Five Reasons Colorado’s Air Quality is So Bad
Our leaders have the power to improve our state’s terrible air quality—but they must act now
Cayenna Johnson remembers clearly the day last summer, when Colorado had the worst air quality in the world. The Aurora resident had taken her kids backpacking in Jefferson County, trying to enjoy the fresh mountain air that Colorado summers are known for. But they could see the pollution in the air and feel it in their lungs. “It was very dystopian,” she says.
That day, August 7, wildfire smoke had been pouring in from the megafires in California, and hot weather meant that ground-level ozone pollution was at unhealthy levels.
Unfortunately, that day wasn’t unique. Throughout much of the summer of 2021, the air quality in Colorado’s Front Range was so unsafe officials warned people to stay inside. The summer of 2021 set a new record of 65 ozone action days where the air was unhealthy to breathe.
In neighborhoods like Commerce City, Globeville, and Elyria-Swansea, the smoke and the ozone compounded the toxic industrial pollution residents have been breathing in high concentrations for years. The mountains didn’t necessarily offer an escape from air pollution, either. Multiple Western Slope Counties experienced terrible air quality throughout last summer, and received low grades for ozone from the American Lung Association. Throughout Colorado, terrible air quality is threatening our health and our way of life.
There’s good news, though. We have the power to clean up our air. Many of our air quality problems are local issues that can be drastically improved if we take the right steps.
Our state leaders need to pass policies that cut pollution now—particularly for the communities that are located closest to sources of local air pollution. By cleaning up our air now, we’ll also be protecting our climate and helping future generations breathe easier.
Coloradans need clean air—now. Learn how we’re fighting for the solutions to some of Colorado’s worst air quality problems, and how you can help!
Problem #1: Emissions from oil and gas and vehicles react in the summer heat to create health-threatening ozone pollution
Have you seen those “Ozone alert” signs on the highway on hot summer days? Sometimes they tell you to exercise indoors, reduce car trips, or to mow and refuel after 5pm. The signs are a plea to Coloradans to protect themselves when the air outside has dangerous levels of ozone—and not to make it any worse.
Colorado is a hotbed for ground-level ozone, a pollutant that can trigger short-term respiratory symptoms like scratchy throats, coughs, and difficulty breathing, as well as aggravating lung diseases and asthma. Ozone is a “secondary pollutant,” formed when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides are baked in the sunlight and heat. Colorado has a whole lot of sunshine and heat in the summer, and it also has a whole lot of VOCs and nitrogen oxides, thanks to emissions from the thousands of oil and gas operations and the ever-worsening Denver metro car traffic. From June to September, we often have ozone in higher amounts than the EPA recommends for our health. A nine-county area that the EPA calls the North Denver Metro/Front Range has consistently failed to meet federal standards for the concentration of ozone that is safe to breathe, and last year’s dismal summer of pollution means air quality officials are preparing for the area to be classified in the “severe nonattainment” category, putting it among the worst regions for ozone in the country.
What we can do: Update regulations to make sure Colorado actually enforces air quality rules
To clean up our air, we need to tackle our ozone problem and comply with federal health standards. That’s not going to happen if we leave it up to individuals to follow the advice on those highway signs.
The state needs to step up its enforcement of air quality rules and enforce limits on ozone emissions, especially when it comes to permitting processes for oil and gas operations. We also know that due to the legacy of racist zoning laws, industrial polluters (including ozone emitters) are more likely to be located in communities of color. So to make sure our air pollution reduction is equitable, we need air quality regulators to more accurately model the cumulative impacts of multiple pollutants and create strategies to reduce these impacts for the people suffering most.
We also need to reduce car trips to limit ozone pollution and clean up our air. Public transit is our best chance to do that, but with expensive transit passes and unreliable service, it’s currently not an option for many people. We’re excited to support SB22-180, which will create a pilot program for fare-free transit, by providing funding to transit agencies to offer fare-free public transit for at least 30 days during the summer ozone season.
Problem #2: Climate change means more wildfire smoke and more warm days to trap pollution
As the Earth warms due to climate change, the extra heat trapped in the atmosphere disrupts weather and air flow patterns, leading to an increase in allergens and pollutants in our air. And because ground-level ozone is “cooked” in sunlight and heat, more hot, sunny days means more ozone days.
