The Weekend Damage

We reported that ozone levels skyrocketed in the Denver metro area on Saturday night. That's not all.

The Denver metro area has already violated federal health standards for ozone in our air. But because of Saturday's high ozone, we now have an even worse violation on our hands.

Under the federal standards, a violation of ozone standards occurs whenever the three year average of the 4th highest daily ozone readings reach or exceed 85 parts per billion at any monitor. In other words, we have to have consistently bad air quality for three years before our air is deemed illegal and unhealthy. It happened in Denver.

The monitor at Rocky Flats in Jefferson County violated ozone standards when on July 20th, the 4th highest ozone reading for the year reached 88 parts per billion, setting the three year average right at 85. After Saturday, the 4th highest reading rose to 90 parts per billion, raising the three year averge to 86.

With ozone rising like this, we're continuing to dig ourselves into a hole. The worse it gets, the more we have to do to clean it up.

And although we haven't violated at other monitors, after Saturday's high ozone, the 4th highest values for the year were pushed up at the Golden and Chatfield Reservoir monitors. At Chatfield, the 4th highest value is now at 82 parts per billion. If the 4th highest value reaches 84, we have another violation of health standards on our hands.

Whether or not we have another violation or things gets worse, the numbers so far add up to unhealthy air throughout the Denver metro area and drive home the need to get moving on a clean up plan.

We'll close noting that Sunday's ozone could very well have been just as bad as Saturday's, but unfortunately the most recent data available from the state of Colorado is from 1:00 P.M. yesterday afternoon. Monitoring data from the Denver metro area is typically updated online every hour so the public can keep tuned into air quality changes as they happen. All that ozone from Saturday must have blown the servers.

Ozone Can be Fatal

Listen to an August 11 Colorado Public Radio interview with Callie Videtich, the Air and Radiation Program Director for the Regional Office of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ozone Alert Deja Vu

It's happened again.

We reported last week that an ozone alert was skipped, even though pollution levels here in the Denver metro area rose above federal health standards. Tonight, it looks like deja vu--only worse.

No ozone alert was issued today, so officially, everything is fine. That's not what the monitors are saying, though. As of 6:00 P.M. tonight, ground-level ozone concentrations have exceeded federal health standards at two monitors--one at Rocky Flats and one in Boulder.

But it looks like things are going to get worse here in the next hour or so. Ozone is measured as an eight hour average. So as more high readings rack up in the average, it's very likely that many more monitors are going to show exceedances of health standards.

And again, no ozone alert has been issued by the state of Colorado so far. Well, for what it 's worth, we'd advise people to stay indoors tonight, avoid strenuous activity, and chill out. In the meantime, let's hope the state gets on the ball here.

UPDATE: As of 9:00 P.M. tonight, five monitors in the Denver metro area had ozone concentrations exceed federal health standards. At the Rocky Flats monitor in Jefferson County, eight hour ozone concentrations reached 95 parts per billion. No ozone alert has been issued as of yet.

What's Going On?

Not much is happening as far as Denver's ozone goes and we're still scratching our head wondering why?

The Governor called on the Regional Air Quality Council earlier in late July to "immediately" develop an ozone reduction plan for next summer and beyond. So far, there's been a lot of talk about the Governor's call to action and ozone in general, but not much in the way of a clean air plan.

There's been a lot of talk about money, which understandably the state will need to follow through with the Governor's marching orders. But let's not get hung up here.

First off, there are many options available for securing the funds needed to craft an ozone reduction plan. The Regional Air Quality Council itself spends hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on voluntary programs, like Repair Your Air, that have questionable benefits on our air quality. According to the Council, around $400,000 is spent annually on Repair Your Air, a voluntary program that was reported to lead to only around a 15 ton/year reduction in volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, key ozone forming pollutants, from tailpipes.

These pollution reductions amount to only 0.04 tons/day of ozone forming pollution, which is 0.0022% of the total daily emissions of ozone forming pollution. On average, the Regional Air Quality Council is spending over $26,000 for every ton of pollution reduced through Repair Your Air. Coal fired power plants and oil and gas companies typically spend less (sometimes far less) than $1,000 for every ton of pollution reduced.

