County leads legislative tour to visit air quality projects in Weld

Published on December 05, 2023

Last week, Weld County staff and partners hosted members of the Legislative Interim Committee on Ozone Air Quality on a tour of projects northern Colorado agencies are working on regarding air quality.

Beginning at the state capitol, elected officials, including Rep. Meg Froelich, Rep. Jenny Willford, Sen. Kevin Priola, and Sen. Lisa Cutter (Rep. Gabe Evans’ staff member attended in his absence) boarded a bus to begin a day of presentations and information sharing.

The first stop on the tour was the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder. There, NCAR scientists presented information about ozone modeling and forecasting.

Following the NCAR presentation and discussion session, the group drove north on I-25 to see firsthand improvements the Colorado Department of  Transportation (CDOT), with the assistance of Weld County and Weld County community investments, has made to ease congestion and reduce emissions along the corridor.

A stop at the new mobility hub on I-25, north of Highway 34 in Loveland, demonstrated the regional work done to provide a new transit route for CDOT’s Bustang, which, when paired with mobility hubs in Fort Collins and Frederick, will allow commuters reliable transit service from northern Colorado directly into downtown Denver.

Next, the group traveled to Weld County’s Missile Site Park to see one of the county’s three air monitoring sites. These monitors, whose quality assurance plan will be reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency by the end of next year, gather air quality data throughout Weld County. This data is shared with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in hopes of assisting in data-driven decisions when if comes to regulatory policy air quality planning.

“We really wanted to show the legislators that Weld County has long-standing partnerships with regional entities to reduce traffic congestion and improve the overall commuting experience for northern Colorado,” said Weld County Commissioner Kevin Ross, who welcomed the group at the start of the tour by highlighting some of the collaborative efforts the county is involved in with air quality. “And we are really proud of the investment we have made in our air monitors, which will improve the data that goes into the modelling used to guide policy. We were encouraged to be able to share that information through the stop at one of our air monitor sites.”

Following presentations at CDOT Region 4, the tour concluded with a stop at a Chevron production facility, where legislators were able to see and ask questions directly to energy industry representatives.

“Our goal was to share information directly with the group charged with helping determine and design ways to improve air quality for all Coloradans,” said Ross. “Weld County has done a lot of  work on many fronts on this issue, and we are proud to be part of the conversation.”