DENVER—Yesterday, state
officials violated an agreement with state lawmakers to reexamine a set of controversial
air quality rules with a full public hearing process before submitting them
to EPA for approval. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
took steps to formalize the rules yesterday on the same day that two Front Range
air quality monitoring stations recorded levels of ozone in violation of federal
health standards and an air quality advisory was issued for Rocky Mountain National
Park.
"The Department of
Public Health and Environment made a public commitment to the people of Colorado
and state lawmakers to re-evaluate this industry-backed plan with full public
input before carrying it forward," said Will Coyne of Environment Colorado.
"They have broken their promise."
At odds are changes to rules
that implement the Clean Air Act enacted last year by the Colorado Department
of Public Health and Environment. The new rules would make it unlikely that
old industrial facilities that emit air pollution would ever be required to
install modern pollution controls.
Citing concerns over negative impacts to public health, state lawmakers challenged
the rules during this year's legislative session over objections from industry
and the Owen's administration. Lawmakers won an agreement from CDPHE to re-evaluate
the rules with full public input.
"It is disappointing
that Doug Benevento, the director of the Colorado Department of Public Health
and Environment, is focused on relaxing pollution control rules for industry
while families across the Front Range are being warned that the air is unhealthy
to breathe, " said Vickie Patton, Air-Quality Attorney with Environmental
Defense.
The move by CDPHE to formalize
the controversial rules came the same day as the first widespread violations
of health based standards for air quality. The highest ozone concentration appears
to have been recorded at the Chatfield Reservoir monitor where the pollution
levels reached 117 parts per billion (ppb) well above the 85 ppb federal health
standard. Ozone pollution concentrations also exceeded the health standard yesterday
at the NREL monitor.
