New rule for ozone spreading concerns
A study released this week cites widespread concern in Colorado as the state awaits new federal ozone rules that could result in more of the state being in violation of standards, including Mesa County and other Western Slope counties.
The report by the Center for Regulatory Solutions warns of impacts on the construction, energy and transportation industries if the Environmental Protection Agency proceeds with a proposal to tighten the existing ozone standard.
“The new proposed ground-level ozone rules being considered in Washington have provoked a bipartisan backlash in Colorado, which has a proud history of environmental stewardship,” the report says.
The Center for Regulatory Solutions is a project of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, a 501c(4) “advocacy, research, education and networking organization dedicated to protecting small business and promoting entrepreneurship, ” the council says.
Ground-level ozone is created by chemical reactions involving sunlight, nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds, and breathing it can cause a variety of health problems, particularly for the young, old, and anyone with diseases such as asthma, the EPA says.
Its current ozone standard is 75 parts per billion, set in 2008. Currently in Colorado, only the Denver metro area/North Front Range is a nonattainment area. Such a designation requires state development of an implementation plan to address the problem, which the Center for Regulatory Solutions said in a news release “imposes new restrictions across the economy.”
At a 65-ppb standard, Mesa, Rio Blanco, La Plata, Montezuma and Gunnison counties would be in non-attainment, the center’s report says.
Gordon Pierce, technical services program manager for Colorado’s Air Pollution Control Division, generally agreed with that assessment based on air-quality data from 2012-14, except in the case of Gunnison County, which he said might only get pulled into non-attainment under a 60-ppb standard. He isn’t expecting a new standard below 65 ppb.
At 70 ppb, only El Paso County would join Denver and the north Front Range in non-attainment, possibly along with western Rio Blanco County, Pierce said. The Rangely area has been dealing with a wintertime ozone problem along with the larger Uinta Basin, which is centered in northeastern Utah and has seen considerable oil and gas development.
The Center for Regulatory Solutions points to bipartisan concern about the EPA proposal among politicians ranging from state Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, to state Sen. Cheri Jahn, a Denver-area Democrat, and it says business and organized labor groups also are opposed. Its report cites a Club 20 letter to the EPA warning that dramatically tightening the ozone standard would have “far-reaching consequences throughout Western Colorado on our industries, communities and individuals.”
Jeremy Nichols, with the conservation group WildEarth Guardians, said the report employs “sky-is-falling rhetoric.” He said at this point, the EPA is “simply trying to identify a safe threshold, and that’s critical to ensure western Colorado’s air is safe and clean.”
He added, “After the standards are implemented, states will have immense flexibility to determine the best way to keep air clean.”
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