Dirty Air

Following on the heels of a recent negative federal ozone designation for the Front Range, state officials are considering tougher controls on air pollution from oil and gas development, cars and power plants.

Further changes to year-old rules could mean tougher controls in Weld County, which is No. 2 in the state in oil and gas extraction and which some have blamed for pollution problems on the Front Range.

This summer, monitoring stations from Fort Collins to Chatfield State Park in the south Denver metro area reported levels of ozone above the federal health standard, and that led to a federal dirty-air designation about two weeks ago.

Jeremy Nichols, director of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, said the dirty-air crisis presents a good opportunity.

“People are talking doom and gloom, ‘Oh we violated, it’s going to be bad for business.’ And we (say) ‘No, this gives us the backing we need,’” he said.

It’s hard for residents to ask industries to work toward cleaner air, but a negative designation is an impetus for change, he said.

Those changes could be coming in the next year, as state officials work on ways to cut pollution.

Weld County Commissioner Bill Jerke said he doubted whether pollution from oil and gas extraction was the main culprit, and said the industry has already taken steps to reduce pollution, including burners that reduce volatile organic compounds—a precursor to ozone—before they go into the atmosphere.

“They are burning 24/7 on all of these new wells that are being drilled in the county, as well as retrofitting recent wells ... and they are burning enormous amounts of the VOCs that could contribute to an ozone problem on a hot day,” he said.

He said the oil and gas industry is a relatively small producer of those compounds.

“Even if they cut what they produce by half, which I believe they have in the last three or four years, it’s had a negligible effect, and that’s because they are such a small slice,” he said.

Nichols argued the slice is more like one-third of the pollution in the metro area and Front Range, and that although the industry has taken strong first steps in pollution mitigation, more must be done.

“We’re not saying it’s only on their shoulders; nobody is saying this entire problem is because of oil and gas,” he said.

But other industries, like vehicles and power plants, have been more heavily regulated for years, he said.

“We need to say, ‘OK, well what level are we all at as far as our efforts to reduce air pollution?’ In the grand scheme of things, oil and gas is way far behind,” Nichols said.

Regardless of varying opinions, however, state officials might have little choice when it comes to tighter pollution controls on the oil and gas industry, and others for that matter.

On Nov. 20, the Denver metropolitan area and the North Front Range area became “nonattainment” areas for meeting the federal ozone standard. The Environmental Protection Agency basically decided not to give Denver another extension to meet air quality standards the area initially failed in April 2004.

When that happened in 2004, the state, the Regional Air Quality Council and others said ozone control measures would be implemented sooner than required by the Clean Air Act, so the EPA gave the region more time to work on it. But under that Ozone Early Action Compact, and with new rules implemented a year ago, the region still didn’t meet air quality standards, so the EPA didn’t give the state another extension.

Noncompliance could mean the EPA could have a greater say in how to mitigate pollution on the Front Range. To avoid that, several state agencies are in the midst of developing a detailed plan to reduce ozone.

The Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, the Regional Air Quality Council and the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization are working on a plan that will be submitted by the end of next year, and would require further reductions in ozone levels beyond what was required through the Early Action Compact.

Fort Collins City Councilman Ben Manvel is Northern Colorado’s representative on the regional air council, and said the group will discuss possible short-term solutions when it meets tomorrow in Denver.

Several options exist, including improving the vehicle fuel mix available in the region; getting dirty cars off the road by reinstating emissions testing, which Larimer County stopped a few years ago; and changes to oil and gas regulations that would affect Weld County.

Vehicle emissions improvements have been under way for several years, Manvel said—the question is what can we do at the margins.

“One of those things is to work with the oil and gas industry to clean up their act even more,” he said.

But in the end—especially since the EPA is considering raising its health standards beyond those that Colorado can’t currently meet—a lot of short-term steps might not be enough.

“The trouble is, I think the answer is going to be that most of these things we’re talking about are pretty marginal benefits,” he said. “The numbers are not going to change a lot on ozone.”

Ground-level ozone is different from ozone in the atmosphere, a good ozone, which prevents ultraviolet light from the sun from reaching Earth. Ground-level ozone is a primary ingredient in smog and is unhealthy to breathe, especially for people with respiratory problems and people of all ages who are active outdoors.

Ozone is formed when “volatile organic compounds,” like hydrocarbons, react with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight. Vehicles, power plants and industrial facilities are the primary sources for those emissions.

In Weld County, which saw 1,038 drilling permits approved just this year as of Sept. 4, oil and gas extraction is another source.

Volatile organic compounds are emitted in condensate tanks, a part of the oil and natural gas extraction process. But the state is promoting cleaner production processes and pollution control measures, which Jerke said is already under way.

Now, the Air Pollution Control Division plans to build on measures passed last year, which control emissions in northeastern Colorado.

Jerke said oil and gas extraction shouldn’t be blamed for problems that are more likely caused by vehicle pollution and other industries, especially given ozone occurs naturally.

He even suggested Colorado’s forests as a source of ozone emissions, saying that conifer trees in summer produce a sappy compound that can be released into the atmosphere. Jerke said he learned about that during hearings regarding last year’s regulatory changes.

“When it gets hot, (conifers) produce into the air a turpentine sappy material and they believe that’s perhaps a significant contributor, let alone the cars, let alone the factories, let alone farmers’ green fields in the summer. Mankind simply produces a whole hunk of this,” he said. “To single out the oil and gas industry, No. 1 it doesn’t get you very far, and it’s just sad to pick on one industry.”

Nichols said all industries, especially oil and gas extraction, will have to work harder if Colorado wants clean air.

“We’re just trying to keep focused on the health aspect,” he said. “This benefits us all. Clean air is good for business and economic prosperity here.”