New Regional Air Quality Council Members

In a somewhat quiet move, Governor Bill Ritter appointed 9 new members to the Regional Air Quality Council and signed a new Executive Order allowing the Council to serve as the lead air quality planning agency in the Denver metro area until October 2008.

We've blasted the Regional Air Quality Council numerous times in the past. The Council has typically ignored public health concerns when taking on its air planning. Although the Council has launched some important public outreach campaigns, particularly when it comes to keeping Denver safe from ozone, our view is that they have generally subverted efforts to hold polluters accountable.

Will that change? Well, the 9 new members of the Regional Air Quality Council include:

• Jana Milford, an atmospheric scientist and former staffer with Environmental Defense;
• Nathan Rabinovitch, a doctor at National Jewish (who also blew us off last year when we were seeking input on the health effects of ozone in Denver);
• Andrew Spielman, a lawyer with Hogan and Hartson (incidentally, the same law firm that Governor Bill Ritter was with before he got elected);
• Rusell George, the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Transportation;
• Jim Martin, the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment;
• Joan Ringel, a Denver citizen;
• Nancy Severson with Denver Environmental Health (Denver Environmental Health has also given citizens the brush off when it comes to collaboration).
• Mark Johnson, the current Director of the Jefferson County Health Department; and
• Melanie Worley, with the Denver Regional Council of Governments.

Also, thankfully continuing on the Council is Theresa Donahue, the Executive Director of the Denver Health and Wellness Commission.

Certainly with these new members, the Council has great potential to do great things. But they'll need to follow some important advice: make every effort to listen to citizens. Some of the new Council members are well-suited to this task, but others may need to work on this.

Citizens are more concerned, more involved, and more educated on the issues that the Regional Air Quality Council deals with than ever before; and it will be more important than ever before that the Council work with us.

CORRECTION: Melanie Worley is actually an existing member of the Regional Air Quality Council. The 11th and final seat of the Council is being saved for a North Front Range representative. The seat has yet to be filled as of late August.