Neighboring residents continue to seek relief from what they say is diminished air quality caused by gravel pit operations between Glenwood Springs and Carbondale. 

In response, Garfield County Public Health on Monday proposed to county commissioners a project that could eventually establish mobile-camera devices, monitoring stations and more in the vicinity of Sievers Gravel Pit. 

Sievers Gravel Pit, operated by CRH Americas Materials (a subsidiary of United CRH), is on Garfield County Road 109 near Aspen Glen and Teller Springs residential subdivisions. It is a go-to site for contractors operating in Pitkin and Garfield counties.

---

---

The scope of work, according to Garfield County Environmental Health Manager Jannette Whitcomb, was first initiated by the Board of Health in January. It consists of a five-step process with an estimated price tag of $122,490.

Since then, Whitcomb said county staff has been working to understand pit operations and the permitting process with the help of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Air Quality Pollution Control Division. This has also consisted of making site visits to Sievers.

---

---

“During one of those site visits, I noticed United’s wash plant emanating blue smoke out of their generator for the power supply of that wash plant,” Whitcomb said. “I was able to connect with the state health department and find out that that is exempt from permitting. However, blue smoke is not good.”

Whitcomb said she then addressed the blue smoke with CRH Americas Environmental and Resource Manager Jason Burkey, “And they did an investigation and found that that generator was not operating correctly and have switched that out. So, we have made some small improvements to that site.”

The five-step process, which are being distinguished as modules 1-5, is a fairly complex system of equipment and gadgets. After completion of the first module — this includes establishing a web-based questionnaire for residents — the plan is to specifically deploy visual, meteorological, fine particulate and mobile monitoring networks able to detect anything from visual and wind conditions to air particles. The final step in the project also aims to establish an environmental enclosure in the area, which can “provide the necessary temperature control and protection from the elements for a variety of different gas analyzers,” county documents state.

“This statement of work is laid out such that staff can provide (commissioners) a process to obtain quantitative data with citizen input to inform your decisions on resources,” Whitcomb said, noting this data from Sievers can be used as an example for other regions of Garfield County. “What I have put together is something that can be replicated for other areas of our county and communities that might have air-quality concerns.

“We’re using Sievers pit kind of the pilot.” 

Conducting a questionnaire while establishing new air-quality monitoring stations will be conducive to identifying what community members are specifically concerned about, according to Emily Vanden Hoek. Vanden Hoek is a Project Scientist at Air Resource Specialists, the company offering the scope of work for Garfield County.

“Citizens will be able to go in and provide information on the types of things that they’re seeing, or smelling or hearing, in terms of plumes or haze or odor complaints,” she said of the project’s first phase.

Garfield County commissioners responded by noting that the county has used air-quality monitoring stations since the 2000s in relation to oil and gas development. This led to questions about whether the equipment Air Resource Specialists is proposing to use will be inherited permanently by the county or leased, and if the county has to hire more personnel to operate it.

“I’ve said many times, I think Garfield County spends more money on air-quality control than any other county in the state,” Commissioner Mike Samson said.

Commissioner Tom Jankovsky also suggested the county pay for some parts of the package.

“We can break this into (parts) and look at these different modules, and not have to take the whole package on this,” he said.

Commission chair John Martin directed public health to first pursue module one and get the information needed “so you can take the next step without overkill.”

“The whole complaint has been dust and smell down at Sievers pit, and that’s what we need to be concentrating on,” he said. “We also had a dust problem down in Carbondale at one time because of other pits that are along (Colorado) Highway 82. They have subsided.”

Did you know?

There are two long-standing air-quality monitoring stations in Garfield County: One in Rifle and one in Parachute, according to Garfield County Environmental Health Specialist Edward White.

“One of the things that we monitor for are criteria pollutants,” he said. “Criteria pollutants are specific pollutants regulated by EPA which are considered harmful to human health in the environment.”

Criteria pollutants consist of particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. 

The two criteria air pollutants Garfield County monitored in 2022 were ozone and particulate matter. Based on a 0-500 measurement called the Air Quality Index (AQI) — with 500 being the unhealthiest measure — there have been two days Garfield County has experienced an unhealthy AQI, and 15 days of unhealthy for sensitive groups, since 2018. The majority of days have been good to moderate AQI, White’s data show, which they attributed to wildfires.

“Garfield County did not experience any unhealthy or for sensitive groups, unhealthy or hazardous  AQI days for ozone or particulate matter in 2022,” White said.

Meanwhile, due to state rule-making, Garfield County just this year also reactivated monitoring stations in Battlement Mesa and Carbondale. They too don’t show any air quality violations for ozone standards in Garfield County.

Air quality reports are available on the county website at http://www.garfield-county.com/air-quality/.