WEEK OF JULY 18, 2024
VOLUME 36 | ISSUE 29
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Hot in the city
Researchers are hunting down Weld County’s toxic ozone producers BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN
This is not by accident. It’s a result of how cities like Commerce City were planned and built, creating what’s called an urban heat island. In December of 2023, Colorado released the first Climate Preparedness Roadmap that focused on ways to better understand, prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change. And as the area gets hotter and hotter, the urban heat islands will become even worse.
Colorado’s battle with toxic ozone and damaging greenhouse gases will send new waves of scouts on the ground, in the air and up in space, drawing on top U.S. scientists to pinpoint the biggest pollution sources and plan the next attacks. NOAA, NASA and Colorado health department researchers are fanning out on and above northeastern Colorado’s rich oil and gas basin, productive farm and ranchlands, and busy urban corridors to measure greenhouse gases, ozone precursors like nitrogen oxides, methane leaks and more. Such a comprehensive targeting of Colorado’s most troubling pollution sources hasn’t been done for 10 years, according to NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory scientist Sunil Baidar. Colorado’s northern Front Range counties are in “severe” violation of EPA ozone standards, and state regulators must enforce new pollution control policies to stop the violations in coming years. After the thorough probe of Colorado, NOAA and NASA will move on to Salt Lake City, which is also violating EPA ozone limits meant to protect human health. The summer flights and ground maneuvers will measure emissions at their worst, when hot sunlight bakes pollution from cars, trucks, industrial sources and drilling operations into cap-busting peaks of ozone. Far overhead, remote satellites can sense methane leaks and plumes on the ground. A King Air plane looks downward with optical methane imaging. A Twin Otter aircraft flies through layers of pollution directly measuring methane. Mobile labs on vans and trucks measure ground-level pollutants at oil and gas sites and throughout metro areas.
SEE HEAT, P9
SEE OZONE, P7
• Page 9
• Vestas to lay off 200 employees
The sun rises over Commerce City.
BUSINESS
‘Urban heat islands’ can raise temperatures in cities as much as 9 degrees • Page 3
•27J Schools moves online-only Dec. 1
BY JACKIE RAMIREZ SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
3 5 8 11
LOCAL OBITUARIES LEGALS CLASSIFIED
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
LOCAL
For three days this past week Adams County baked in a summer heat wave with a HeatRisk Forecast rated “Major,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than just frying an egg on a sidewalk. It means having to prioritize health and safety to avoid heat exhaustion, heat strokes or visits to the emergency department. In July 2023, Adams County had
FILE PHOTO
20 heat-related emergency department visits and in 2022, Colorado had 10 deaths due to heat-related illnesses. The heat is no joke. For Fernando Pineda-Reyes, director of the grassroots organization CREA Results, a heat wave like this calls for checking up on loved ones because of how dangerous heat is for many. It may seem like nagging, but it’s because people care. “My mom is in a retirement home, and what do I need to do? I need to call her and make sure that I know that she’s OK,” PinedaReyes said. “Sometimes we think people are OK because they’re indoors, but you gotta remember that the temperature is not like a blast of heat that everybody feels.” Cities throughout Colorado were likely to experience temper-
atures in the lower 90s, but areas close to Commerce City and north Denver will reach 96 degrees, according to data from the National Weather Service. Roadmap
OBITUARIES: PAGE 5 | CLASSIFIEDS: PAGE 12 | LEGAL: PAGE 14
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