Ozone Week > Shark Week

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And the heat goes on (All)
And the heat goes on (I want)
And the heat goes on (Is to breathe)
And the heat goes on (Thank you, thank you)
And the heat goes on (Won’t)
And the heat goes on (You breathe)
And the heat goes on (With me)

– Talking Heads, “Born Under Punches”

Let’s all give it the Talking Heads try and breathe together this week. But it’s going to be extremely tough. Looks like 101 on Friday in Denver, and as high as 105(!) in Grand Junction — the ozone alerts are coming fast and furious to your cellphone. 

It’s the perfect week, unfortunately, for us to re-emphasize the climate and health connection that’s meant to be a core philosophy of our newsletter. Half the Temp staff is writing from the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, mere hours away from the Houston-area destruction from Hurricane Beryl. Yet all we got in Dallas was a gorgeous sunset.

So the millions of Dallas residents will be resentful when their home and auto insurance rates go up to help pay the potential billions in claims from Beryl, four hours away. Just as some Colorado residents resent their city premiums rising from the costs of insuring homes in foothills wildfire zones — a big topic of our Climate Change Hits Home event earlier this week, now available on YouTube. (Counterpoint: Mountain residents resent paying for Front Range city dwellers’ big hail claims.)

Meanwhile we’re all baking under a massive heat dome that is amping toxic ozone levels and threatening everyone with asthma or other respiratory problems. And John’s measured discussion of summer disease threats below could prove more dire in coming years, as climate change lengthens the high-temperature season when bacterial and viral vectors increase.

Sorry! That’s a lot, we know. Hey at least politics is a continuing source of joy!

OK, never mind. It may just be a week to take things seriously. Keep breathing, carefully. If necessary, tap into the soothing powers of jellyfish videos on your big screen TV. At least we don’t have hurricanes. Send your kindest thoughts to Houston, where power outages mean millions of folks are facing the post-hurricane heat dome without air conditioning.

TEMP CHECK

CLIMATE

A dense cloud of ozone news … with a dusting of hope?

It lurks just beyond our full consciousness, circling, swirling, eager to prey on the vulnerable, then finally lunging in an attack delivering searing pain.

We’re not talking about Shark Week, folks, we’re talking about Ozone Week, here in the pollution challenged northern Front Range metroplex. With temperatures likely spiking to 100 by the weekend, and official ozone monitors already recording multiple violations of EPA limits, it’s a brutal summer for toxic attacks by the lung-damaging gas.

But it’s also a week where pollution-weary Coloradans appear to be fighting back.

Later in the week we’re going to detail for you a frightening series of early summer ozone violations at many of the state-sanctioned monitoring sites. Go to ColoradoSun.com to see a longer story about high ozone readings that threaten to move us in coming years from the already-bad “severe” nonattainment category into the abysmal “extreme” category.

If you insist on looking for good news to get you through the smoggy days, we’ve promised to look for that, too. So here you go:

• The EPA and state regulators are trying to crack down once again on one of the bigger producers of ozone-causing emissions, the Suncor refinery in Commerce City. The EPA announced dozens of new alleged pollution violations from a joint 2023 refinery inspection with state officials, and warned of new disciplinary action unless Suncor successfully disputes the notice. Previous highly touted fines against Suncor were for violations found before 2023. 

• NOAA and NASA announced a multilayered research effort into Colorado’s ozone origins, taking place over our heads and on our streets even as we speak. The joint effort with state pollution control officials includes detection from satellites, multiple levels of airplane flyovers, mobile ground sensors and stationary monitors. NOAA said the massive amounts of data could deliver new targets for the ozone fight by later this year. 

• The EPA and state officials touted a $1 million fine and settlement with the Meeker Gas Plant in Rio Blanco County, which has been leaking volatile organic compounds and other ozone precursors. A complaint filed with the settlement says gas plant owner Enterprise Gas Processing “violated leak detection and repair requirements” in the Clean Air Act and state laws. The EPA and state officials have long maintained that ozone precursors can drift from western oil and gas operations and power plants, even all the way from China, to eventually cook into toxic ozone under hot Front Range skies. 

