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For Immediate Release Wednesday, May 26, 2004
New Toll-Free Hotline To Help Colorado Residents
Stay Informed About Ozone and Smoke Conditions
Denver – Colorado residents living outside the Denver metropolitan area now have a toll-free option for obtaining current ozone- and wildfire-related air quality information.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Air Pollution Control Division has established a toll-free telephone hotline to help keep Colorado residents informed about current and predicted air quality conditions. The new number is 1-888-484-3247 (1-888-4-THE AIR).
This number is in addition to the two hotline numbers that have been available to Denver metropolitan area residents for several years and will continue to be available to them.
The two Denver metropolitan area hotline numbers operated by the Air Pollution Control Division are (303) 758-4848 and (303) 782-0211. Area residents should continue to dial either of those two numbers for general air quality information, including ozone and smoke information, as necessary. Locally generated calls to the toll-free number will be blocked.
“We hope this new hotline for Coloradans living outside the Denver metropolitan area will be of real benefit to residents who are concerned about the effects of ozone and wildfire smoke,” said Douglas H. Benevento, the Department of Public Health and Environment’s executive director. “Since ozone forecasts now will include portions of El Paso, Larimer and Weld counties in addition to the seven metro Denver counties, it just made sense to add the toll-free number to our hotline system.”
Benevento continued, “For smoke, the Air Pollution Control Division’s meteorologists have been including statewide smoke forecasts on wildfires on the division’s Web site for three summers now. This summer, we hope to add some wildfire information to the hotlines, too, as time permits. It’s important that residents living in areas affected by smoke have as many ways as possible to get important air quality information.”
The summertime ozone season begins on Tuesday, June 1, and concludes on Wednesday, September 1. In cooperation with the Regional Air Quality Council, the Air Pollution Control Division will issue Ozone Action Day Alerts for days during which ozone levels are expected to be high.
Originally, Ozone Action Day Alerts only applied to Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties in the Denver metropolitan area. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently defined the affected area in Colorado to include portions of Larimer and Weld Counties, including the cities of Fort Collins and Greeley, which now also will be included in Ozone Action Day Alerts.
A portion of El Paso County, primarily the area in-and-around Colorado Springs, also is to be included in the Ozone Action Day Alerts although it is not a part of the nine counties declared by EPA to be out of compliance for federal standards for ground-level ozone.
Margie Perkins, the director of the Air Pollution Control Division, said, “We know that Denver’s ozone affects areas like Fort Collins and Greeley, and vice-versa. So we will be issuing ozone forecasts this summer that apply to the entire Denver-metropolitan area, the north Front Range as well as Colorado Springs.”
The Air Pollution Control Division also maintains a portion of its Web site that is dedicated to air-quality-related wildfire information
(http://apcd.state.co.us/wildfire.html). It includes a health-related discussion, answers to frequently asked questions, and links to current smoke forecasts throughout the state and other Web sites dedicated to wildfires.
“This summer, we hope to include statewide smoke forecasts on the hotlines, including the new toll-free number,” Perkins said. “However, when several fires are burning at once, our equipment does not allot us the time to include recorded information on every fire. In those instances, we will direct callers where to go for more complete information.”
Individuals also can obtain the daily air quality advisory on-line at http://apcd.state.co.us/psi/advisory.phtml. This advisory will include current and predicted ozone conditions.
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