{"id":9827,"date":"2015-03-18T11:34:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T16:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=9827"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:42:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:42:40","slug":"ozone-pollution-in-the-west-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2015\/03\/18\/ozone-pollution-in-the-west-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly\/","title":{"rendered":"Ozone Pollution in the West: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Source: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jon Goldstein<\/a>, Senior Policy Manager, US Climate and Energy Program<\/em><\/p>\n

Long familiar in major urban areas, smog \u2013 what we experts call \u201cground-level ozone\u201d pollution \u2013 is quickly becoming a serious problem in the rural mountain west, thanks to rapid expansion in oil and gas development. Smog serious health impacts like aggravated asthma, chronic bronchitis, heart attacks, and even premature death. In areas like the Upper Green River Basin in Wyoming<\/a>, smog levels have sometimes rivaled those in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Now, the Environmental Protection Agency and several western states are putting the pieces in place to fix this problem: EPA through proposed revisions to \u00a0the health-based ozone standard that will better protect people from pollution, and states like Wyoming and Colorado through strong policies that are helping to reduce the sources of ozone pollution in the oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n

In official public comments filed this week <\/a>with EPA, EDF and a broad coalition of western environmental and conservation groups supported a more protective ozone standard and pointed out the importance of this issue to the intermountain west\u2013where most of the country\u2019s oil and gas production from federal lands occurs.<\/p>\n

Ozone is a story with important public health consequences that calls to mind the old Western, \u201cThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly,\u201d though perhaps in a slightly different order.<\/p>\n

The Bad:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ozone is a harmful air pollutant, and bad news from a health perspective. Countless studies (including those in the mountain west<\/a>) have shown that elevated levels of ozone pollution can cause painful breathing, lung inflammation, and are associated with increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits. EPA\u2019s independent expert science panel, on the basis of the latest scientific evidence, unanimously recommended a stronger federal ozone limit to protect public health with an adequate margin of safety, as the law requires.<\/p>\n

Strong ozone standards are just as necessary today in intermountain west \u2013 where many residents are living amidst large-scale oil and gas developments \u2013 as in urban settings. That\u2019s why our comments urge EPA to revise the existing federal ozone pollution standard of 75 parts per billion (ppb) to a more protective 60 ppb.<\/p>\n

The Ugly:<\/strong><\/p>\n

As drilling has rapidly increased<\/a> in areas like Wyoming\u2019s Upper Green River Basin, Utah\u2019s Uinta Basin, the San Juan Basin in New Mexico and in suburban areas of Denver, Colorado so too have harmful ozone levels. In all, as many as thirty-three counties currently in attainment across the Intermountain West have experienced ozone levels above the range recommended by EPA\u2019s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. Of these 33 counties, 17 (52%) are home to oil and gas development.6 Specifically:<\/p>\n