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.