The Regional Air Quality Council on Monday approved ozone-pollution controls to meet federal health standards — and immediately began discussing how to bolster the plan.
The plan includes tougher vehicle-emissions inspections and controls on the oil and gas industry.
In 2007, the Denver region fell into violation of the federal health standard for ozone, a corrosive gas that can impair breathing.
The violation required the state to submit a pollution-control plan to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Failure to develop a plan could lead to sanctions, such as the loss of federal highway money or limits on new industrial activity.
The region violated an average 85-parts-per-billion standard, and the approved plan addresses that level.
In March, the EPA lowered the health standard to 75 parts per billion, a standard that will have to be met in the future.
“This plan fills the bill until next year,” said Mike Silverstein, deputy director of the state’s Air Pollution Control Division.
Andrew Spielman, the council’s chairman, said the regional advisory group will begin discussing additions to the plan as early as next month.
The region consists of Denver, six surrounding counties, and parts of Weld and Larimer counties.
Ozone is created by volatile organic chemicals and nitrogen oxides as they interact with sunlight and heat.
The approved plan would cut volatile organics by up to 66 tons a day and nitrogen oxides by 3 tons a day. It would also cut carbon monoxide by 13 tons a day.
The plan goes to the state Air Quality Control Commission, which will hold hearings, then adopt a version as state regulations.
Those regulations will go to the legislature for review and then to Gov. Bill Ritter for his signature. Colorado has until June 30, 2009, to file the plan with the EPA.
In addition to the pollution control in the plan, the council adopted additional controls that will cut an additional 88 to 96 tons of pollutants a day.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
What’s getting cleaned up
The major ozone-control initiatives, and the estimated pollution each would reduce per day, in the plan adopted by the Regional Air Quality Council:
Federal measures:
• Tougher vehicle-emission inspections: 17 tons
• Making gasoline less volatile: 3 tons
• Tougher controls in oil and gas fields: 39 tons*
• Requiring better valves in oil fields: 23 tons
Colorado-only measures:
• Vehicle-emission inspections for north Front Range: 19 tons
• Tighter emission controls on collector vehicles: 8 tons
• Additional controls on oil fields: 47 tons**
* Phased in by 2010
** Phased in by 2012.