Climate change is also prolonging the fire season across Colorado and leading to increased megafires across the West. The smoke from these fires often comes to Colorado, bringing with it particulate pollution, which can cause persistent coughing, phlegm, wheezing, difficulty breathing, and reductions in lung function even for healthy people. Together, wildfire smoke and locally-generated ozone make for a toxic cocktail, with even worse health impacts than either pollutant by itself.
What we can do: Keep Colorado on track to meet climate targets by updating building codes
Our work to improve air quality also helps to cut greenhouse gas emissions. By regulating toxic air contaminants emitted by heavy industry and the oil and gas sector, for example, we’ll also limit co-pollutants and the greenhouse gasses these industries emit, like carbon dioxide and methane.
But greenhouse gasses come from many sectors of our economy, and buildings are the fifth largest source of emissions in Colorado. We support updating building codes to the most modern standards, ensuring that new buildings are climate-friendly, energy-efficient, and ready for the future. It’s one step in reducing our state’s carbon emissions to limit the cycle of warm, dry days and wildfires.
Problem #3: Industrial facilities emit toxic pollutants that put community health at risk
When it comes to ozone and particle pollution, we can easily open a weather app on our phone to check how much is in our air. Our state tracks and issues warnings when these pollutants are at unhealthy levels, though it has failed to limit them. But other pollutants that industrial facilities emit, known as “air toxics,” are even more likely to slip under the radar, and the state is not protecting communities from exposure. These pollutants—including chemicals like benzene, hydrogen cyanide, chromium, and ethylene oxide—can cause cancer or serious health impacts such as breathing difficulty, nausea, birth defects, or even death.
The federal government has identified over 188 hazardous air pollutants, and they are emitted in significant quantities in many Colorado communities near industries like steel plants, medical sterilization, oil and gas, and more. Colorado has not set standards to limit or even monitor these air toxics based on what is best for our health. The harm falls most on those living close to industrial pollution, who disproportionately tend to be people living on lower incomes, people of color, and the workers at these facilities themselves.
What we can do: Pass HB1244, Public Protections From Toxic Air Contaminants
HB22-1244 addresses the gaps in our state’s ability to regulate industries and protect the public from toxic air contaminants. The bill charges our state’s air quality officials with identifying high-risk toxics based on their health impacts. They’ll then establish health-based standards to limit the emissions of these toxics and prevent adverse health impacts. They’ll also create better monitoring systems, prioritizing the communities adjacent to industry that are most impacted by toxic air pollution.
Problem #4: Colorado’s topography traps air pollution
During summer nights, air flows downslope from the Rocky Mountains to the foothills and plains of the Front Range. In the morning, the sun heats up the ground and causes upslope air flows. This results in a circulation pattern, where pollution from one day can be blown into the mountains, only to be blown back into the Front Range the night after. The wind patterns of the very mountains we treasure contribute to pollution settling and accumulating in valleys and on the Front Range, where the vast majority of Coloradans live.
Even top Colorado destinations like Rocky Mountain National Park are impacted by limited visibility and acid rain. Research estimates that current air pollution levels are 60% higher than the park’s ecosystem can sustain.
What we can do: Not much!
You got us here—we absolutely don’t advocate for bulldozing the Rocky Mountains. To accommodate for what we can’t change about Colorado’s geography, we need to be bold and decisive in limiting pollution at its sources wherever we can.
Problem #5: With air pollutants in every corner, the Coloradans most impacted have no reprieve from poor air quality.
Current building design and gas-powered appliances can contribute to poor indoor air quality, meaning that Coloradans experiencing air quality-related health problems who live in these buildings can’t find relief inside, either.
Some of the highest-polluting vehicles on the road are school buses, with the oldest and dirtiest often found in low-income communities. And older diesel trucks are a major source of pollutants that contribute to ozone formation, as well as a significant health hazard in disproportionately impacted communities adjacent to highway corridors.
Greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks are Colorado’s biggest contribution to climate change, as well as contributing to our ozone problem and adding to pollution in the communities most impacted. But without quality, reliable, and affordable public transit, many Coloradans don’t realistically have the option to reduce their car trips.
What we can do: Invest in air quality by passing measures in Governor Jared Polis’s budget
Air quality is a complicated problem, but we have the power to limit many of these sources of pollution. This year, Colorado has extra federal funds to spend fighting dirty air. We’re encouraging our leaders to invest this one-time money in transformational programs that will benefit our state for years to come: cleaning up indoor air quality in buildings, funding electric school buses, switching to clean trucks, providing free and reduced fares for public transportation, and more.
