Ozone levels soar past limit

Experts look north to oil, gas activity to find problem

Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 15, 2006 at midnight

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Soaring ozone levels late this week worried local air-quality trackers who fear pollution counts could keep rising in the metro area as temperatures reach 100 degrees over the next several days.

On Thursday, six pollution monitors along the Front Range registered ozone levels beyond the federal health limit of 80 parts per billion. And by Friday afternoon, the numbers were headed in the same direction, as the hot, clear weather conditions perfect for baking chemicals into ozone - a key component of smog - settled over the region.

The high ozone counts can mean difficult days for people who suffer from respiratory diseases, such as asthma and emphysema. They can even make breathing more difficult for healthy people who exert themselves outdoors.

It's also bad news for the Denver region, which needs to see pollution numbers stay low over consecutive summers if the metro area is to avoid sanctions from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA calculates formal violations by averaging pollution levels over three summers. So one bad summer out of three probably won't do it. But two bad summers out of three significantly increases the odds of trouble.

Though the area isn't in immediate jeopardy of formally violating EPA air quality standards, high ozone counts this summer and next could lead to that, forcing federal regulators to brand the area as a dirty-air region. That's a stigma that brings a host of complications, including more hurdles for industries wanting to locate here.

Until this week, ozone levels hadn't reached consistently high levels. But on the eve of a scorching weekend, Regional Air Quality Council Executive Director Ken Lloyd said that might change.

"We could have four straight days of 92 (parts per billion ozone); that's cause for concern and would make next (summer) pretty dicey" for staying in compliance with federal health guidelines, Lloyd said.

Even so, uncertainty reigns. Lloyd pointed out that the summer of 2005, which included an extremely hot July, didn't produce high ozone counts. And, he said, "Who knows what 2007 will bring?"

Colorado air-pollution regulators wary of the ozone levels are focusing attention on growing oil and gas activity in Weld and Adams counties northeast of Denver. Those operations leak compounds into the air that regulators believe push up ozone levels.

Recent figures suggest levels of ozone-forming compounds from those oil and gas fields in 2007 will be more than 60 percent above projections. That, in turn, has state regulators calling on industry to add more controls on storages tanks and elsewhere to capture those emissions.

Richard Long, head of air programs for EPA's regional office in Denver, said ozone monitors along the northern Front Range, in Greeley and Fort Collins, are showing higher readings, which he said might be tied to increased drilling.

"It seems to me, the ozone problems are moving north, and one has to wonder what kind of influence the oil and gas activity might be having," Long said.

Industry officials counter that they contribute just a tiny amount of the chemicals believed to be linked to ozone formation, and that adding additional controls might not be worth the expense. Industry representatives are negotiating with state regulators on the issue, with a decision slated for the fall.

The elevated ozone levels put a crimp in the quality of life along Colorado's Front Range, said Vickie Patton, a senior attorney with Environmental Defense.

She noted that Thursday ozone levels peaked about 7 or 8 p.m., "right at the time when, at the end of the day, parents expect to be able to take their children outside to enjoy a beautiful summer night."

Patton urged state officials to act more aggressively to curtail emissions from the fast-expanding oil and gas industry and to move carefully when considering reductions to the automobile inspection program, which lawmakers want to see scaled back.

"The question is, whether state policy makers sit back and wait until . . . there's a formal declaration that we're out of compliance with federal health standards," Patton said, "or put preventative measures in place that will protect human health sooner."

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