Second, industry needs to pony up here. According to the state, several oil and gas companies have violated ozone reduction rules in the Denver metro area so far this year. These companies include Foundation Energy, Windsor Energy, Petroleum Development, Exco Resources, Petro-Canada, Petroleum Management, Red Willow, and Colton.

As part of penalizing these companies, the state should require them to help pay for future ozone planning efforts. If each of these companies paid $25,000 toward ozone planning efforts, the state would have $200,000 to work with.

We have the options, so what's going on?

Ozone Alert Skipped

Was it a mistake?

Yesterday, ozone levels in the Denver metro area climbed to as high as 80 parts per billion over an eight hour period, which is where current health standards are set. Despite this, an ozone health alert wasn't issued by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The state issues ozone health alerts whenever it forecasts ozone levels to rise to 75 parts per billion or higher. Yesterday, ozone rose to 75 parts per billion or higher in Fort Collins, southwest Lakewood, Rocky Flats, at Chatfield Reservoir, in Golden and in Greeley.

According to the state's forecast, ozone was supposed to climb to only 70 parts per billion yesterday. What happened?

It seems like one thing to mistake a forecast, but when ozone is rising to unhealthy levels right before our eyes, the state should immediately get an alert out. Forecasts aren't perfect, but when all else fails, reality is usually a good substitute.

The Denver metro area continues to endure corrosive ozone pollution. The least the state could do right now is make sure people are aware of this and take precautions.

What It All Means-Part I

We don't know all the clean air measures that will ultimately be adopted to reduce harmful ozone in the Denver metro area, but we do know for certain what some of these measures will be.

If an area violates ambient air quality standards for ozone, like Denver did on July 20th, the federal Clean Air Act requires states to develop a plan to bring our air quality back down to healthy levels. That plan has to include at least two important measures:

1. First, our plan has to require that new or modified sources of air pollution in the Denver metro area meet what's called the "Lowest Achievable Emission Rate." What this means is that if any old factories decide they want to change something or if someone wants to put a new factory in the Denver metro area, they have to meet the most stringent emission limits possible.
2. And second, our plan will extend vehicle tailpipe testing north to Larimer and Weld Counties. Amazingly, tailpipe testing was discontinued in Larimer and Weld Counties on January 1st of this year.

What else will our plan include? We'll bring more on that in another post.

Finally, here's a quick update on ozone. So far this year, the state has issued 42 ozone health alerts. That's the same number that were issued in 2003, which was our worst ozone year in recent times. So far this August, only 2 alerts have been issued, meaning things have gotten better...for the time being.

Week Recap

This week brought a flurry of attention to Denver's ozone crisis, ending with a report back from yesterday's Regional Air Quality Council meeting in both the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News.

The Council was meeting to discuss next steps after the latest violation of ozone health standards and the latest charge from Governor Bill Ritter to clean up ozone here in Denver, and fast.

So how did it go?

Well, while the Council is acutely aware of the need for action, they fell short of putting together a short-term game plan. Much of the discussion at the meeting revolved around budget issues, which is very much a concern and an issue that needs to be addressed. But in the near-term, it seems wise first to figure out what can be accomplished with existing budgets and go forth to meet the short-term goals at hand. The discussion unfortunately, did not even result in the setting any goals--near or long-term.

We are very encouraged by the new Regional Air Quality Council; the new members are well-versed on the issues, particularly on the health side of things, knowledgeable, and know how to rise to a challenge.

But it would have been comforting if the Council would have set some goals, maybe formed a committee willing to commit extra time to the issue of Denver's ozone, maybe committed to holding some public stakeholder meetings, or at least put together a list of tasks that need to be accomplished by the next meeting. This didn't happen, and it wasn't for a lack of ideas; Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action presented a list of suggestions for short and long-term steps.

Really, we're not sure we're any closer to solving Denver's ozone problem than we were before yesterday's meeting. But we also know this may not be an issue the Regional Air Quality Council--which has basically been reformed--can just hit the ground running on. It may take a month or two to gain its stride, but this Council seems more than up to the challenge.

In the meantime, consider this. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the United States stands to gain $33 billion as a result of stronger ozone standards. That's because stronger ozone standards will prevent illness, premature death, lost work days, and lead to whole bunch of other benefits. The total costs will be around $3.9 billion, meaning we gain a payback of $8.50 for every $1 we put into reducing ozone. What a deal!

Clean air really is an investment worth making!