DENVER—Federal regulators officially found the Denver area in violation of federal ozone limits Tuesday and refused to grant the city another extension to meet regulations.
The ruling was expected after high readings this summer, and state health and air quality officials have been working for months on a plan to meet standards again. The plan could lead to tighter restrictions of emissions from lawnmowers, vehicles, chemicals and industrial plants that can all react in sunlight to create ozone.
It is expected to be mid-2009 before the plan makes it through a web of approvals from the state air quality control commission and legislators, who will send it to Gov. Bill Ritter to forward to the Environmental Protection Agency for approval. The state commission expects to get the plan next fall.
“We’re looking at everything,” said Christopher Dann, a spokesman for the state health department. “Ozone is a complicated pollutant. When you’re trying to tackle ozone, you’re not going out and attacking ozone directly. You’re attacking the precursors so the ingredients are not there to make the ozone.”
The EPA determines whether areas are meeting ozone standards by looking at a three-year rolling average of data. In 2004, a nine-county area on the Front Range was designated as a “nonattainment” area because it topped ozone caps, but the EPA held off on declaring it out of compliance while Colorado adopted a pollution-reduction plan.
Monitoring data from 2005 and 2006 and the first three quarters of 2007 showed Denver topped ground-level ozone limits in July.
“The planning effort began literally immediately. The next day we were having discussions,” Dann said.
Ground-level ozone is a primary ingredient in smog. It can cause breathing problems, particularly for asthmatics, the elderly and children. It is formed when the sun bakes volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, making vehicles, power plants and industrial facilities primary sources of emissions.
Ritter has directed state officials to examine how the Denver area can not only meet existing smog standards but also tighter standards that the EPA is considering.
The current standard, measured by calculating the concentration of ozone molecules in the atmosphere over an eight-hour period, is 0.084 parts per million. The EPA is looking at possibly cutting that to 0.070 to 0.075 parts per million. The agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee has proposed a cap of 0.060 to 0.070 parts per million.
Ritter also asked whether anything could be done to reduce ozone levels next summer.
In December, the state imposed stricter regulations on the booming oil and gas industry in northeastern Colorado and saw results, but now more is needed.
Jeremy Nichols, director of the group Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, said that could force drivers to look at whether their vehicles are clean enough and regulators to look at whether coal-fired power plants should be required to cut ozone-producing pollutants.
“We’ve got some fat to cut there for sure,” Nichols said. “There’s no silver bullet here. There’s going to be many silver bullets. It’s going to take sacrifice from everybody in the Denver area, polluters and citizens alike.”
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