But enough with the “good” news, according to Colorado environmental watchdogs and many Sun readers. They believe Colorado’s air pollution cops are in denial about repeat offenders, and their ability to dissuade them with relatively small fines. (Suncor is worth nearly $50 billion.)

They also point out the state keeps filing ozone “improvement” plans that they know will not meet EPA standards in the next few years.

“Seven monitors are now in violation of the 2015 ozone standard, up from six at the end of June,” noted Jeremy Nichols of the Center for Biological Diversity, the most diligent nongovernmental tracker of Colorado’s ozone problem.

“At this rate, we could see every single monitor in the Denver Metro/North Front Range region fall into violation of the ozone standards. Suffice it to say, ozone is affecting every corner of the region this summer, from Black Hawk to eastern Aurora, and from Douglas County north to Larimer and Weld counties and everywhere in between,” Nichols said. “Unfortunately, none of this is a surprise. Just because you say you’ve adopted a bold plan to reduce ozone doesn’t mean you’re actually reducing ozone.”

Rick Casey of the volunteer Larimer Alliance said his group has been working to get its own continuous ozone monitoring station.

“We want to understand where our ozone precursors are originating, which we strongly suspect are coming mostly from Weld County,” where much of Colorado’s oil and gas activity is concentrated, Casey said. “If we can get a continuous monitoring station installed, and begin to quantify those precursors, we feel confident we will have the scientific data to prove this.”

Colorado officials clearly have a lot of community suspicions to overcome, after years of accumulating ozone violations.

A new Larimer County monitor, Casey wrote in an email, “will be of little avail if the state regulatory agencies do nothing with the data. And that will be our next political barrier to overcome, before we start to make progress on curbing our extreme ozone pollution.”

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MORE CLIMATE NEWS

• Suncor in trouble yet again for alleged air pollution transgressions. The EPA and state regulators hit Suncor with another round of pollution violation notices for the past two years, despite a $10.5 million settlement for similar 2021 transgressions that state officials vowed would set the refinery on a path to cleaner operations. A 140-page litany of alleged new violations compiled by the EPA’s regional office accuses Suncor of continued releases of benzene and other toxins into the air and water around the Commerce City plant. The newest violations, including in some areas the EPA had not pinpointed in previous inspections, will restart criticism from neighbors and environmental groups that small fines have not altered the course of Suncor’s multi-billion dollar business, Michael Booth reports.
• Wild horses — what are we doing, folks? Why bother having a brainstorming task force on wild horses if the feds are just going to launch another roundup when they are ready? Jennifer Brown reports that four years into an aggressive federal campaign to thin wild horse herds across the West, Colorado officials fed up with helicopter roundups tried something unique — a state-federal working group to collaborate on mustang population control. Then the U.S. Bureau of Land Management went ahead and proposed its next helicopter roundup.
• Call them chub and sucker, but you can’t call them endangered. When plants and animals wind up on the threatened or endangered species lists, it can mean two things: They’re in dire straits — and they’ll have access to a host of federal protections, Shannon Mullane reports. Two southwestern fish, the Rio Grande chub and sucker, did not make the list. It’s a bittersweet outcome for conservation groups.
• Most of us opted out, but we still raised a lot of money. More than 1.5 million Colorado vehicle owners have delivered more than $40 million to Colorado Parks and Wildlife by including a $29 Keep Colorado Wild Pass as part of their annual registrations, Jason Blevins reports. It’s a big chunk for open space even though only 30% of vehicle owners opted in. The first fiscal year of pass sales ended June 30 with revenue reaching $40.9 million. That unofficial tally means that parks, wildlife, backcountry search and rescue volunteers, and avalanche forecasters will get boosts in funding. 

