State Health Department to Provide Daily Air Quality
Forecasts
This Summer; Critical Ozone Season Begins June 1
May 30, 2008 - DENVER— Daily forecasts and a new and
improved Web site will be featured during what is expected
to be a critical summer for air quality in the Denver
metropolitan area and North Front Range.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s
Air Pollution Control Division will notify regional media
and interested stakeholders every afternoon beginning
Sunday, June 1, of current and predicted air quality
conditions as part of education and outreach efforts
surrounding ground-level ozone pollution. Forecasts will
continue at least through August 31.
“This is an important summer for all of us as we try to meet
federal health-based air quality standards,” said Paul
Tourangeau, Air Pollution Control Division director. “This
is the first time in several years that we have begun a
season out of compliance with standards, and we will be
working very hard to keep everyone informed of our ozone
status and our progress.”
State air quality forecasters have been predicting
summertime conditions since 1999. In recent years, when
ozone concentrations were expected to be on the rise, the
Regional Air Quality Council notified local media and
interested stakeholders that an “Ozone Action” alert was in
effect for the Denver metropolitan area and North Front
Range.
The alerts provided current and predicted air quality
conditions, information about the detrimental effects
ground-level ozone can have on human health, suggestions for
residents on how to protect themselves and their families,
and tips about simple actions individuals can take to reduce
ozone concentrations.
On days when ozone concentrations were expected to stay at
lower levels, no alerts were issued.
“This summer, we felt it was important that we be more
proactive about providing information to the public on a
daily basis, whether it is an Ozone Action day or not,”
Tourangeau said. “We have been providing media and
stakeholders daily information during the winter months
through our red and blue advisories for more than 20 years.
Summer is just as critical a season for us, and our hope is
that the media and the public will seek out air quality
information every day. This will help in that effort.”
Tourangeau continued, “We always have updated air quality
information daily through our telephone hotlines, our Web
site and our monitoring network, which reports conditions
every hour of every day. The information always has been
there for those with an interest. However, it has
traditionally been a more passive approach in the summer. We
feel it is in the best interest of public health that we are
more proactive about providing this information to
residents.”
On Ozone Action days, the Regional Air Quality Council will
continue to issue alerts. The alert information will
supplement the health department’s forecasts.
“The Regional Air Quality Council has done a great job over
the years of raising public awareness about ozone,”
Tourangeau said. “The council has led the education and
outreach effort, and will continue to do so this summer.
We’ve worked together effectively.”
The Air Pollution Control Division also recently completed
an overhaul of its Technical Services Program Web site to
make it more user friendly. The official homepage,
http://www.colorado.gov/airquality, can be accessed
through an easy-to-remember shortcut,
http://coloradoairquality.info.
The new site will provide daily air quality forecasts during
the summertime ozone season, forecasting and meteorological
information related to air pollution for a number of other
areas of the state, and access to hourly data from air
quality monitors throughout Colorado.
Last summer, 44 Ozone Action alerts were issued. One or more
Denver metropolitan area and North Front Range monitors
recorded ground-level ozone concentrations at or above the
federal health-based standard on 13 separate days last
summer.
One monitor in northern Jefferson County recorded values
that, when considered as part of a rolling three-year
average, put the Front Range region out of compliance with
the federal health-based standard for ground-level ozone,
resulting in a “nonattainment” designation from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
The “nonattainment” area includes the seven Denver
metropolitan area counties (Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder,
Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson) and portions of
Larimer and Weld counties to the north that include the
cities of Fort Collins and Greeley.
Since last summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
has toughened the ozone standard. The new standard took
effect earlier this month. The region will have several
years before it must demonstrate compliance with the new
standard.
The Regional Air Quality Council and the North Front Range
Metropolitan Planning Organization, along with the Air
Pollution Control Division, other agencies in the region and
stakeholders, already had begun work to develop a plan to
reduce ozone concentrations to attain the older standard
when the new standard was announced.
The plan will be submitted to the Colorado Air Quality
Control Commission for approval by the end of this year,
with legislative review expected after that. Once all state
approval processes have been completed, the plan ultimately
will be submitted by the governor to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
At the same time, the parties are crafting a plan to help
the region achieve the new standard. Gov. Bill Ritter, in a
letter to the Regional Air Quality Council last summer,
directed the planning process to work toward both short- and
long-term compliance with both the old and new standards.
Ozone is an important public health issue. Increased
ground-level ozone concentrations – even at levels below the
federal standard – can compromise public health, especially
among sensitive populations like active children, the
elderly and those with pre-existing respiratory conditions
like asthma.
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