Conservation groups sue EPA over Colorado's smog

National and local environmental groups Monday filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — alleging that officials have allowed the state of Colorado to persistently violate air quality standards.

The lawsuit, submitted in a federal appeals circuit court, challenges the EPA’s approval of a state plan that failed to sufficiently reduce smog in the Metro Denver and North Front Range areas by July 2021. 

Concentrations of ground-level ozone, also known as smog, have continued to surpass acceptable air quality levels — a situation that the complainants attribute to the state’s inadequate response to pollution generated by fracked oil and gas. 

Stressing that Colorado has remained in noncompliance with national smog standards for the past 15 years, the conservation groups questioned the EPA’s ongoing approvals of the state’s pollution cleanup programs. 

“This government embrace of a plan that has already failed means the fracked gas and oil industry gets to keep spewing out pollution that causes asthma attacks and even death,” Robert Ukeiley, an environmental health attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. 

The ongoing contamination, Ukeiley added, also “kills trees and flowers in majestic places like Rocky Mountain National Park.”

The Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit together with 350 Colorado, a local environmental organization. 

While the national smog standard is 75 parts per billion, Front Range levels were 81 parts per billion in summer 2020, the conservation groups noted. 

The highest levels were recorded at the National Renewable Energy Lab’s monitoring site in Jefferson County — just west of Denver — but another site due southeast in Douglas County showed similar concentrations, the complainants stated. 

The lawsuit, submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver, petitions for the review of a final action taken by the EPA regarding Colorado’s “air plan approval,” which was published on the Federal Register about two months ago. 

The rule, effective on June 8, authorizes “the majority of the state’s ozone attainment plan,” while noting that “the EPA recognizes the adverse impacts of ozone.” 

Colorado’s plan, according to the rule, involves detailing emission inventories, demonstrating reasonable further progress, ensuring that Colorado meets federal Clean Fuel Fleet Program requirements and conducting nonattainment reviews of new pollution sources. 

“We expect that this action and resulting emissions reductions will generally be neutral or contribute to reduced environmental and health impacts on all populations in the [Denver Metro-North Front Range Area], including people of color and low-income populations,” the rule states.

“At a minimum, this action would not worsen any existing air quality,” the document adds. 

The Hill has reached out to the EPA for comment.