Ozone Season Kicks Off With High Ozone

It's going to be a tough summer for our health.

Last Sunday, June 1st, kicked off the "ozone season," meaning state and local health officials are going to start issuing alerts whenever ozone pollution reaches unhealthy highs. Ozone, a corrosive gas, forms when air pollution from smokestacks and tailpipes react with sunlight.

The timing was a bit late. On May 31st, ozone levels in the Denver metro area soared above the current health standard, which limits ozone to no more than 75 parts per billion over an eight hour period. Last Saturday, ozone levels reached 79 parts per billion at Rocky Flats and 77 in Boulder.

Not only that, but on May 24th and 25th, ozone reached unhealthy highs in Colorado Springs. This was all before the start of the official "ozone season."

These high ozone levels aren't surprising. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently adopted stronger standards limiting ozone to keep communities nationwide healthy and safe, although these standards fell short of what was recommended by the agency's own science advisers.

While we're not surprised though, we're not pessimistic. Sure, we agree with state health official that we're in for a challenge, but this a challenge we can meet. The Regional Air Quality Council itself has recognized this. They've set a goal of meeting the EPA's new ozone standard of 75 parts per billion, an unprecedented step forward since states aren't even required to meet the new standards until after 2011.

But the challenge will be easier to meet than we think. There are a number of strategies to reduce ozone that have yet to be adopted, including stronger limits on pollution from oil and gas drilling, lower volatility gasoline, and cuts in pollution from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants. These strategies and many more are detailed in The Path Forward, a report prepared by a coalition of environmental groups and local governments detailing the many cost-effective ways to reduce ozone in the Denver metro area.

With high ozone kicking off the ozone season, it's time to aggressively meet the challenge of safeguarding public health. It may be tough to meet stronger ozone standards, but compared to the difficulty of breathing polluted, unhealthy air, it'll be easier than we think.

BBC Reports: All is not Well in the Gas Patch

This BBC report recently aired, learn for yourself what the natural gas boom is doing to the clean air and the communities of western Colorado.

San Luis Valley Oil and Gas Leases Yanked

144,000 acres of the northern San Luis Valley of Colorado have been withdrawn from an upcoming oil and gas lease auction, a big win for wildlife, for the climate, and for the folks living the San Luis Valley.

The Bureau of Land Management had originally proposed to lease an unprecedented amount of lands in the Rio Grande National Forest and near Crestone, Colorado, at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo range.  Once the leases were sold, oil and gas drillers would have the right to drill these sensitive lands. 

In April, Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, the Western Environmental Law Center, the San Luis Valley Ecosystems Council, and many other groups officially protested the lease auction.  Local governments, including Rio Grande County, Saguache County, the town of Del Norte, joined in protesting.

At the heels of the protests, both Senator Ken Salazar and Representative John Salazar jointly called on the Bureau of Land Management calling on them to withdraw the San Luis Valley oil and gas leases.

It's a big win to be sure, and hopefully the San Luis Valley will stay safe from oil and gas drilling.

Clean Air, Clean Air, Clean Air

Here's a recap of where Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action has left its mark for clean air in the region:

In response to a petition filed by Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, the CEMEX cement plant in Lyons is facing scrutiny by the Environmental Protection Agency. The petition calls on the Environmental Protection Agency to require CEMEX to install the best pollution controls on its smokestack. CEMEX claims its spent "millions" to clean up the Lyons cement plant, yet the company hasn't spent a penny on upgrading controls on its smokestack.

Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action has taken aim at climate change. Together with a number of local, regional, and national health and environmental groups, we've challenged the Bureau of Land Management's decision to auction hundreds of thousands of acres of Colorado, Montana, and New Mexico for more oil and gas drilling, drilling that will fuel global warming pollution.

And earlier this week, Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action challenged a decision by the Forest Service to allow a western Colorado coal mine to vent billions of cubic feet of methane--again  Methane is not only a valuable gas, it's 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. We successfully overturned the same decision last February.

And you heard it from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment first: people are the best air quality monitors.

Oil and Gas in the Hot Seat

The oil and gas industry is going to have to do more to cut its ozone forming pollution in the Denver metro area.  That's good news considering the industry releases more ozone forming compounds than cars and trucks in the Denver metro area.

According to a presentation by the Air Pollution Control Division, just one source related to oil and gas--large condensate tanks--releases 111 tons of ozone forming compounds daily.  Cars and trucks release 108 tons daily.  Below is a picture of a condensate tank north of Denver.  Check out this video (~ 6 MB) to see what ozone forming pollution from these tanks really looks like.

