Government officials charged with solving the Front Range’s ozone problems have a difficult road ahead.
As the summer has heated up, so too have ozone levels. Earlier this month, they surpassed federal health limits.
Trouble is, federal health limits are likely going to decrease next year, meaning the nine-county Denver region will have an even more difficult time keeping this unhealthy compound within accepted levels.
On Thursday, the Denver Regional Air Quality Council will meet and likely discuss the matter. We hope the board – with nine new members appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter – takes an aggressive stance on pursuing reductions of emissions that combine to make ground-level ozone.
While we don’t want to see businesses unfairly punished, there needs to be some realization by both industry and government that this is a growing problem that needs to be addressed. And real progress on the issue is going to include some hard, and perhaps expensive, choices.
The state has just been through a bruising battle with oil and gas interests over reducing emissions from condensate tanks, which collect petroleum byproducts and release vapors that combine to form ozone.
More conflict seems inevitable. Last week, Ritter urged the regional air quality council to craft an ozone reduction plan in advance of a September 2008 federal deadline.
“Developing short and long-term strategies to continue to reduce ozone levels in the Front Range will be difficult and challenging,” Ritter wrote to commission chairman Andrew Spielman. “It will require a significant commitment of the [regional air quality council] and all interested stakeholders over the next several months to develop solid and dependable actions that will achieve the ozone reductions we need to protect the health of our citizens.”
Ground-level ozone is formed when nitrogen oxides (from fuel- burning sources like utilities and automobiles) mix with volatile organic compounds (from sources such as gasoline, paints and solvents) and are baked by the sun. Ozone can cause respiratory irritation and reduced lung function and is of particular concern to those with asthma or other breathing difficulties.
The substance is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is charged with enforcing the Clean Air Act and keeps tabs on how the Front Range is doing in controlling ozone levels. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which will play a large role in coming up with a solution, has been mum about ways to further reduce ozone, perhaps not wanting interested parties to believe that a solution already has been crafted.
“All strategies will be evaluated, including augmenting existing strategies,” said Mark Salley, department spokesman.
Jeremy Nichols, director of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, said other potential avenues leading to ozone reduction include reducing nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-burning power plants, retrofitting diesel trucks and heavy equipment, further reductions from oil and gas industry operations, and a program targeting old cars and trucks that emit high levels of pollutants.
All of those solutions would involve significant political battles. But with the governor weighing in so strongly, it’s an encouraging sign that his administration appears willing to take on the difficult issue.
