Metro Denver and the northern Front Range have failed to meet another federal air quality benchmark, which could have long-term implications for consumer gas prices, rules for issuing permits to businesses, and health care in Colorado.
This time, the region failed to meet national air quality standards for ozone that were set in 2015. Under that standard, the region’s 8-hour ozone average was supposed to be lowered to 70 parts per billion by this month. However, the region continues to fail to meet that level.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency already designated Denver and the northern Front Range as being in severe “non-attainment” of a more lax 2008 air quality standard.
The EPA is now reclassifying Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Jefferson and a portion of Larimer counties as being in serious violation of that 2015 standard after previously being considered in moderate violation, according to a notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register.
KC Becker, administrator for the EPA’s Region 8, which includes Colorado, last week signed the letter approving the change and it became effective upon publication in the register.
The new designation comes as the state has experienced a nine-day string of ozone-pollution health advisories largely because of wildfire smoke drifting here from Canada. As of Thursday, the Regional Air Quality Council, which helps guide air quality policy, had issued 16 air quality alerts in July, which also has been plagued by record-breaking high temperatures.
Ground-level ozone develops when carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other gases combine on hot, sunny days to form smog. Those pollutants come out of car tailpipes, smokestacks and factories. The smog harms people with heart and lung diseases such as asthma, damages trees and other plants, and causes poor visibility in the mountains.
Air regulators and health experts recommend people avoid exercising outdoors during air quality alerts. They also ask people to stop driving as much as possible and to quit operating gas-powered lawn and garden equipment until after 5 p.m., when temperatures start to cool.
Gov. Jared Polis voluntarily asked for the latest downgrade in June, the Federal Register notice stated. Becker’s letter said no executive orders or public hearings were necessary for her to approve the change.
Colorado must now attain the 2015 ozone standard by Aug. 3, 2027, or face another downgrade, according to the notice.
But the Front Range has another federal standard to reach first.
The nine-county region encompassing Denver and the northern Front Range — mostly the same counties that fall under the new action, but also including Weld and all of Larimer — are considered to be in severe violation of 2008 air quality standards that require ozone levels to fall below 75 parts per billion. The region is expected to meet that benchmark by 2027.
Because of that designation, motorists in the nine-county region are required to use reformulated gas June through September when ozone levels are highest. The special blend burns cleaner and releases fewer greenhouse gases but it is slightly more expensive.
Also, more companies are required to apply for federal permits that regulate how much pollution they can release into the air, and that costs businesses money.
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The last time the state was downgraded, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Air Pollution Control Division received millions of dollars to increase its staff to handle the workload and to buy equipment to better monitor the region’s air quality.
Two summers ago, the Regional Air Quality Council warned the state was set to miss the July 2024 deadline to meet the 2015 national air quality standards. Its director, Mike Silverstein, said at the time that the state should hit the 2008 benchmark by the 2027 deadline.
However, environmentalists are not convinced either of those standards will be met by 2027 as the region is experiencing terrible summer air quality.
Jeremy Nichols, senior advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said that although the latest designation is mostly a formality, it is a sign that “things are off the rails. It’s not ideal.”
“It reflects the reality that the state is far from coming into compliance with ozone standards,” he said.
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