Where to learn about air quality where you live:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:
EPA Toxics Release Inventory:
Colorado Air Quality Control Commission:
Colorado Air Pollution Control Division:
Where's the problem?
Map: See where air pollution is coming from by Colorado region: http://noconow.co/YxEOz2
Do you know what you’re breathing when you inhale Northern Colorado’s air?
The region’s air quality has been a subject of consternation in recent months as development continues to boom and new studies shine more light on the sources of some of the region’s air polluters.
Studies of how energy development may be affecting air along the Front Range suggest that the industry may be a significant contributor to ozone pollution. But a study in Erie last year showed oil and gas drilling may not be as harmful as some fear.
When looking at air quality above Front Range cities, though, it’s about more than tail pipes and wells.
In its 2012 annual report, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission was clear about what Northern Colorado’s biggest air polluters are. The oil industry, power plants and vehicles were the most obvious. But beer brewers, asphalt plants, glass bottle manufacturers, commercial seating factories and sand and gravel plants were also major contributors.
What you should know about the air you breathe:
What are the biggest air quality problems facing Northern Colorado today?
Various air quality concerns exist in Colorado, including regional haze, greenhouse gas emissions, tiny particles in the air and nitrogen oxide pollution. But ozone is the biggest air quality problem facing Northern Colorado. Ozone is formed when volatile organic compounds such as propane, butane, benzene and a host of other substances mix with nitrogen oxide emissions in sunlight.
All of Northern Colorado — including the Denver metro area counties and Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties — meets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ambient air quality standards for everything except ozone.
What does ozone pollution mean for my health?
Anyone can experience respiratory effects from ozone pollution. It can cause breathing problems and respiratory infections in the elderly and those with asthma. Ozone can cause respiratory problems for healthy people exercising outdoors. Ground-level ozone also can harm plants and have ecosystem-wide effects.
What is being done to control ozone pollution?
Anyone looking to renew their vehicle registration knows one of the steps Colorado has taken to reduce ozone pollution. The state’s vehicle emissions testing program expanded into Northern Colorado in 2010, requiring many vehicle owners to visit an Air Care Colorado emissions testing station before renewing their registration. Colorado also has adopted a regional haze plan that aims to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions at cement and power plants.
What are the biggest sources of air pollution in Larimer County?
The Anheuser-Busch brewery in Fort Collins is the largest emitter of toxins into the air. The EPA’s 2011 toxic release inventory released last November shows that the brewery emitted more than 25,000 pounds of ammonia into the atmosphere that year.
The second-largest toxins emitter in Larimer County is the Rawhide Energy Station near Wellington. In 2011, the coal-fired power plant emitted more than 9,915 pounds of barium compounds, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride, lead, manganese compounds, mercury, vanadium and zinc into the atmosphere, according to the EPA.
How does oil and gas development impact air quality in Northern Colorado?
“Oil and gas production activities are associated with emissions of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides — precursors for ozone,” said Jana Milford, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Ozone precursors are what CU-Boulder research chemist Jessica Gilman calls “starting ingredients” for ozone pollution.
Recent studies, most recently a Gilman’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences study published in January, have shown that volatile organic compounds in Weld County’s air carry a specific chemical signature tied to oil and gas wells.
The same study showed that oil and gas development may be affecting ozone pollution in the Fort Collins area.
What have other regional studies said about how air emissions from energy development affect public health?
A study of oil and gas emissions in Erie showed little negative impact to air quality. Another study of wintertime oil and gas-related ozone pollution in the oil and gas-rich Uintah Basin of northeast Utah was clear: The oil and gas industry is the biggest polluter in the region.
The Erie study, conducted last year by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and released in December, was a snapshot of the air quality near natural gas well completion operations in Erie. Researchers found that pollutants near the drilling sites were well within EPA standards, though they said they could not account for cumulative health risks associated with exposure to chemicals found in the air there.
The town of Erie commissioned an analysis of the health effects of the benzene and other substances the researchers found in their study. The analysis released in early February concluded that there is a low health risk for Erie residents who have been exposed to gases emitted from nearby drilling.
The Uintah Basin study — which involved both Colorado State University, CU-Boulder and 12 other universities, agencies and groups — found that oil and gas operations were responsible for about 98 percent of the volatile organic compounds and up to 61 percent of the nitrogen oxide emissions originating within the basin. EPA ozone standards were exceeded within the remote basin during the winters of 2010 and 2011.
What other research is being done on the connection between oil and gas development and air quality?
Both the state and CU-Boulder are beginning work on major studies looking into how oil and gas development is affecting Front Range air quality.
Milford is the air quality lead on the longest of those studies, a CU-Boulder research project looking into how oil and gas development is affecting water and water quality, water availability and ecosystems throughout the Rocky Mountains, including the Front Range. The study is looking at how much pollution the oil and gas industry is emitting into the air and how air quality might improve as more electricity is produced by burning natural gas instead of coal.
The second study will be conducted over three years by the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division and CSU. Researchers will study air emissions during oil and gas drilling, fracking, production and processing throughout northeast Colorado.