Colorado Compliance

Colorado Compliance

The state's sole independent source of business-related environmental regulatory and compliance data.

DECEMBER 31, 2003

UP FRONT

2   EPA Warns Of Massive Non-Attainment

An historic honeymoon featuring former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and Colorado Gov. Bill Owens celebrating the Denver metropolitan area’s compliance with all EPA health-based air quality standards came to naught Dec. 3 when EPA’s Region VIII office proposed designating numerous Front Range counties as not meeting the federal ground-level ozone (smog) air quality standard. Despite predictions that air quality monitors in Jefferson County would never achieve compliance with EPA’s new 8-hour ground-level ozone standard (see CC 1/97, p. 5) for the Denver air quality control region (AQCR) — and an Owens executive order directing state and local government regulators to focus on meeting that new standard (see CC 3/99, p. 2) — all efforts to date have come up short. Less than a year after that memorable August 9, 2002 photo-op, ozone levels rose to their highest levels since the mid-1980s — forcing EPA to threaten Colorado with serious reprisals that could impact all of the Northern Front Range.

EPA’s Region VIII office in that Dec. 3 letter warned Gov. Owens that it plans to designate a massive swath of the northern Front Range a non-attainment area for ground-level ozone, creating an air pollution zone of unprecedented size for Colorado and rejecting the state’s June 2003 request that all of Colorado be designated as attainment area for EPA’s new, more stringent 8-hour standard for ozone.

EPA regional administrator Robbie Roberts delivered the grim news that outlined just how large the non-attainment area is likely to be, and the factors behind the decision. The preliminary regulatory action is a serious — albeit expected — blow for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) as well as the Regional Air Quality Council (RAQC), the lead air quality planning agency for the Denver area.

The state now faces the potential of a non-attainment area meandering from Denver north to Fort Collins, east to Fort Morgan and west to Rocky Mountain National Park. EPA is likely to add Larimer, Elbert and Morgan county to the AQCR that typically includes just the U.S. Census Bureau-defined metropolitan area of the seven-county metro area and Weld County. "While these (additional) counties are outside of the (metro area), they are adjacent to the Denver-Boulder-Greeley (area) and may be contributing to the 8-hour violations," Roberts noted in his ominous missive.

Roberts’ letter is part of a formal process that ...

3   New Controls And A Park; Hammer Ahead?

4   Major Trial Sputters To An End

6   ‘Victory’ For Brown Marred By Sanctions

7   EPA Creating Hostile Workplace

8   New DNR Contract Still Draws Controversy

ROCKY MOUNTAIN BRIEFS

Kudos for Greeley plant ... Clean coal plant scrapped ... Compressor on Grand Mesa ... New pipeline regs in Garfield? ... Wildlife protections drilled ... Gravel pit gets go-ahead — again ... All begin on page 9

REGULATORY ROUNDUP

11   Air Council Releases EAC For Review

12   Draft 2004 TMDL List Released

13   EPA Authorizes New RCRA Revisions

14   Pikin Ponders Ending Emissions Testing

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

15   Lawmakers Eye Energy Impact Funds

ENFORCEMENT REPORT

16   Dumper Hit With Federal Sentence

17   Hazardous Waste Penalty In Pueblo

17   HMWMD Staffers Deliver Advisories

SUPERFUND/HAZARDOUS WASTE

18   State’s Superfund Running On Empty

18   Will Fees Be Raised To Offset Shortfall?

19   CDPHE Hauled Into Court Over Permit

20   High Lead Levels Found In Rico

20   Wildlife Wrecking Coors Wetland

COMPLIANCE LIBRARY

22   Air, Audits And Permitting Titles

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Colorado Compliance is the state's sole source of independent business-related environmental regulatory and compliance data. Subject matter (no advertisements accepted) is limited to administrative, legal and public policy developments impacting commercial activities conducted in Colorado. Published monthly by Compliance Publishers, Inc., Denver, Colorado. A limited number of annual subscriptions are available for $375.00 per year.

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COMPLIANCE PUBLISHERS, Inc.

Suite 1150

910 Sixteenth Street

Denver, Colorado 80202

Phone (303) 333-4750 -or- (800) 662-2269

Facsimile (303) 623-0680 -or- (800) 209-5361