New Oil and Gas Rules Promise Cleaner Air

While the oil and gas industry is critical of a package of new proposed rules that will help balance the needs of drilling with the health of local communities in Colorado, we're pretty excited that the proposed rules will lead to cleaner, safer air throughout the state.

Among other things, the rules would reduce foul odor emissions in western Colorado, would limit air pollution when oil and gas wells are being drilled and completed, and would require companies to use low to zero emitting controllers (called pneumatic devices).

We have to say though, the word "rule" is not quite right. Really, these new "rules" set standards of doing it right. Already, a number of companies in Colorado are meeting these standards. BP, for example, is already using green completions to reduce harmful air pollution in southwestern Colorado. EnCana oil and gas is also on a clean air rampage in the Denver metro area, replacing and retrofitting a number of its polluting equipment with low to zero emission devices to help reduce harmful ozone pollution.

Doing it right means reducing air pollution, and that's exactly what these new rules do. Not only that, but these new rules promise to help industry make more money. Williams Production, for example, makes around $9.00 for every $1.00 it spends on green completions in western Colorado.

Really, this isn't about "rules," its about doing business responsibly in Colorado. And from the standpoint of clean air, these rules are a big step forward toward responsible oil and gas drilling.

For more information on these proposed rules, visit the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission's website.

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).

Letter: Oil and Gas Needs to Shape Up

Our friend Lisa Bracken, a resident of Silt, Colorado who is living in the midst of the latest gas boom in Garfield County, passed along this letter to the oil and gas industry. We echo Lisa's sentiment here and know that there's many, many more of us that feel the same:

There has been a lot of press lately regarding the discontent of the oil and gas industry over the new rule making proceedings which have taken place over the last couple of months in Denver. Folks from the industry have complained about perceived alienation from what they have characterized as an opaque and exclusive process. Further, they have clearly stated that they are anxious about new regulation to be promulgated by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission as a result of recent legislation calling for balanced energy development with specific provisions protecting Colorado's environment and wildlife populations.

Please industry. Give me a break. I have had the unique privilege to attend, via teleconference, approximately half of these meetings. As a land and mineral owner in the midst of intense development, I'd like to remind industry and assure the public that, at least in my opinion, these meetings have provided an extraordinary degree of multi-lateral participation including noted points of often detailed concern. If the industry feels they have been in any way slighted, it is through their own failure to take advantage of the format provided to all stakeholders. With opportunities to submit written comment and the meeting rooms half to 2/3 full of industry heavies, like lawyers, technical experts, operational mangers, high level supervisors, and association representatives, I think they have actually taken strong advantage of the process. Throughout, industry has squawked about constitutional violations, jurisdictional limits to the COGCC's authority, what they have perceived as the potential "taking" of mineral owner's rights by prohibitive drilling, and misinterpreted legislative intent. With what amounts to legal body-checking at every conceivable conversational intersection, I am surprised at how well the Department of Wildlife, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission have held up. Some legislators, however, seem to be decompressing. The organizational and financial prowess of the industry is ever evident and working hard to protect their business interests.

While industry has raised a valid point against duplicity and the inefficient, wasteful practice of reporting the same information to multiple agencies, over the years such fractured jurisdiction has singularly benefited the industry - by intentional design. Pipelines, drilling, spills -- all reporting on related field operations have been scattered hither and yon over numerous state and federal agencies, making it extremely difficult for any one agency (let alone an unsuspecting public) to get a handle on collective data, assess impacts and protect public health and safety. The COGCC is striving, to their credit, to broaden their perception of field operations by requesting an accounting of chemicals and facility equipment on site. This agency has the responsibility of clean up when facilities are abandoned (not an unheard of practice in the history of this industry). Since corporations no longer have to pay into the Superfund, that legislative safety net has been weakened. Further, loopholes in bankruptcy laws allow large-scale industrial polluters a valuable strategy to limit their environmental liability by potentially settling governmental claims for cents on the dollar. Though the COGCC knows how many wells are in existence, they currently have no way of knowing how many pads there may be. With pits and associated questionable chemical and cuttings waste on pad sites, the state is simply requesting an inventory. Industry: this is not punishment - it is prudence.

How is DOW faring under their new legislative mandate? Even though there are conceivably no critical habitat/wildlife conditions under which the DOW can prevent drilling if the industry wishes to pursue it, the industry is resisting even voluntary good practices and efforts at consultation regarding these issues. Again, the industry clearly wishes to trump and thereby prevent DOW from managing wildlife on private lands where drilling rights are involved. “The US Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated that half of the species listed as federally endangered or threatened have eighty percent or more of their habitat on private lands.” Home Owners Associations, like Grass Mesa, should not have the final say in wildlife management - even if industry antes a million on the table.

