Federal regulators, concerned about Front Range ozone levels, have fired a warning shot across Colorado’s bow, and it’s a reminder that legislators and administration officials would do well to heed.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it plans to move up the timetable for the Front Range to meet federal pollution standards.
The EPA is trying to get the attention of Colorado officials who failed to pass measures last month that would cut smog-forming emissions from oil and gas operations.
A boom in oil and gas drilling across Colorado, including in the northeastern part of the state, has added to the mix of organic compounds that form smog. The state health department estimates that next year the industry will release 146 tons of ozone-forming emissions from condensate tanks. An ozone pollution agreement the region has forged with the EPA calls for a limit of 91 tons a day.
The state’s air pollution division has made curbing those emissions a pollution-reduction priority. The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission is scheduled to take up the regulations again at a hearing Dec. 17, and we hope this time they’ll get through their agenda and pass the tougher emissions standards.
It will be an important first step in bringing the Front Range in compliance with federal standards.
The EPA has targeted the Front Range, from the Denver metro area to Fort Collins and Greeley, and 13 other areas across the country because they don’t meet federal ozone standards.
Those areas are required to come up with acceptable plans to meet standards and as they do, the EPA has given them deadline extensions.
The EPA’s tentative action last week, which would move the compliance deadline to July 1, 2007, showed regulators’ intent to cut short the Front Range’s extension.
Federal officials want to see the commission address pollution from oil and gas operations. State legislators also will have to sign off on the tougher emissions regulations. If both entities approve the measures, it’s likely the EPA will give the state more time to correct pollution problems.
The quality of Colorado’s air and lifestyle depends on prudent action to reduce ozone levels. We encourage officials to act expeditiously to protect these important values.
