What's Polluting Colorado's Air? If You Plan To Move Here You Owe It To Yourself To Know

Top: Main air pollution locations in the state of Colorado. Bottom the top 10 greenhouse gas emitters projected through 2030.

As my respiratory problems have grown increasingly worse over the past five years, I found this information from a Denver Post expose (January 19, p. 1A), e.g.   
 

What's polluting Colorado's air? 125 million tons a year of heat ...

Excerpt:

"Effects of fossil fuels Fossil fuels producers in Colorado — the expanding oil and gas industry that runs more than 53,000 wells around the state along with processing facilities, storage and pipelines — have emerged collectively as a major polluter, emitting about 15.6 million tons a year, state records show"

to be especially informative.   And we learn further:

"More than 125 million metric tons of hazardous and heat-trapping gases pollute Colorado’s air every year, hurting public health and accelerating warming of the planet at a time when world leaders are trying to clean up the atmosphere and fight climate change."

Watching me cough one night in a particularly spasmodic way, almost like a flu cough, Janice asked what was wrong. I mentioned a constant 'tickle' in the chest which triggered a similar cough that was most productive each morning. By that I meant coughing up thick plugs of phlegm and mucus.  Five years ago I experienced nothing like what I am dealing with currently.  What changed? Well, fracking and its incessant injection of pollutants into Colorado's air. 

As The Post article notes, the state's expanding oil and gas industry operates more than 53,000 wells across the state along with processing and storage facilities. Collectively these emit more than 15.6 million tons of pollutants per year.  These include hazardous chemicals such as: thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide, benzene, hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide, perchloroethylene,  - as well as thousands of tons or particulates which cause heart and lung problems.   Add in 130, 670 tons a year of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and you indeed have a toxic brew.  One which now adversely affects nearly 17 percent of state residents, including me. (One reason I often kid Janice about moving back to Barbados.)

The Post expose shows:  "the top VOC polluters emit 5,376 tons a year and the top nitrogen oxide polluters emit 12, 145 tons."   Adding: "This pollution causes respiratory problems, headaches and nausea, as well as irritating the eyes, nose and throat.  VOCs also damage the liver, kidneys and central nervous system."

And to think that 19 years ago when we first moved here from Maryland, the state had pristine skies and atmosphere. Visitors like my sister-in-law Krimhilde marveled at how beautiful the setting was and how they didn't have to breathe the diesel fumes like in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.  Alas, had Krimhilde lived and visited us now she'd be appalled.    

The Post piece notes that EPA data show that Colorado joined 14 other states (North Dakota, Montana, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, Wyoming, Arkansas, Texas, Minnesota, Utah, Idaho and Oklahoma) where "increased overall emissions increased from 2005 through 2014."   Colorado officials also have disclosed the latest inventory shows overall air pollution peaking at around 132 million tons before closure of coal-fired power generators led to a leveling and slight decline of overall pollution.  Well, we must be thankful for small mercies as it declined to 125.7 million tons per year.   

The top twenty polluters' sites are shown in the map at top, from The Post article.  The top 20 greenhouse gas polluters include: Xcel Energy's Comanche, Craig, Pawnee, Hayden, Cherokee and Ft. St. Vrain power plants - along with a mix of other industrial sources. The latter include the Swiss-owned Holcim cement factory near Florence, and the Canadian-owned Suncor energy oil refinery north of Denver.  

 Meanwhile, the biggest VOC polluters include the crude oil pipeline company Plains Marketing (with a base in Denver) and the Suncor oil refinery. THe biggest nitrogen oxide polluters include power plants run by the Tri-State facility in Craig and Colorado Springs' Martin Drake coal plant along with multiple other oil and gas industry polluters.   

Yes, folks, the oil and gas industry is terrific for the state economy and some of the best paying jobs, as the Colorado Oil and Gas Association never ceases to tell us.  But the $64 question is whether this great fossil fuel economy will be sufficient to provide the funds to take care of all the health issues that erupt in the state's residents in the years to come.  

Think about that the next time you consider uprooting and moving to our once quality air state.