What does this tell you about industry? It tells me that they are simply interested in pursuing mineral resource (and profit) at break-neck speed and crushing density, damning the consequences - which have already shown themselves to be complex, destructive and significant. In response to long overdue regulatory review, industry has said they might have to leave the state. This is like a big bully standing on someone's foot and saying "Hey, if you don't stop yelling in my face, I may have to step off of your foot."

Industry: the legislators aren't asking you to go away. The COGCC isn't asking you to go away. The people of Colorado aren't asking you to go away. We just want you to get off our foot. I think most people in industry would understand that. It's industry as a collective corporate empire, seeking strong profits within a framework of heretofore allowable abuse that cannot seem to understand the need to pursue their interest in a balanced manner which supports conservation. No one can expect an 'entity' driven by a moral philosophy of profit to understand the need to protect our water, air and land for ourselves, the next generation and the symbiotic life that shares our planet and sustains the ecological balance we rely upon.

I am grateful the legislature has finally responded proportionately (not emotionally) to industry's impact with new mandates to bring accountability to the process of energy development. Everyone in Colorado should be grateful. Industry, please stop railing against common-sense measures to bring balance to a grossly unbalanced situation - one that is costing the rest of us dearly every day of our lives. In other words, get off our foot.

Oil and Gas Drillers Whining Against Public Health

To paraphrase Mark Twain, suppose you were an idiot.

And suppose you were an oil and gas driller in Colorado.

But I repeat myself.

For those not tracking the process, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is proposing new rules to make sure oil and gas drilling is done right in Colorado. Doing it right means safeguarding clean air, clean water, and our communities. It means doing things that make sense.

But sensibility is a virtue that oil and gas drillers seem unable to grasp. Although one would think industry, too, would be supportive of safeguarding public health, that doesn't appear to be the case. Instead, industry has launched into what we can only describe as a juvenile temper tantrum.

You know, the kind our kids throw when they don't get the dessert they want on Sunday night right before bedtime? Or the kind they throw when they can't get a gumball on the way out of the grocery store? You get the picture.

And the tired one-liner industry keeps using? The new rules are "one-size fits all."

Let's be clear. If there's anything "one-size fits all" here, it's the fact that oil and gas drillers in Colorado seems opposed to any and all efforts to safeguard public health and our communities. In the last several years, efforts to protect clean air and clean water (including people's drinking water) have met nothing but resistance from drillers. Predictably, industry's fight and rhetoric continues.

Amazingly, the "one-size fits all" proposals that industry is now opposing include rules that would require companies to reduce their air pollution when they finish drilling natural gas wells, to develop a plan to keep chemicals from spilling into drinking water supplies, and to clean up production waste so that land can be used again for homes and businesses. These proposals are so sensible that most (but unfortunately not all) companies in Colorado are already doing this stuff.

Let's get beyond the rhetoric though. The idiocy notwithstanding, we think industry's real gripe is that they're not the ones writing the new rules.

And as far as industry's threat to leave Colorado if these new rules are adopted? While it's a weak bluff, we say that if oil and gas drillers would rather leave Colorado than safeguard public health and our communities, then good riddance.

If oil and gas drillers think it's too much for us to ask them to clean up their messes, keep our drinking water clean, and keep our air clean, they must either think we're stupid or...well, they really must be idiots.

New rules being considered by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission would limit flaring like this, keeping the skies clean and communities safer. Industry opposes this measure.

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.

Big Wins for Clean Air in the Rockies

In the last week, Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action has scored two big wins for clean air.

The first was last week, when the Environmental Protection Agency ruled that the State of Colorado needed to rethink exempting thousands of oil and gas wells from clean air safeguards. The ruling comes in response to a petition from Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action. Under the Clean Air Act, sources of air pollution that are connected and interrelated need to be regulated together, not piecemeal.

Despite this, thousands of oil and gas wells are regulated individually, even though they are connected to larger facilities (like compressor stations) and collectively add up to a significant source of air pollution. The EPA's ruling could mean the advent of stronger clean air safeguards across the entire Rocky Mountain region.

And just yesterday, Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action learned that it successfully halted a plan that would have vented billions of cubic feet of methane (also known as natural gas) from a coal mine in western Colorado. Methane is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, not to mention the fact that its enormously wasteful to vent the gas. The amount of methane proposed for venting would have been enough to heat 35,000 homes for 12 years.

Responding to a challenge from Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, the U.S. Forest Service reversed its own decision, ordering its local officials to more closely look at ways to control the methane.

We're hard at work on the frontlines, and it's paying off for our clean air and our climate. Happy Valentine's Day!