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HEALTH

Is the plague back in Colorado? Actually, it never left.

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You may have seen the news that there’s been a human case of plague confirmed in Colorado. The international media certainly did.

“Colorado is rocked by human case of deadly Medieval disease,” Britain’s Daily Mail trumpeted online.

Are the Dark Ages back upon us? Bring out your dead?

No.

Plague is a rare disease. But that a stray case of plague popped up in Colorado during the summer months, when its disease vectors are most active, is not surprising. It’s endemic here.

The state had two human cases of plague last year, one fatal. Since 2013, Colorado has had 18 confirmed cases of plague, including four deaths, according to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Every year, health departments report instances of rodents and other animals testing positive for plague.

Colorado’s latest case occurred in Pueblo County, which isn’t surprising given that the disease especially circulates among wildlife in more rural areas. Humans catch plague when they are either bitten by an infected flea or they touch an infected animal.

And here’s another thing: The Black Death isn’t nearly as death-y anymore. The disease, which is caused by a bacterium, is treatable with antibiotics so long as it’s caught early. The disease can take one of several courses, but they all start with fever, chills and weakness. If you’re having those symptoms, hie thee hence and get thee to a doctor.

Pueblo County’s health department did not respond to a request for more information about its case, including about its patient’s prognosis. In data CDPHE provided to The Sun, the agency listed the Pueblo case — the lone case of plague discovered in the state so far this year — under a column for patients who were infected but survived.

Look, we’re not saying that it’s awesome there’s plague floating around in Colorado. Just that this news isn’t exactly something to be rocked by.

If you’re concerned about your risk, especially if you live in a rural area, here’s your plague-prevention playbook, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• Clear the critters. Keep rodents out of your house and reduce rodent habitat around your house, such as brush, rock piles, cluttered firewood and hay bales.
• Wear gloves if you’re handling potentially infected animals.
• Use bug repellent if you think you might be exposed to fleas.
• Use flea-control products on your pets so fleas can’t hitch a ride into your house, Trojan horse-style.
• Be cautious about letting your pets roam free because they are more likely to come into contact with infected animals or fleas. If you do have free-roaming pets, don’t let them sleep on your bed.

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AFFLICTIONS

Summer is the season for weird infectious diseases

It wasn’t just plague that made news last week. Colorado also confirmed its first human case of tularemia for the year. And we’re also into hantavirus and West Nile season.

To recap:

• Tularemia is a bacterial disease that can be spread through infected rodents or rabbits, through ticks, or through contaminated water, food or air. The Colorado case was identified in Jefferson County.
• Hantavirus is a disease spread by rodents or through contact with their droppings. Colorado has so far confirmed two cases this year, one of them fatal, according to data provided by CDPHE. The agency did not specify where those cases were located.
• West Nile is spread through the bite of a mosquito. Colorado last year had the worst West Nile season in the country, a trend driven by development patterns and agricultural practices across the state. The first case of the year in Colorado was identified last month in Arapahoe County.

All these diseases pop off in the summer months because the bugs and animals that carry them are most active in summer.

West Nile is the biggest threat here — 1,697 hospitalizations last year and 229 deaths last year. Bug spray with DEET is your friend in prevention, as well as avoiding marshy areas where West Nile-carrying mosquitoes like to hang out.

There were 11 cases of tularemia last year, and some recent years have seen more than a dozen cases. Antibiotics are the name of the game in treatment. It can be fatal, but only one person has died from tularemia in the past decade in Colorado.

To avoid tularemia, practice a combo pack of just generally good health behaviors: Cook meat all the way through, don’t handle wild animals, don’t drink untreated water, use bug repellant. And this, per JeffCo’s health department: “Do not mow over dead animals.” Eww.

Hantavirus is one you want to avoid as much as possible. There have been 43 cases in Colorado since 2013 and 16 deaths — giving it a 37% mortality rate, which is a good bit higher than plague.

