Current Air Quality Conditions in 3 Locations

Video: Wildfires causing worst air quality in years. Source: 9News October 2020

Some of the worst ozone pollution in the U.S. settles along the Front Range. New rules to fix it are ahead. Source: The Colorado Sun June 2021

"In the summer of 2014, the Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemical Experiment (FRAPPÉ), a collaboration of more than 100 scientists led by the Boulder-based National Center for Atmospheric Research, studied the drivers of summertime ozone pollution.

The project collected data on Front Range sources of pollution, as well as meteorological and topographical data, from ground sites, mobile vans, balloons, lasers, aircraft and satellites. The area examined included all or part of nine Front Range counties, stretching north from Douglas County to the Wyoming border, taking in Weld and Larimer counties and the cities of Denver, Boulder, Greeley and Fort Collins. This is the area the EPA has designated as the state’s ozone “nonattainment area.” It has taken almost five years to analyze and model all the data collected that summer. The project found that motor vehicles are the main source of NOx followed by the oil and gas industry – the two account for more than 60% of the emissions. Oil and gas operations are the leading generator of volatile organic chemical pollution, about three-quarters of all emissions, followed by industrial and motor vehicle emissions." [emphasis added]

Why Colorado’s Record Ozone Pollution Is More About Cars Than Wildfire Smoke Source: Colorado Public Radio August 2021

"Colorado’s ozone landscape has likely changed in the seven years since the survey. Energy companies have installed more pipelines, cutting down on total emissions from oil and gas production. Over the same period, more people have arrived in Colorado and brought their cars with them. While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a reduction in Front Range traffic in the spring and summer of 2020, Pfister said state data show it has rebounded to record levels in Denver. “There are basically just more cars on the road,” Pfister said. The return of traffic has coincided with the worst summer for ozone pollution along the Front Range in a decade. Since the traditional ozone season started on May 31, the state has issued 59 ozone action day alerts for the region. The total marks the highest number of warnings since air officials started record-keeping in 2011. The count is also a sanitized way to describe a problem felt in people’s chests and throats. In the long term, studies suggest the inflammation caused by the pollutant can lead to lower birth weights, asthma development and higher rates of premature death." [emphasis added]

Front Range air quality is terrible, but Colorado’s efforts are showing some improvement in ozone pollution Source: The Colorado Sun June 2019

"...in 2011 and air quality was deemed so unhealthy that the region failed to meet a federal air quality standard set in 2008. The region is still out of compliance today and forget about meeting a stricter one set in 2015.

That’s the Regional Air Quality Council’s task: Figuring out how to get the nine-county metro Denver region into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s old and new standards, set at 75 parts per billion of ozone in 2008 and at 70 as of 2015. (Last year, several sites in the Denver region were in the high 70s to low 80s parts per billion.)

“We have an issue with ozone. It’s our summertime air pollutant and we’re not attaining the federal standard,” admitted Mike Silverstein, executive director for the air-quality planning agency for the Denver metro area. "

Love My Air Denver Source: Denver Dept of Public Health and Environment

"According to the National Weather Service (a subsidiary of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), poor air quality is responsible for “an estimated 60,000 premature deaths in the United States each year,” and “costs from air pollution-related illness are estimated at $150 billion per year.” In Denver schools, more than 10,000 students have been diagnosed with asthma-related conditions. Children are more susceptible to the effects of air pollution, such as decreased lung function and missed days of school. While multiple factors influence exposure to air pollution, schools have been identified as an ideal intervention point for sensor deployment, education, and empowerment."