Steady population growth places clean air at risk

It’s difficult to say whether commuters truly are improving their habits or if it’s cleaner burning cars alone that help Northern Colorado meet federal air-quality standards.
While current pollution levels pose no serious threat here, the challenge is to guard against increases that could come with growing populations.
“It would be a great step if the levels could be maintained,´ said Sheila Burns, of the Colorado Health Department’s Air Pollution Control Division. “A trend we’re seeing consistently is a clean up and downward trend.
“The concern though, is that if there’s a significant amount of growth, it will shift,” she added. “That’s why many communities are working to promote alternative transportation.”
One of the biggest steps has been taken in Greeley, where a sustained period of clean air will allow officials to apply for redesignation as an attainment area.
That means the threat of federal sanctions — such as the withdrawal of highway improvement funds — will not concern Greeley. The city has not violated federally mandated carbon-monoxide standards since 1988. Greeley’s application as an attainment area will reach the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency between July of this year and June 1997.
“We’re seeing more vehicle trips, but cars are polluting less,´ said Bill Andrews, transportation planner for Greeley. “Now about 12 percent of our trips are for travel to and from work.”
The remainder are generated by people running errands. Plus, Andrews said, 90 percent of Greeley’s travelers are in single-occupancy vehicles.
Fort Collins’ last carbon-monoxide violation was in 1991, and its levels have steadily dropped since then.
In addition, carbon-monoxide levels and particulates — generated by windblown dust and wood burning, for example — have been below national standards since the mid-1980s.
And, the city has worked for 2 1/2 years to monitor visibility.
“Fort Collins has been very proactive in getting a visibility monitor,” the Health Department’s Burns said. “It’s not federally mandated, but the public reacts very strongly to visibility.”
Between October 1993 and November 1995, visibility in the Fort Collins’ area was in the good category 33 percent of the time, in the fair category 39 percent of the time and in the poor category 27 percent of the time. About 1 percent of the readings fell into the extremely poor category.
Linda Devocelle, environmental education specialist for Fort Collins, said one primary area of concern is that the number of vehicles is increasing faster than the city’s population. Population growth is about 2.8 percent annually, while vehicles increase at 3.8 percent a year.
About 2 million vehicle miles are driven daily in Fort Collins. With no change in driving behavior, that is expected to reach more than 3 million miles per day by 2015.
The city is updating its 20-year Air Quality Action Plan for strategies to prevent increases in pollution and to reduce the primary sources of pollution.
Fort Collins, Greeley and other Northern Colorado governments also participate in the North Front Range Transportation & Air Quality Planning Council, which seeks to reduce vehicles on the road by 10 percent by 2015.