Plan to cut ozone pollution faces major hurdle - time
By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Friday, January 4, 2008
After the Denver region violated ozone pollution limits last summer, Gov. Bill Ritter asked local airquality regulators to find ways to cut more emissions.
But with six months until the start of another ozone season, it appears that little can be done to make a
serious dent in the summer pollution problem. Major steps that may have a greater impact, including
use of cleaner-burning gasoline, are likely to take years to put in place.
The 14 members of the Regional Air Quality Council are weighing several options in the short- term,
including tougher auto emission tests, more pollution cuts by oil and gas operations and a plan to
encourage owners of clunkers to fix their cars or junk them altogether.
But critics argue that these and other proposals will take perhaps just a few tons of ozone-forming
pollutants from the skies per day, less than one percent of the more than 400 tons per day of manmade emissions in the metro area.
"They're moving in the right direction, but they're not moving fast enough," said Jeremy Nichols of
Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, a green group. "The way things are going, it's going to be a repeat of
last summer."
That's when the Denver region officially violated the Environmental Protection Agency's health standard
for ozone. As a result, the metro area by the end of next year must assemble a long-term plan - to be
approved by EPA - to make big and consistent reductions in ozone levels.
Failure to clean up the air can result in more federal control over local decisions on highways and
growth, creating bureaucratic hurdles to bringing new industries to the region.
Ozone is invisible and forms when emissions from cars and industry bake in the summer heat. Health
experts say cutting ozone matters because elevated counts harm the lungs, especially of the elderly and
young, drive up emergency room visits and strike hardest at those who have trouble breathing.
The director of the Regional Air Quality Council, Ken Lloyd, is optimistic that short-term measures can
help this summer. He and others are banking not only on new programs, but continuing ones.
Those include the ongoing replacement of older cars with newer, lower-polluting vehicles and an
existing program to install pollution-control equipment on diesel trucks.
"We've looked at what we could do between now and next summer . . . and granted, some of the stuff is
small," Lloyd said. But, he said, other strategies under consideration will have a greater impact over
time.
A lot of small sources contribute to ozone, he said. "Nothing out there is the silver bullet."
Tougher and more proven measures, including adding cleaner fuels to the region, take time, Lloyd said.
Such fuels are already used in ozone-heavy regions such as Houston and Los Angeles.
"If you're doing different gasoline, you just don't turn a valve in a refinery and the different gas comes
out," he said. "It takes capital investment, different equipment."
One short-term step expected to be adopted, but sure to be unpopular with motorists: a toughening of
auto emission tests. That will cause more cars to fail and force owners to seek repairs to make the
vehicle run cleaner.
Regulators said standards are still under discussion, so it's too early to know how many more cars will
fail. Already, the vast majority of cars, about 94 percent, pass the biennial emission test. And one official
at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment suggested tougher testing wouldn't
result in major changes in failure rates.
"It's not going to be one of these big elephants - you're going to do this and all of the sudden you get"
big pollution cuts, said Garry Kaufman, program manager in the state's Air Quality Control Division.
At least one energy company, EnCana Oil & Gas (USA), responding to Ritter's request, said it will take
steps at its oil fields northeast of Denver to aggressively fix leaks to control emissions, among other
things.
Regulators also hope a new effort to find the dirtiest cars using roadside remote sensing devices will
compel owners to get those cars fixed, further cleaning the air. Beginning this month, those who ignore
notices of a dirty car face fines and suspension of the car's registration.
That program, Kaufman said, should result in "incremental benefits" to air quality by this summer.
hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5048
Potential cuts
Air quality officials are considering fast ways to cut down on ozone pollution in time for the summer
ozone season of 2008.
* Toughening auto emission tests, forcing more cars to get repairs and cut pollution
* Expand certain industrial pollution-control regulations into Weld and Larimer counties to cut down on
drifting emissions
* Voluntary steps by oil and gas companies to cut emissions of natural gas that escape in the initial
period after a well is drilled
* Require certain collector cars - those at least 25 years old - to undergo more stringent emission testing
* Implement an "aggressive" anti-idling campaign for banks, fast food and other drive-through facilities
* Voluntary action by refineries to bring cleaner burning fuels into the metro area
* Pay owners of clunkers up to $2,000 to scrap their cars