Welcome to the Four Corners Air Quality Group home page!

The Four Corners Air Quality Group is a forum for individuals interested in air quality to meet, learn about current conditions, review progress on mitigation of air quality impacts, and generally contribute to clean air in the Four Corners area.

The Group meets at least once per year and more often if circumstances warrant it. The Group is convened by the States of Colorado and New Mexico, with the support of a range of state, tribal and federal agencies.

To join the Four Corners Air Quality Group, please sign up. You will be notified of meetings and other important air quality information affecting the Four Corners area.

Four Corners Air Quality Related Announcements

• November 2011 - Another peer reviewed paper related to our Four Corners Air Quality Task Force work has been published in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring, "Passive ammonia monitoring in the United States:  Comparing three different sampling devices.” Here is also a link to supplemental information on the study.  

• Proposed OG NSPS and NESHAPs – Extension of public comment period until Nov 30, 2011: “EPA extends public comment period for oil and natural gas proposed rule – EPA is granting requests for a 30-day extension to the public comment period for the Agency's proposed standards to reduce air pollution from oil and natural gas drilling operations. The public comment period will now close on November 30, 2011.” More info is available on the EPA website here: http://www.epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/actions.html 
• September 22, 2011 - EPA clarifies the status of the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and outlines implementation steps moving forward.
  • Memo (PDF) (988kb, 4pp)
  • Table (PDF) (50kb, 2 pp)

  For more information on  the ozone standard you may visit the EPA website here: http://www.epa.gov/airquality/ozonepollution/

• Sept 2011: The San Juan Public Lands Center (SJPLC) has released a new supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) for the San Juan Plan Revision.  The Draft EIS Supplement is available for review and comment. It covers some areas in Southwest Colorado including new projections for the Gothic Shale Gas Play and some new air quality model results. The Supplement & supporting documents (e.g., the revised Reasonable Foreseeable Development scenario and air quality technical support document) & info on open houses are available online at http://ocs.fortlewis.edu/forestplan. 

• Sept 2, 2011: For your information, President Barack Obama issued a statement today saying that he has requested that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson withdraw the reconsideration of the 2008 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards.  Here is the press release from the White House:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/02/statement-president-ozone-national-ambient-air-quality-standards . EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has also released a statement on the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards available here: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/1e5ab1124055f3b28525781f0042ed40/e41fbc47e7ff4f13852578ff00552bf8!OpenDocument

• The Navajo Nation EPA (NNEPA) 2011 Environmental Conference was held August 23 - 25, 2011 at the Navajo Nation Museum located in Window Rock, AZ. Video and presentations from the conference are available here: http://www.navajonationepa.org/conference.html . 

• July 28, 2011: For your information, today EPA proposed new standards for oil and gas drilling operations.  Here is a link to the page with the proposed rules: http://epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/actions.html .

• Smoke from wildfires (updated June 7, 2011):
  • National Weather Service site that provides an overview of New Mexico weather forecast and updated info on smoke plume and air quality alert:
  • http://www.srh.noaa.gov/abq/  (overview and plume)
  • http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=abq&wwa=air quality alert (alert)
  • June 3 press release “Dept. of Health Advises Residents to Take Precautions with Smoke from Wildfires”
    • If heavy smoke is visible or can be smelled people should avoid outdoor activities

• On June 2,2011 the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board voted unanimously to approve the New Mexico Environment Department's proposed Regional Haze State Implementation Plan, as well as the State Implementation Plan for the good neighbor provisions related to visibility for the 1997 ozone and PM 2.5 standards." The plan is available here: http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/aqb/reghaz/Regional-Haze_index.html.

• "Passive Monitoring of Ambient Reactive Gaseous Mercury in the Four Corners Area and Eastern Oklahoma" This presentation (available here: http://nadp.isws.illinois.edu/meetings/fall2010/post/session4.html) summarizes the first year of a two year air monitoring project estimating reactive gaseous mercury (RGM, a.k.a. gaseous oxidized mercury, GOM) dry deposition rates in the Four Corners area and eastern Oklahoma. The project collaborators include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6, EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD), Frontier Global Sciences, Alion, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), the National Park Service (NPS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Jemez Pueblo, and the Cherokee Nation.

• "EPA Supplements October 2010 Proposal for Best Available Retrofit Technology for Four Corners Power Plant with Alternative Option" The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes to allow Four Corners Power Plant (FCPP) to close Units 1 – 3 by 2014 and to meet a NOx limit of 0.098 lb/MMBtu on Units 4 and 5 by July 31, 2018, achievable with the installation and operation of selective catalytic reduction (SCR), in lieu of meeting the emission limits in our October 19, 2010 proposed rulemaking for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM). EPA’s analysis of this alternative emission control strategy is included in the Supplemental Notice.  For more information regarding the four public hearing events scheduled for the week of March 28, 2011, or to download the signed supplemental notice, please see the website at: http://www.epa.gov/region9/air/navajo/index.html#proposed

• March 16, 2011: EPA proposes Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing standards to limit mercury, acid gases and other toxic pollution from power plants.
  • Proposed Rule (PDF) (172pp, 1.2 MB) Note: Pages 25014 and 25069 of the signed proposed rule contain references to proprietary technology. EPA included these references merely to illustrate that the technologies under discussion are commercially available. EPA and the U.S. government do not endorse any of the listed products.
  • Fact Sheet Summarizing the Proposed Rule (PDF) (5pp, 93k) - Updated May 4, 2011
  • Overview Presentation (PDF) (18pp, 797k)
  • Overview Fact Sheet (PDF) (5pp, 48k)
  • Regulatory Impact Analysis
  • Integrated Planning Model (IPM) Analysis

• EPA Holds Open House and Public Hearing on New Mexico Regional Haze. On Thursday, February 17, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held an open house and public hearing on New Mexico’s proposed clean air plan.  The hearing provided interested parties with the opportunity to present views or arguments concerning the proposed clean air plan. To view the Federal Register Notice visit:  http://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/pdf/frn_nm_vis_fip_122110.pdf

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed to strengthen the national ambient air quality standards for ground-level ozone.  More supplementary info on the proposal is available at the EPA website here: http://www.epa.gov/air/ozonepollution/actions.html#jan10s.

• A peer reviewed paper has been published in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring on "Baseline ambient gaseous ammonia concentrations in the Four Corners area and eastern Oklahoma, USA," September 25, 2008.  The study was related to our Four Corners Air Quality Task Force work