Boulder County on Friday touted a federal appeals court’s ruling to include an emissions-heavy section of northern Weld County in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Metro-Denver ozone nonattainment area as “a victory to Boulder County and other proponents of improved air quality.”
The court has ordered the EPA to reconsider its decision to omit a swath of Northern Weld County, home to hundreds of oil and gas wells, from the ozone nonattainment area that stretches north along the Front Range from Castle Rock to Fort Collins and Greeley and west into Rocky Mountain National Park.
The court ruled the EPA’s decision to exclude northern Weld County from the nonattainment area was “arbitrary and capricious,” the county stated in a Friday news release.
“We are encouraged that the EPA will reconsider excluding northern Weld County from the ozone nonattainment area,” Cindy Copeland, Boulder County Public Health air and climate policy specialist, stated in the release. “Including northern Weld County in the area would require many oil and gas sources to meet EPA requirements to reduce emissions, which would help to greatly improve ozone levels for Front Range residents.”
Including the Weld County area in the ozone nonattainment area would bring many additional oil and gas sources into air quality planning under EPA requirements, the county stated. “The resulting reductions in nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds pollution would help to greatly improve ozone levels in the Denver-metro area, including Boulder County. Air quality conditions and ecosystem health at Rocky Mountain National Park could also be improved with more emissions controls.”
The ruling is a result of a lawsuit against the EPA filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals by Boulder County commissioners, the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Parks Conservation Association.
