Colorado's New Clean Air Program
| Publication year | 1993 |
| Pages | 541 |
| Citation | Vol. 22 No. 3 Pg. 541 |
1993, March, Pg. 541. Colorado's New Clean Air Program
A massive new air pollution control program is taking shape in Colorado. The process began with the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, in which Congress overhauled the federal Clean Air Act.(fn1) Like many federal environmental programs, the Clean Air Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") to delegate responsibility for administration and enforcement of the program to the individual states, provided the state programs meet the minimum federal requirements. States are free to enhance the federal program by adopting laws more stringent than the federal requirements. In Colorado, the program is administered by the Air Pollution Control Division ("Division") of the Colorado Department of Health. It is overseen by the Air Quality Control Commission ("Commission").
To conform Colorado's existing program to the new federal requirements, the General Assembly enacted the Colorado Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act ("Act").(fn2) The Act goes beyond the mere adoption of the federal requirements, incorporating many elements that are unique to Colorado. Because the Act is more than seventy pages long, a thorough examination of the Act is beyond the scope of this article. Instead, this article focuses on several of the more significant changes the Act brings to Colorado's former air pollution program.
To understand the program as a whole, it is critical to recognize that those aspects of Colorado's program that go beyond the federal requirements do not constitute part of the federally required state implementation plan.(fn3) Thus, while the aspects of the state program that are required by the federal program are enforceable by both the state and the EPA, those which go beyond the federal minimums are enforceable only by the state.
The federal program requires that each state maintain a current inventory of emissions,(fn4) which is also useful to the Division for purposes of program planning and enforcement. Under the state's previous air pollution act, the Division obtained information for the inventory through a requirement that before constructing or altering an air pollution source, the owner or operator had to file an Air Pollution Emission Notice ("APEN") identifying the location, type and quantity of emissions. Colorado's new Act retains this requirement.(fn5)
However, it was widely recognized that many sources of air pollution statewide were not included in Colorado's previous inventory. To fill this information gap, the new Act added a one-time requirement that all existing sources file an updated APEN by December 31, 1992. To encourage compliance with this requirement, the Act offers limited amnesty to those whose APENs would reveal past violations, but who follow procedures established in the Act to bring their sources into compliance.(fn6)
In addition to reporting emissions of the six federally established criteria pollutants,(fn7) APENs are now required to include emissions of specifically identified hazardous air pollutants and extremely hazardous substances.(fn8) The Commission is authorized to exempt certain sources from the requirement to file an APEN.(fn9) In particular, the Commission's existing regulations generally exempt sources which emit less than one ton per year of nonhazardous, nontoxic or nonodorous pollutants.(fn10)
By emergency rule adopted October 15, 1992, the Commission established threshold reporting requirements for hazardous air pollutants and...
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