Denver finally cleans up its polluted air
Date: 12-Aug-02
Country: USA
Author: Judith Crosson
"You truly can breathe more easily today," Christie Whitman, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, told reporters at the Colorado state capitol.
"During the 1970s and 1980s Denver routinely violated air quality standards and failed five out of the six standards the EPA regulates," she said. "What once seemed like a mile-high task is now reality."
The improvement, which brings relief to asthmatics and others with respiratory problems, came despite an economic boom and population growth over the past decade.
Whitman and Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, also a Republican, said the federal air quality standards were met without putting the brakes on economic development.
The achievement was lauded by environmentalists. "Denver's air quality progress is an enormously important success and demonstrates that concerted public and private action can achieve cleaner, healthier air," Vickie Patton, senior attorney for Environmental Defense, said in a statement.
Air in the seven-county area that includes the city of Denver and its suburbs had been bad for at least 40 years with the state's first anti-smog bill going into effect in 1964.
The following year a state law was passed requiring pollution control devices on cars and a few years later trash burning was banned in Denver.
Pollution from automobiles today is about five percent of what it was in 1970, Owens said.
Since 1970 federal standards have measured carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide, all of which harm human health.
Last week, Whitman approved the area's re-designation request for particulate matter - the last in a series of five such requests necessary for the area to be in full compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
