DENVER — The Environmental Protection Agency found “important concerns” with the way Colorado regulators review and issue permits to minor polluters such as mines, asphalt plants and oil and gas drilling rigs, and those problems risked further damage to the state’s already poor air quality, according to a 309-page report released last week.
The report — in response to a whistleblower complaint filed in 2021 by employees at the state’s Air Pollution Control Division — determined those charged with regulating how much pollution spews into the state’s air were lax in how they assessed the potential for emissions and that they failed to properly document how they made their decisions.
The Air Pollution Control Division issued air permits even when analyses indicated emissions would violate air quality standards and were not compliant with a state plan to improve air quality, the EPA found.
