Monitoring for unhealthy levels of ozone pollution in the metro area will last at least through the weekend – extending a summer in which the region already violated long-term federal clean-air standards.
The three-month monitoring period usually concludes at the end of August.
“We may have some high temperatures this weekend and the possibility for some ozone buildup, so we’ll continue with the forecasting,” said Christopher Dann, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The metro area has recorded unacceptably high levels of ozone nine days this summer, putting it in violation of federal Environmental Protection Agency standards and likely requiring aggressive new pollution-control steps.
Over the next few months, the regional air- quality council is set to consider “all options” to reduce ozone, which is produced through a sunlight- spurred chemical reaction of the fumes emitted from vehicles and industry, said Sara O’Keefe, a spokeswoman for the regional air-quality council.
“We’ll even look at what they’ve done in other cities, where they’ve been dealing with ozone a lot longer than we have,” she said.
Jeremy Nichols, director of the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, said fast-growing portions of the northern Front Range – notably Larimer and Weld counties – may be required to participate in tailpipe tests. Controls on industrial sources, such as power plants, also should be targeted, he said.
“We’ve taken some steps to clean up ozone to keep people safe, and they clearly haven’t been enough, and we’re going to have to make some significant changes,” Nichols said.
Xcel Energy already has proposed installing cleaners on three metro-area power plants, said spokesman Tom Henley, adding that vehicles remain the biggest source of ozone-creating pollutants.
Emission levels for polluting sources are likely to be reduced to curb ozone, officials say.
“We know that they’re going to be lower than what we have now, and Colorado and certainly the Front Range will be impacted,” Cindy Cody, an air-quality manager at the EPA, said of the new standards expected in March.
Research indicates that the existing standards do not adequately protect at-risk populations, Cody said. Among those groups are the elderly, infants and those with respiratory problems.
Although this summer’s bad ozone days were not as numerous as in 2003, when there were 17 days of high levels, it came down to measurements at one monitor – Rocky Flats – that triggered this year’s violation.
“Coming into this summer, that monitor was not even the closest to a violation,” said Dann, of the state health department.
The metro area has exceeded federal ozone standards in the past but in agreement with the EPA was given three years to show it could reach clean-air levels. This was the last year to do so.
The most severe sanction the state could face for not meeting the clean-air standards is the loss of federal highway funds.
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
