Cities along the Front Range may be unable to meet new air-pollution standards for ozone proposed Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The proposal has “the strongest standards on ozone … in our history,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson.
Meeting the new targets could be hard for several Colorado cities, said Martha Rudolph, the state’s director of environmental programs.
The proposed standard would require communities nationwide to have less than 70 to 75 parts per billion of ozone pollution in their air.
The current permitted level for the corrosive gas that is a key ingredient in smog is 80.
In 2006, from Rocky Mountain National Park to Colorado Springs, ozone levels topped the newly recommended ozone level.
In Fort Collins, the levels were as high as 87, and in Colorado Springs, 72.
Even out-of-the-way parts of the state, such as Mesa Verde National Park, peaked above the proposed levels last year.
Failure to meet the standards could lead to Colorado’s losing federal highway funds or restrictions on growth set by the EPA in noncomplying areas.
For example, in Philadelphia, which has been in noncompliance for decades, a new plant that produces ozone pollution cannot be built until there is an offset by closing another plant or cutting pollution in some other way.
New Jersey, which has also had trouble complying with the ozone standard, implemented a tougher auto tailpipe inspection program.
“It’s quite probable that we will have to do more to meet the new standard,” Rudolph said.
It may eventually lead to the Four Corners states reaching some kind of agreement to help one another keep down air pollution, she said.
The proposed standards were more than a year in the drafting and are open for public comments for 90 days.
If adopted, the proposal will take effect between March 2008 and 2030, EPA officials said.
As many as 533 counties across the country in recent years have had ozone levels above the proposed standard, EPA officials said. About 100 counties do not meet the current standard.
The EPA’s announcement drew immediate criticism from both sides of the clean-air debate.
Environmental advocates said the new standards weren’t tough enough and had left open the door for industry to blunt the proposal.
“The EPA is still holding out the possibility of doing nothing,” said Vickie Patton, an attorney with the Boulder office of the nonprofit Environmental Defense. “It’s also really important that we focus on what’s at stake here.”
“For a child with asthma in Denver, smog pollution on a summer day can make the very act of breathing both difficult and dangerous,” Patton said.
Johnson, the head of the EPA, responded by saying he had made the proposal “based upon strong science” and believed it was the best for the health of Americans.
The EPA’s announcement came on the same day Colorado issued another “ozone advisory” to warn people that levels of the pollution could be high enough that breathing might be difficult for child, seniors and people with asthma.
It was the third alert this week.
The Denver area has been struggling with the current ozone standard for the last two years. Its three-year average at the end of this summer will determine if it meets EPA’s current limits.
“This isn’t the first time that we’ve really had to stretch to clean up air pollution,” said Stacey Simms, air-quality manager for the American Lung Association of Colorado. “We’ve been successful at it in the past.”
Representatives of industries that emit chemicals that create ozone – such as Jeff Holmstead, a former EPA official who now represents oil and gas industry clients – called the new standards a waste of time and money.
Staff writer Nick Martin can be reached at 303-954-1698 or nmartin@denverpost.com.
