Smoggy Skies on the Rise

Ground-level ozone, the key ingredient of smog, has long been known to plague urban communities throughout the country. But new findings are revealing that ozone is fast becoming a major health threat in rural communities throughout the Rocky Mountain region.

Ozone is a well-known threat to human health. While up high ozone protects us from ultraviolet radiation, down low it corrodes lungs, triggers asthma attacks, and can even cause premature death.

The latest health science though, is showing that even at low levels, ozone is hazardous to our health. In fact, the EPA just adopted stronger limits on ozone nationwide (although the new limits were roundly criticized for not going far enough to safeguard public health).

Here in the Rocky Mountain region, we're finding that ozone is rising to the very levels that are now known to threaten our health, even in rural areas. Here's a few examples of what's going on:

• Colorado: high ozone levels have recently been recorded in Garfield County, the epicenter of western Colorado's natural gas drilling boom;
  
• New Mexico: state officials have conceded that San Juan County in northwestern New Mexico, the site of booming oil and gas drilling, will violate the EPA's new ozone standards;
  
• Wyoming: state officials have issued several unprecedented health warnings because of high ozone in western Wyoming, again the site of tremendous gas drilling impacts;

The take home message here is that ozone is no longer just an urban pollution problem in the Rocky Mountain region.

So what's to be done? If it's not already clear, there's a connection between unprecedented levels of oil and gas drilling and unprecedented levels of ozone. As we've pointed out before, the oil and gas industry is a burgeoning source of ozone forming pollution. Vapors from tanks and gas wells, as well as emissions from drill rig engines and trucks, are all on the rise. If we're going to clean up our Rocky Mountain skies, then we need to clean up the oil and gas industry.

Like we always say, although smoggy skies may be on the rise, we know what needs to be done to reverse this trend. Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action is going to start calling on states throughout the region to start cleaning up air pollution from the oil and gas industry and keeping communities safe and healthy.

Gas Drilling in the Jonah Field of Western Wyoming is Fouling the Air (image from Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, courtesy of EcoFlight).

The Last Place This Should Be Happening

The State of Wyoming is facing something unprecedented: unhealthy ozone pollution.

Ozone, otherwise known as smog, is long-known as an urban health threat. In the Rocky Mountain region though ozone is beginning to plague even rural communities, including those in western Wyoming. This week, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality issued an ozone health advisory for the western part of the state, the first time ever that such an alert has been issued.

The reason for this unhealthy air pollution? Rampant oil and gas drilling.

Oil and gas drilling is spewing out pollutants that form ozone. These pollutants are coming from drill rigs, pollution venting at wells, and natural gas compressor engines. And more drilling is on the horizon. EnCana announced this week it wants to drill nearly 100 new oil and gas wells in western Wyoming.

The other part of the problem is that the Bureau of Land Management, which has given the green light to massive amounts of oil and gas drilling in western Wyoming. Just last week, the EPA ripped the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management for failing to protect air quality.

It's a mix of rampant oil and gas drilling, growing air pollution, and the failure of government oversight. Unfortunately, for Wyomingites it adds up to a serious health risk. It's time to rein in rampant oil and gas drilling, clear the air, and safeguard public health throughout the Rocky Mountain region, in urban and rural communities alike.

EPA Rips Wyoming Bureau of Land Management

Citing massive increases in air pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ripped into the Bureau of Land Management's plans to allow more than 4,000 new oil and gas wells to be drilled in southwestern Wyoming.

In comments submitted earlier this week, the EPA noted that previous drilling in the area had led to "significant and unanticipated" clean air impacts and called on the Bureau of Land Management to adopt stronger clean air safeguards before allowing any additional drilling.

The EPA's comments are the latest sign that booming oil and gas drilling in the region is maxing out air quality. Earlier this month, the EPA told the State of Colorado to reassess whether it should exempt thousands of oil and gas wells from clean air safeguards.

We've said it before and we'll say it again. Oil and gas drilling is the largest, fastest growing source of air pollution in the Rocky Mountain region. Kudos to the EPA for helping to make sure we don't lose our clean air in the midst of this latest boom.