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November 5, 1977: Rise of the 'brown cloud'

Michael Madigan, Special to the Rocky

Published February 24, 2009 at 7:57 p.m.
Updated February 24, 2009 at 10:54 p.m.

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Front page from November 5, 1977

Front page from November 5, 1977

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It was blamed on hundreds of belching chimneys in the city in 1910.

By 1935, officials pointed to scores of smoldering rubbish dumps.

It was called "smaze" in the late 1950s.

A state health department report in 1964 said the problem was hundreds of tons of pollutants spewing from automobile exhaust pipes.

It was infamously known as the "brown cloud" by early 1977.

A few months later, on Nov. 5, 1977, the Page One banner and story in the Rocky stated what many were thinking. And seeing. And smelling.

"The new director of the Environmental Protection Agency Friday termed metropolitan Denver's air pollution 'a tragedy.'

" . . . (Douglas) Costle told reporters that his flight into Denver for a weekend energy symposium had 'a striking impact on my recognition' of Denver's air pollution problem.

"As Costle spoke, the city was shrouded in the notorious 'brown cloud' - a harmful buildup of carbon monoxide and particulate matter from automobile emissions - common to metropolitan Denver during fall and winter months.

"Pollution levels were nearly high enough Friday morning for the Colorado Health Department to declare an alert, in which the elderly and persons with cardiovascular or respiratory ailments are advised to stay indoors."

It would take six years, but on Sept. 4, 1983, the front-page banner - and the air - looked a lot better.

Denver air quality improving

"Air quality in metropolitan Denver is finally improving - thanks to cars that contribute less to carbon monoxide and air pollution," a copyrighted staff story reported.

" 'It appears to me that the trend is gradually downward, slowly but surely,' said Michael Henry, former chairman of the state Air Quality Control Commission. 'It may not be happening fast enough, but it's happening.'

"Although levels of the two invisible, odorless pollutants still violate federal air quality limits, pollution fighters are confident they'll meet the 1987 cleanup deadline for ozone. Whether they make the same deadline for carbon monoxide is harder to tell."

Eight more years passed before another Page One headline made it official:

Denver's air healthiest

it has been in decades

"Denver's air is relatively clean now, but growth could worsen it again.

"The metro area did not violate federal air-quality standards during 1994, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced Wednesday. That makes 1994 the cleanest air year in more than two decades."

Hazy, 'smazy' days

The same day in 1957 that another Denver health official was lamenting the city's "smaze" problem, the Rocky was trying to pump up circulation by blowing some hot air about a story in the next day's Sunday Parade magazine:

"Lloyd Shearer, PARADE's top Hollywood reporter, will tell you how leaders of the movie capital feel about Elvis' future now that his first picture is behind him."

Love Me Tender was the movie. Elvis eventually would try to put 31 motion pictures behind him.