Presenting the Long List

The Regional Air Quality Council met last Thursday, continuing its efforts to develop an ozone reduction plan for the Denver metro area. The outcome was a bit mixed.

On the one hand, a list of potential ozone reduction strategies was presented. The list sheds light for the first time on what the state of Colorado is considering, which is a major milestone. For over two months now, the state has been hush-hush as far as what ozone reduction strategies might be on the table.

Although the list is fairly long, it's noteworthy because it lists options for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions form power plants. Nitrogen oxides, also known as NOx (think noxious), are key ozone forming pollutants and in the Denver metro area, coal burning power plants release around 21% of all NOx. Previous ozone reduction efforts in the Denver metro area have entirely overlooked reducing NOx from power plants, but it looks like this option is on the table this time around. At the least, it made the first cut.

On the other hand, the Council put together a schedule of public meetings that seems too little and perhaps a bit too late. Remember, the Council was charged last July by Governor Ritter to immediately develop a plan that reduces harmful ozone for next summer, as well as summers beyond. The meeting schedule seems designed to fail as far as fully meeting the Governor's charge.

It was agreed by the Council to hold a public meeting every month beginning in early October and ending sometime next summer. In the short-term, if any mandatory ozone reductions are going to be approved by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission in time for next summer, they need to be developed by the end of 2007. That leaves three meetings to come up with a short-term plan. And while it's still possible to come up with a plan in that short of time, most plans are developed after at least a half a dozen meetings and full public vetting.

Not only that, but the meeting schedule poses long-term concerns. The Governor called on the Regional Air Quality Council to quickly develop a plan earlier than September 2008. With meetings scheduled into the summer of 2008, can we be sure we'll meet the Governor's expectations?

Time is not on our side, but the public meeting schedule set by the Regional Air Quality Council seems to demand the near-impossible. If more meetings were scheduled before the end of 2007 (like biweekly meetings in October and November), and if the Council had a goal of fully developing a plan before July 1, 2007, we would more confident that we're on the right track here.

Anything's possible though, and although the schedule is tight, groups like Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action and others will be there to push things along. Our health is riding on this planning effort, the last thing we can afford to do is fail.