Background Information
Commerce City-North Denver (CC-ND) experiences many environmental justice issues, including a high concentration of polluting industries, multiple high-traffic roadways, and legacy pollution sources such as the VB/I-70 Superfund site. It is a diverse community that has lived through industry changes, major highway construction, and the evolution of historic contamination sites. Past work by Tracking identified that the CC-ND area had higher levels of fine particle pollution than in the state overall or in other communities of similar socioeconomic demographics.
What was CO Tracking’s role?
The Colorado Tracking Program pulled together information from other state and local agencies, including the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, to identify the air quality data available for the CC-ND area and the location of all the air monitors in the area, as well as typical meteorology and major emission sources.
What product or output came from CO Tracking’s role?
Created interactive maps showing the location of air pollution monitors in the CC-ND areas and their relationship with major pollution sources.
What action or decision was taken to resolve the problem?
The map Tracking created was used by Colorado's Oil and Gas Health Information and Response Program (OGHIR) to find sites to collect additional air quality measurements that were far away from existing monitors.
What was the outcome of this action or decision?
The Colorado Air Monitoring Mobile Lab took measurements in the CC-ND area for 9 weeks. Tracking collaborated with CDPHE's Toxicology and Risk Assessment group to analyze the data for potential health effects and to compare the measurements against air pollution in other areas of the state. The data and analysis were published on Tracking's bilingual data dashboard about environment public health in the Commerce City - North Denver area.