Wildfire haze this summer has obstructed mountain views and exacerbated Colorado Springs’ ozone problems, making outdoor activity dangerous for some and putting the area at risk of no longer meeting federal rules for air quality.
The state has issued 18 air quality health advisories for Colorado Springs so far this year, mostly for high ozone levels, exacerbated by wildfire smoke, said Scott Landes, an air quality meteorologist for the state. Ozone can make chronic respiratory conditions like asthma worse and hurt the ability to combat respiratory infections, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The numbers look really, really bad through July, primarily attributable to wildfire,” said Andrew Gunning, executive director of the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments. The wildfires at fault have mostly been burning in Oregon, Washington, California and Arizona.
Across Colorado in June and July, the state health department has issued 27 air quality health advisories for wildfire smoke in June and July, up from 14 last during the same time period, Landes said.
In the years ahead, above-average wildfire activity across the West fueled by long-term drought and climate change could continue to contribute to air quality challenges, Landes said.
If fires are no longer exceptional events, Colorado Springs could be pushed into federal nonattainment for air quality standards, a status that could come with additional air quality rules, Gunning said.
“I don’t know at what point the EPA says they are no longer exceptional events,” he said.
Colorado Springs exceeded air quality standards last year during the large fires, such as Cameron Peak and East Troublesome, and the state is working to have those classified as exceptional events, he said. If they are not, then the area could fall into nonattainment status in that case as well, he said.
The city has been close to nonattainment status since 2018, following the lowering of the national ozone standard in 2016, said Lynn Gratz, associate professor of environmental science at Colorado College.
Falling into nonattainment, while not attractive, could have some benefits for the region by encouraging steps to curb pollution that contributes to the problem, she said.
“It at least brings the issue to the forefront and requires the region and the county to put some action in place,” she said.
In recent years, many of the highest days for ozone in the region could be attributed to ozone, but not all, her research showed.
The community can look at ways to curb the constant localized contributors to ozone, such as cars and coal-burning power plants, and make a difference. The downtown Martin Drake Power Plant is scheduled to stop burning coal in September and the Ray Nixon Power Plant near Fountain is expected to burn coal through 2029.
Cutting localized pollution can reduce the exposure residents living next to freeways and plants that are exposed to harmful gases on an ongoing basis, Gratz said.
“It’s not just those most extreme ozone days that we should be worried about,” she said.
National and industrial changes to cut green-house gas emissions are also needed to address climate change, a driver of the national wildfires, she said.
To limit exposure to the highest levels of ozone in the summer, at risk residents, such as the very old and very young can also stay inside and residents can limit their car trips to avoid contributing to the problem.
Clean-air advocate Nicole Rosa, who moved to the area from Pittsburg for the blue skies, works hard to avoid exposure to high ozone, walking her dog in the early morning hours and constantly tracking pollution levels online. She wants to avoid a later-in-life asthma diagnosis that some of her friends got in their 60s, she said.
“It sneaks up on you. … You can suddenly have an issue based on the last 30 years of your life,” she said.
She is supportive of a nonattainment status, so that the largest polluters in the area could be held to higher standards and potentially the worst polluting cars could be taken off the roads.
Gratz also would like to see more ozone monitoring, since the area only has two — one in Manitou Springs and one at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
“We should think carefully about where potentially additional monitors to really be representative of where people are living,” she said.
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