A flurry of last-minute proposals ultimately derailed a marathon three- day hearing of the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission, postponing key decisions on new rules aimed at reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants and oil and gas companies.
The state health department had offered three major proposals to clean up Colorado’s air – one targeting mercury emissions from power plants and two reducing oil and gas pollution that helps create ozone, a primary ingredient in urban smog.
But in each case, a new or revised proposal – either offered by a commissioner or department officials – prompted commission members to ask for more time to give the public a chance to ponder the issues.
“This is a manifest injustice,” said Commissioner Jim Martin, describing the department’s decision to unveil a revised oil and gas proposal on Saturday.
Commissioners heard almost 20 hours of testimony about the department’s plan to curb mercury, which can impair neurological development in children. Currently, about a dozen Colorado streams and lakes have advisories that warn people not to eat the fish because of high levels of mercury.
Representatives from Xcel Energy told commissioners during the meeting that new advanced monitoring at two plants showed emissions were significantly higher than previous estimates.
Consequently, Xcel and other utilities want the state health department to permit them to release the maximum amount of mercury that a new Bush administration rule allows.
A coalition of local governments and the advocacy group Environmental Defense argued that the state should be pushing the companies to install equipment at their plants that would cut emissions even further than the reductions outlined in the state proposal.
“I would argue that if mercury emissions are four to five times greater than what we assumed, we ought to be talking about installing mercury emission controls sooner rather than later,” said Vickie Patton, a Boulder-based attorney for Environmental Defense.
Commissioner Thor Nelson offered a new proposal Saturday that he said gives companies more incentive to install pollution-control equipment earlier.
“For me, the ideal solution in this context is if we can achieve vast mercury reductions but have someone else pay for it other than Colorado ratepayers,” he said.
The debate on the mercury rules pushed back the time the commission had scheduled to listen to the proposed rules targeting pollution from oil and gas operators.
Still, several West Slope residents told commissioners that vapors from oil and gas operations burned their eyes, made them feel nauseated and plagued their livestock.
“We have to leave, or it’s going to kill us,” Silt resident Tim Trulove said.
During the days leading up to the commission hearing, the state health department agreed to revise its plan to curb ozone in the Denver area following several meetings with the oil and gas industry.
The revised proposal requires operators to abide by tougher new reporting requirements while giving them more flexibility to choose which pieces of equipment need pollution-control devices.
The commission is scheduled to vote on oil and gas rules in mid-December and on the mercury plan early next year.
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-954-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com.
