Ozone pollution across the Front Range must be much lower next year than it has been this summer if the region is to meet federal clean-air standards, local air-quality officials say.
A string of high ozone levels last weekend cut the pollution margin for next summer – a crucial season for complying with an agreement with the federal government.
In 2007, the region must prove to federal environmental regulators that it has reduced ozone, a prime ingredient in urban smog.
“What we’ve seen this summer means we’re still in attainment, but the cushion for next year has been reduced,” said Ken Lloyd, executive director of the Regional Air Quality Council.
Failure to meet federal clean- air standards could lead to the federal Environmental Protection Agency imposing sanctions on the region.
These can include loss of federal highway funds and limiting the construction of new industrial facilities.
Lloyd said it’s too early to predict whether the region will be able to avoid EPA-imposed sanctions.
Unhealthy levels of ozone were registered last weekend at 11 of the Front Range’s 13 air monitors, making the pollution the most widespread of the summer so far.
Prolonged exposures to low levels of ozone have been found to reduce lung function, inflame the lung lining and cause respiratory discomfort.
The federal health standard is that there should be no more that 80 parts per billion of ozone in the air over eight hours.
“When you look at Saturday, virtually every monitor in our network registered above 80 parts per billion,” said Christopher Dann, a state health department spokesman. “What that says to me is that there were very few places in the Denver area you could go to escape it.”
Ground-level ozone pollution forms when emissions from a variety of sources – including automobiles, lawn mowers and factories – combine with other pollutants and “cook” in the heat and sunlight.
Typically, the highest ozone levels of the year occur in July and then taper off in August when afternoon rain activity increases.
That’s why regional air-pollution officials don’t expect to see many more back-to-back days of high ozone levels in coming weeks.
Still, the region must contend with the high ozone levels logged last weekend that could influence the Front Range’s three-year average.
That calculation is used by federal environmental regulators to measure compliance with clean-air rules.
In 2004 and 2005, the Front Range saw relatively low ozone levels, Lloyd said.
Those low levels should help balance the region’s three-year average, he said.
“I think we’re still in the game,” Lloyd said.
Still, state health officials worry that increased oil and gas drilling in Weld and Adams counties may be contributing to the region’s ozone woes.
They are proposing that companies reduce emissions from condensate tanks that emit more than 11 tons of fumes a year in the nine-county Front Range region and 20 tons in the rest of the state.
Some Colorado environmental groups say that targeting oil and gas emissions may not be enough to protect the region’s air.
Controlling emissions from vehicles and smokestack industries should be stepped up too, said Jeremy Nichols of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action.
“Our efforts to reduce ozone pollution are failing,” Nichols said. “All the promises made to EPA are clearly empty ones.”
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com.
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