For prevention, be careful when cleaning up areas where you discover rodent droppings. Wear gloves and a mask. Use a disinfectant spray or bleach solution. Spray the droppings. Walk away for 5 minutes to let it soak in. Then wipe it up with paper towels and throw everything away. Wash your hands twice — once before taking off your gloves and once after.

Let’s all get through this summer without contracting a horrible, weird disease, yes?

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MORE HEALTH NEWS

• Colorado has dropped people from Medicaid at a rate comparable to red states. As Colorado churns through Medicaid renewals, a surprising stat has emerged: The state, a bastion of blue-state health care policy, is dropping people from Medicaid at rates comparable to conservative-led states. This is happening as states across the country go through Medicaid rolls that swelled during the pandemic when federal rules prohibited states from dropping anyone from Medicaid coverage. Now that the federal public health emergency is over, states have been firing up their redetermination processes. Colorado defends its process, saying the state’s Medicaid enrollment grew more during the pandemic than other states’ and that our economy recovered faster. But, as reporter Rae Ellen Bichell found, some advocates are concerned that Colorado is leaving people behind.
  — KFF Health News
• Nearly 1.8 million chickens were culled in the latest bird flu outbreak at a Colorado poultry farm. We’ve been writing a lot lately about bird flu in dairy cattle. But the threat to commercial poultry farms also remains. To wit: Nearly 1.8 million chickens were killed over the holiday weekend at an egg-laying operation in Weld County after bird flu was discovered there. This is not to say that all those birds were infected, but standard practice is to cull the whole flock to prevent bird flu from spreading.
  — The Colorado Sun
• Colorado health officials identify another human case of bird flu in the state. Speaking of bird flu, a dairy worker in Colorado tested positive for the virus, becoming the fourth person across the U.S. to contract the virus apparently through contact with infected cattle. The worker had a mild eye infection, took antivirals and recovered. And while risk to the human population generally remains low, the case highlighted continued concerns that the virus could evolve into a human disease.
  — The Colorado Sun
• Medicaid now covers doulas in Colorado. Medicaid covered more than a third of Colorado births last year. That gives the state a pretty big interest in making sure those births go well and that mothers are taken care of before and after. Now the state is stepping up to cover doulas — people who can assist with labor and offer both prenatal and postpartum support — for Medicaid members. The goal is to improve overall maternal health and to reduce racial disparities, Meg Wingerter reports.
  — The Denver Post🔑

CHART OF THE WEEK

A family friend visiting from Australia this week asked, “Does Colorado have any nuclear?” Aside from how charming it always is to hear Aussies pronounce words like “nuclear,” taking much of the sting from the ominous word, one question led to another.

We knew Colorado decommissioned our only nuclear power plant by 1992, Xcel Energy’s troubled Fort St. Vrain plant. (“Troubled” and “nuclear plant” are usually redundant.) We’re old enough to have reported on that. But how does the U.S. stack up with nuclear compared to the rest of the world?

As you can see from this chart by Ember, we do produce a lot of raw nuclear power, by volume. But it’s only about 19% of the overall U.S. electrical grid. Worldwide, that percentage drops further to 10% of available power.

What the chart shows is that it’s far more important to some individual countries. France, Finland, Ukraine — as we’ve seen in terrifying news reports of Russian military threats — even pristine Switzerland. All rely on nuclear that’s deeply embedded in their economies.

Will we ever see another nuke built in the U.S.? Bill Gates and friends are trying, as close as Wyoming. Color us extremely skeptical that the perpetual promises of “new, cheaper, safer designs” will come to pass.

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Heat? Hurricanes? Plagues? Toxic gas? Apologies for the above. If we’re still friends after this, we appreciate you more than you know. Next week’s got to be better, right?

*ducks whatever’s coming*

— Michael & John

Corrections & Clarifications

Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com.

Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.