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Plan to cut ozone pollution faces major hurdle - time

By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 4, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

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After the Denver region violated ozone pollution limits last summer, Gov. Bill Ritter asked local air-quality 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 man- made 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

Comments

  • January 4, 2008

    9:23 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    CWW writes:

    All of the above is unenforcable feel-good crap. Toughen emmission testing to "force" people to get repairs? Not likely when most of the cars that will fail are driven by illegals who don't have a license, insurance or registration, much less the money to repair their car. Anti-idling at drive throughs? Get real.

    And where is the $2000 to buy clunker cars coming from? Yup, our tax money (maybe some of that Ref C money that Ritter appropriated).

  • January 4, 2008

    9:32 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Growthbuster writes:

    One essential tool that is repeatedly overlooked is to end economic development that subsidizes/encourages/accelerates population growth along the front range. If you cut in half our ozone-creating emissions but double our population every 35 years, you can only break even! We need to get unhooked from dependence on population growth. Population growth will kill us in terms of air quality, water supply, transportation, quality of life, and even economically when you add up all the costs of dealing with its impacts.

    Dave Gardner
    Producer/Director
    Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity
    www.growthbusters.com