A voice at the table for air quality

Published on November 21, 2024

Weld County Government — elected officials, staff and consultants — have had many discussions regarding climate and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to ensure the concerns of rural Weld County are included in decision-making processes. These discussions regarding various aspects of air quality have led to significant action steps, including:

• County commissioners engaging in discussions regarding the state’s GHG Pollution Reduction Roadmap.
• County commissioners making comments at rulemaking hearings, testifying before the legislature and funding third-party studies and analysis of air quality in northern Colorado.
• Purchasing and installing air monitoring stations at different locations throughout Weld County.

Each of these steps were taken with the intent of providing information about Weld County’s air quality — information that can be used to develop a common-sense approach to bettering air quality not only in Weld County, but throughout the state.

Regulations for air quality are determined at both the state and federal levels by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), respectively. Nationwide, there are 27 different air-quality control districts each in attainment or non-attainment status based on a variety of different factors, and states are free to adopt stricter standards than EPA.

Despite improvements in recent years, the air quality in the Denver/North Front Range area, which includes Weld County has not met federal ozone standards, which has required the development of state implementation plans (SIP) to help meet those standards.

Learn more about Weld County’s role in SIP’s and air-quality decision making.