chemicals from other sources, too.
