why is the front range’s air quality so bad?

Before moving to Colorado in 2012, I gave approximately two minutes of thought to environmental-related concerns about my new home. My husband and I pondered the cost of living, the walkability of neighborhoods, proximity to our families, the restaurant scene, and local schools. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I might have know that the Front Range had a history of air pollution, but I figured that it was well into the twenty-first century and surely local leaders had rectified that issue.

Nine years later, I regularly feel surges of emotion about the poor air quality that plagues our region. In addition to my frustration, disillusionment, and anger, I often experience surprise when talking to others about the situation. So many local residents seem to think the issue is forest fires. Many aren’t aware of the impact of ground-level ozone and what causes it.

Obviously, I’m not an environmental scientist. I’m just a person with a strong interest in mitigating the most severe impacts of the climate crisis by making the best choices we can based on science. I believe in the power of education, knowledge, and making informed decisions with the information accessible.

That said, here’s my lay-person description of the “bad ozone” problem, as I understand it:

The Front Range has bad air quality due to transportation, oil and gas activity, industrial pollutants, and the geographic location of our cities. This air quality is made worse by the smoke from wild fires and higher temperatures, both of which are driven by climate change.

Here’s an explanation from an expert:

“Ground-level ozone is caused by a mix of volatile organic compounds released by oil and gas and other industries, vehicle emissions and power plant emissions, and made worse by the hot sunshine metro Denver gets most of the summer. James Crooks, a National Jewish Health epidemiologist and professor, said at an event with CoPIRG on Tuesday that rising temperatures from global warming are making the ozone mix far worse.”

Booth, M. (2021, July 21). Colorado violates EPA ozone standards again as business groups cheer gutting of draft commuting limits. The Colorado Sun.

What does this mean for those of us living in Denver and other parts of the Front Range? Basically, even when we’re not dealing with the smoke from wild fires, we don’t get a respite from bad air quality. And this isn’t just me complaining or being a hobby environmentalist - there are actual measures in place that should be addressing the problem. Here’s an explanation of that situation from a recent new story:

“A nine-county area known as the Denver Metro/North Front Range Nonattainment Area has repeatedly failed to achieve the EPA’s 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone, which set the limit at an 8-hour average of 75 parts per billion. The chronic noncompliance has led to a series of downgrades under the Clean Air Act, the latest of which came in December 2019, classifying the region as a “serious” violator of clean-air laws and giving it until July 20, 2021, to shape up.

Though it will be a while before the findings are official, preliminary data show that Colorado is set to fall well short of the EPA’s ozone standard. Nearly everyone, including state officials, expects the agency to soon downgrade the region again, this time to “severe” nonattainment, triggering a range of new pollution control measures that will have to be enacted by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

In the meantime, Coloradans will continue to suffer health impacts from ozone pollution that appears — amid a summer of historic heat waves and devastating wildfires across the West — to be trending in the wrong direction.”

Woodruff, C. (2021, July 21). Denver area again misses deadline to meet EPA air-quality standards. Colorado Newsline.

Let’s break this down into simple terms, again: We have a bad problem with air quality and we need to do something about it ASAP.

Okay okay, you say, but what can we do? I don’t claim to have the answers. I’m open to ideas. But I sure as heck think we we need to do something. And that starts with education. Talk about it. Tell your friends and neighbors. Call Governor Polis. Join your neighborhood committee to advocate for change near home.