Name: Community-Led Air Monitoring Reveals Gaps in Environmental Regulation
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A nonprofit in Commerce City ended an independent air monitoring program last summer. Now, the data is being used to help improve statewide processes and community engagement.

Results from a community-led air monitoring project affirmed decades-long claims of health ailments.

Results from a community-led air monitoring project affirmed decades-long claims of health ailments.

A nonprofit in Commerce City ended an independent air monitoring program last summer. Now, the data is being used to help improve statewide processes and community engagement. 

Video by Lizzie Mulvey

Community-led air monitoring reveals gaps in environmental regulation

Community-Led Air Monitoring Reveals Gaps in Environmental Regulation

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Community-Led Air Monitoring Reveals Gaps in Environmental RegulationPublished: October 11, 2024Speaker 1: In 2019, there was this shower of clay, yellowish clay, around the community, so children couldn't go out to play, you couldn't go outside. The cars were filled with this film/Speaker 2: Outside of Denver, you will find Colorado's only major petroleum refinery. Owned by a Canadian oil and gas company, Suncor Energy, the facility processes around 98,000 barrels of crude oil every day. In fact, it provides about a third of Denver International Airport's jet fuel supply. The refinery is located in Commerce City, a Denver suburb that many Black and brown residents call home.Priyanka Desouza: Commerce City, and really other parts of Adams County and even Denver County around Suncor, we now have some of the highest levels of pollution in the state.Lucy Molina: I fight environmental racism. When you walk around my community, we are highly Latino community, Spanish-speaking community, Mexicans, and also a low-income community.Speaker 2: In 2020, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Suncor reached a $9 million settlement for air pollution violations, the largest settlement against a single facility in Colorado's history at that time. Suncor was required to pay $2.6 million for community grants, $5 million on improvements to the refinery based on findings of a third party investigation into the cause of pollution violations, and $1.4 million in penalties to the state.One local nonprofit, Cultivando, was awarded $1.8 million.Guadalupe Solis: Cultivando is a nonprofit organization based in Adams County, and our mission is to increase and create sustainable leadership within the Latino community.Laura Martinez: The community does not trust the city. The community does not trust Suncor and much less trust the state.We started the air monitoring program in 2021. We monitored for toxic volatile organic compounds. We monitored particulate matters, 2.5 radioactivity, things that were affecting our community.Speaker 2: Cultivando contracted a private company, Boulder Air, to lead an air monitoring program independent of the one conducted by the state.Detlev Helmig: Our work builds on procedures, protocols, and equipment that will deliver highly accurate data.Speaker 2: Boulder Air's analysis revealed results that were starkly different from what the state reports to the public. One key pollutant is PM 2.5, particles of pollution that are so tiny, they're easily inhaled and are highly associated with lung cancer. The data published by the state tracks PM 2.5 levels once an hour, and that data hovers below 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air, well below the 24-hour national ambient air quality standard of 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air.But when Boulder Air measured it every minute, they found extreme spikes that can be missed when you regulate pollution on an hourly average like the state does.Michael Ogletree: We report out based on an hourly concentration because that's where the National Ambient Air Quality Standards are set, so EPA sets those standards. We as the state are a delegated entity to EPA, we do that monitoring and report it that way as a requirement.Speaker 2: There is currently no federal standard for regulating PM 2.5 on a shorter time interval. And according to the state, there's not enough academic research linking extreme pollution spikes by the minute to poor health outcomes.Boulder Air's methodology went beyond what the state had done in the past in several other key ways.Detlev Helmig: We measured very close to the Suncor refinery. The state hasn't in the past, and we included measurements of hydrogen sulfide, of methane. We measured radioactivity with two different instruments.Speaker 2: They found higher levels of nitrogen oxide, methane, ethane, propane, and benzene than what you typically see in more rural communities.Laura Martinez: So we're using this data in different ways. The first, one of the most important one, is presenting the final results to the community. CDPHE, the state, the government can say the guidelines are not being exceeded, the thresholds are where they're supposed to be, but they're not taking into account the cumulative impacts.Priyanka Desouza: I think the major conclusion is just that so many of these really important localized sources of pollution can have really important local impacts, which need more granular data.Michael Ogletree: I think there's always room for improvement. I mean, these communities are and have historically been overburdened by pollution, so I think there's always ways we can do better. There's a bill that's in the legislature right now that gives us additional enforcement mechanisms. We're looking for all of the additional resources we can to help make sure that we're protecting the communities.Speaker 2: Cultivando hopes to use the yearlong data set to put pressure on state representatives to make policy changes.Laura Martinez: Instead of feeling anger, hot anger, and just wanting to explode, we want to use that data to empower our community, to empower ourselves, our organization, because this data collection, not only was it an emotional tool for our community but also for us. We're so angry at it that we're using it as a positive form of power to empower our communities, empower our organization, and show that we have a voice, and we're going to use it.

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Community-led air monitoring reveals gaps in environmental regulation

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