Colorado has expanded its air pollution-fighting arsenal to an entirely new theater after years of preparation, taking on so-called air toxics like benzene, formaldehyde and hydrogen sulfide from asphalt makers with mandatory control measures meant to protect surrounding low-income neighborhoods.
State health officials can now monitor emissions and require new equipment and processes for five designated chemicals known to cause higher rates of cancer and other disease. The initial list includes benzene from refineries, ethylene oxide from sterilizers, hydrogen sulfide from asphalt and manure operations, formaldehyde from turbines and combustion engines, and hexavalent chromium from chrome-plating industries.
Cutting back air toxics adds to Colorado’s other major ongoing air pollution battles: trimming greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, and capping “criteria” pollutants that permeate the environment at larger scale such as ozone, nitrogen oxide, PM2.5 and volatile organic compounds. Health and environment advocates believe they can make community health progress in minority and low-income neighborhoods disproportionately impacted by industries, through tighter control of a few toxic chemicals from a handful of sites.
The Air Quality Control Commission earlier this month passed the final rules launching the Air Pollution Control Division into a new regulatory regime for the five chosen chemical emissions.
“For years, communities living near highways, oil and gas sites and industrial facilities have been exposed to the highest levels of these pollutants — and currently, Colorado does not have strong rules on how much of these chemicals can be in the air,” said Conservation Colorado, after the AQCC vote. “These impacts fall disproportionately on communities of color. Latino people are nearly three times more likely than white people to live in areas with the most harmful air, and Black and Latino communities are more likely to face the worst pollution overall, according to the American Lung Association. This action moves the state closer to changing that.”
Air division director Michael Ogletree said in an interview that issuing the rules directed in a 2022 legislative bill is “really a monumental step in finalizing what we’ve been working on for the past several years, to actually put protections in place for disproportionately impacted communities, as well as Coloradans as a whole, in protections against air toxics.”
Advocates who sought the toxics rules for years say they will watch to see how tightly Colorado enforces the rules, but they welcomed the final steps.
“This is a meaningful step forward for public health in Colorado. By adopting standards to reduce exposure to the most harmful air toxics, we are moving closer to a future where fewer families are dealing with preventable illnesses linked to pollution. There is still more work ahead, but this action reflects real progress toward protecting the health of our communities,” said Dr. Maria Chansky of Glenwood Springs, family physician and advocate for the nonprofit Healthy Air and Water Colorado.
The 2022 law set in motion a long process at the health department and the commission. The law required the health department to carefully study dozens of toxic chemicals and determine the five that were most hazardous to Colorado’s vulnerable neighborhoods and could also be effectively monitored and controlled. The air division had to pick locations and set up sensitive monitoring devices.
The toxic substances, causing cancers and many other serious health issues, that were first designated by the new rules include:
- Benzene — This petroleum byproduct is a major issue at Suncor in Commerce City, Colorado’s only oil refinery. Neighbors in Adams County and north Denver have been subject to multiple industrial emissions and contaminations over the decades, from refinery pollution to highway exhaust to metal smelting residue. To meet the new benzene limits, Suncor will have to add “maintenance activities that maybe need to be done a little bit more frequently,” said Stefanie Shoup, manager of innovations in planning and air quality data for the health department. “We’re adding in this component of looking for benzene emissions, and increasing the frequency of some of those inspections so that they’re being caught and fixed on an earlier cadence.”
- Formaldehyde — It can be produced through multiple industrial processes and manufacturing, but Colorado will focus on larger sources from combustion turbines and other stationary engines. “It’s primarily from engines and turbines, but it’s also a complicated pollutant, because it also is generated just in the atmosphere, through normal breakdown of other types of components in the air,” Shoup said. The new rules require testing, monitoring and installation of new controls at some sources.
- Hydrogen sulfide — Sources of the toxic emissions include asphalt plants, makers of asphalt roofing tiles, and manure digesters. State health will require industrial sources to employ emission control devices to destroy the gases. Manure digesters will add substances to storage pits that reduce hydrogen sulfide production.
- Ethylene oxide — A highly toxic chemical primarily used by medical equipment manufacturers to sterilize life-saving gear before shipment. Recent federal rule tightening has already put Colorado’s ETO users on the path to better compliance, state officials said, and the large manufacturer Terumo in Lakewood has been installing control equipment that it says were ahead of new requirements.
- Hexavalent chromium — Yes, it’s the infamously dangerous substance at the heart of the toxic detective work in the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich,” but Colorado’s emissions come mostly from chrome-plating businesses. State officials said the sources “can improve work practices to reduce emissions, conduct additional testing, or switch to less toxic and volatile forms of chromium.”
The air commission can revisit and may add to the list of controlled toxic substances every five years, and the air pollution division staff said they are eager to continue rounding out a new area of health regulation.
“What we heard very loud and clear is that communities are interested in expanding these requirements wherever we can, and we’re very interested in doing the same,” Shoup said. “While we’ve had four years now, this is also the type of program that can take a decade or more to truly build out to the kind of program that we would like to see. We spent 30 or 40 years building the criteria air pollutant program. And so here we are. I think there’s a lot of good that we can do in the future.”