Fed up with the state’s failure to regulate air permits and after years of quietly watching the quality of Colorado’s air decline, about a year ago three state employees bravely came forward. The whistleblowers called out the state Air Pollution Control Division for rubber-stamping air permits and failing to meet the standards required in the […]
whistleblowers
Posted inClimate, Environment, News
Colorado air pollution panel fails to fix whistleblower complaints, environmentalists say
Environmental groups say a state science and policy panel failed to fix problems tagged by whistleblowers that the state broke EPA rules in how it sets pollution caps for companies, and that now the state will continue to rubber stamp unlawful permits and harmful emissions. The advisory panel had two industry votes to one environmental […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Almost never is a workplace death unpreventable
While the nation, and Coloradans, continue to recover from the unprecedented social and economic impacts of this horrible pandemic, we must not lose sight of another killer which, when ignored, claims the lives of our family members, friends and neighbors: Workplace fatalities. In 2021, 46 Colorado workers in businesses under the jurisdiction of the federal […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Give whistleblowers the ability to fight fraud everywhere
A question for the powers that be in Denver: If you could reduce fraud against the state and its municipalities and recover millions of dollars a year in the process, would you do it? Clearly a no-brainer, by any measure. Especially these days, with Colorado —like the feds and most states — pumping out so […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Environment, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado tightens air pollution rules after staff shake-up, whistleblower complaint
Colorado air quality regulators are moving to tighten oversight of small sources of air pollution, which critics contend have gotten a free pass under the previous policies of the state Air Pollution Control Division. Those policies were the target of a federal whistleblower complaint by division employees and an investigation by the state’s Attorney General’s […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News
Colorado air pollution director Garry Kaufman reassigned after conflict of interest investigation
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has reassigned its top air pollution control official to a newly-created job in the wake of a special investigator’s probe confirming his failure to report a potential conflict of interest. Garry Kaufman, who has led the Air Pollution Control Division since 2017 and previously worked on air […]