WEEK OF JANUARY 30, 2025
VOLUME 61 | ISSUE 26
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Colorado names its top five air contaminants Next comes rules to regulate them in street-level toxic air program BY PARKER YAMASAKI THE COLORADO SUN
ter became more isolated from her family. She almost shakes with rage when she talks about the nearly two years her daughter was psychologically tied to the man. “She was a source of income to him,” Stacey said. “He would sell her over and over again, he did it multiple times.” “He knew exactly what he was doing,” Stacey said. “It was easier to sell my child than to work.” He also made her get a degrading tattoo, effectively branding her as his property.
The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission on Jan. 17 named five pollutants as priority air toxics, one of the key steps in a multiyear process to ratchet back neighborhood air pollution. Those hazardous pollutants, known as air toxics, are formaldehyde, benzene, hexavalent chromium compounds, ethylene oxide and hydrogen sulfide. The contaminants are separate from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas and ozone regulations, though four of the five of them appear on both lists. The new list, known as regulation 30, was created to target street-level toxins with adverse health effects on individuals, and to fill in gaps in the federal framework. The list is the latest move to comply with Colorado House Bill 1244, passed in 2022, which laid out a roadmap to a more robust toxic contaminants program. One of the bill’s statutes required the Air Quality Control Commission and Air Pollution Control Division to identify “up to five” priority toxins by April 30, which will become the focus of a yearlong regulation-building process. By April 30, 2026, the commission must create “health-based” standards for each of the toxins, and establish new monitoring and enforcement protocols. The state-led program is meant to be more stringent than the EPA’s regulations, and will be shielded from any federal changes to the EPA. The new program also gives the commission more flexibility in determining which compounds to target. The bill allows contaminants to be added at any time, within reason, and requires a review of the list at least once every five years. Advocacy groups like Green Latinos encouraged the division to review the list on a more frequent, rolling basis. While representatives from Weld County’s Board of Commissioners were concerned about the feasibility of constantly creating new regulations. “All legislation as it pertains to air quality is not just a matter of, you know, meeting ambitious goals around (nitrogen oxide) reduction or greenhouse gas reduction, but rather what are the specific things we’re doing to improve the health of residents in Colorado,” said Michael Ogletree, director of the Air Pollution Control Division.
SEE WARNING, P7
SEE CONTAMINANTS, P19
An illustration titled “Our Stories Never End,” by human trafficking advocate Alane Holsteen made for the From Silenced To Saved organiCOURTESY FSTS.ORG zation.
Raising a warning about sex trafficking Parents must be aware when their child becomes dependent on someone else
BY MONTE WHALEY MWHALEY@COLORADCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
When she first met the young man in her 16-year-old daughter’s life, Stacey was struck by how little he said. “He was just so quiet, and something felt off about him,” she said. “Turns out he had a lot to hide.” What she didn’t know is that he was working behind the scenes to shackle Stacey’s daughter to him and market her for sex. “He love bombed her,” said Stacey, a woman who asked that her real name not be used. But she wanted to tell her
daughter’s story to raise awareness for Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Stacey said the nearly silent young man showered her daughter – who was enrolled in a Douglas County high school - with affection and attention. He made her feel dependent on him for her happiness and threatened to kill himself when she broke up with him. Eventually, he convinced her to hook up with men for sex, Stacey said. Meanwhile, he was registering her on various social media and dating websites, marketing her and pocketing the money he made off their abusive arrangement. Stacey was only aware that her daugh-
VOICES: PAGE 8 | CULTURE: PAGE 10 | BRIEFS: PAGE 16
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