The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission Friday approved an ozone-pollution control plan aimed at bringing the state into compliance with federal health standards.
The measures — which include tougher vehicle emission standards and controls on oil and gas industry emissions — will go to the legislature and Gov. Bill Ritter after the commission approves them.
In 2007, the Denver region was in violation of the federal health standard for ozone, a corrosive gas that can impair breathing.
That violation requires the state to submit a pollution-control plan to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The plan must be sent to the EPA by June.
That state implementation plan, or SIP, has drawn support from the energy industry and environmentalists.
Environmentalists, however, urged the commission to add more controls.
“The commission missed a chance to fill some important gaps and protect public health,” said Jeremy Nichols, the climate and energy program director of WildEarth Guardians.
Ozone is created when volatile organic chemicals and nitrogen oxides mix with heat and sunlight.
The pollutant has been linked to respiratory and heart ailment.
The Colorado plan focuses on curbing volatile organics, which come from auto exhaust, oil and gas fields and stationary motors.
Nichols urged the commission to also look at imposing added controls on power plants and cement kilns, the major producers of nitrogen oxides.
The Regional Air Quality Council, which drafted the plan, has targeted nitrogen oxides for the next round of pollution controls.
About three-quarters of the volatile organic reduction in the plan would come from the oil and gas industry.
The industry, after reaching a compromise with the state that offered flexibility in achieving cuts, has agreed to an accelerated timetable for reductions.
“This is a good step and in the right direction,” said Phillip Schlagel, air quality manager for Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
“We definitely support the SIP and the process the state of Colorado has gone through,” Schlagel said.
Among the key elements in the plan are:
• Tougher vehicle-emission inspections. These began last May in the Denver area and will be extended to the Fort Collins area.
• Making gasoline less volatile.
• Tougher controls on oil and gas field tanks and equipment.
• Requiring better valves in oil fields.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
