Last week, the Air Quality Commission of the Colorado Department of Health and Environment adopted a new rule that enhances modeling and monitoring requirements for new or modified air pollution sources in communities disproportionately impacted by air pollution. The new rule includes additional requirements that meet or exceed requirements under the Colorado Environmental Justice Act and reflect feedback from impacted communities.
Under the new rule that takes effect on July 15, all permit applicants in a disproportionately impacted community, as determined by Colorado Enviroscreen tool analyses, must submit an environmental justice summary with their application. Additionally, they are required to support community air monitoring programs, to monitor existing major air pollution sources, and to implement reasonably available control technology. A full press release is available here.
