Even while dealing with the wastewater spill on the Animas River, the EPA is preparing for the rollout of updated standards on carbon emissions and ground-level ozone.

It’s an issue that brought Ron Carleton, EPA’s counselor to the administrator for agricultural policy, to Denver this week.

Carleton spoke to The Colorado Statesman about the updates, and the Obama administration’s new Clean Power Plan, which was finalized on Aug. 3.

The Clean Power Plan is the first national effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, primarily those that rely on coal. The plan has a target of shrinking emissions 32 percent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.

Each state is required to develop its own reduction plan by next year to meet interim EPA targets in 2022. Colorado is among 10 states required to cut its emissions by 40 percent, compared to 2012 levels. Gov. John Hickenlooper, in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in May, said while meeting the reduction will be a challenge, the state intends to develop a compliant plan.

Carleton, who until January was the deputy commissioner of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, told The Statesman Colorado is well-positioned with regard to the Clean Power Plan. Colorado is in a leadership role to meet its targets, he said. He pointed to the state’s move toward renewables, required by voters a decade ago and the General Assembly in 2013.

“Colorado has done an outstanding job in being forward on the possibility of renewable energy and acting on it,” he explained.

The biggest concern he’s heard from the agriculture industry is over the impact the Clean Power Plan could have on electricity rates. But he believes long-term, utility rates and the environment will benefit from the plan. Short-term, Carleton hopes the impact on agriculture will be limited.

He said the industry was skeptical about climate change five to 10 years ago. There’s more acceptance of the idea today. “We in agriculture need to consider these important questions with regard to mitigation and adaptation,” Carleton noted. The EPA and the industry are now talking about sustainability practices that would better prepare agriculture for changing conditions, whether shifts in precipitation patterns, more intense weather events or drought, bringing in pests and invasive species.

Next on the EPA’s agenda: the roll-out of updated standards on ground-level ozone, produced primarily by combustion engines, when nitrogen oxide mixes with volatile organic compounds.

Federal law requires ozone standards be updated every five years, however the last update occurred in 2008.

Environmental groups sued the EPA last year when the standards were not updated on time. The current standard is 75 parts-per-billion; the proposed updated standard is within the range of 65 PPB to 70 PPB.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is fighting the new standard, says many major cities and counties haven’t been able to comply with the current standard. In Colorado, that includes Denver and most of the northern Front Range. Much of the nation will struggle to comply with the new standard, the Chamber adds.

Carleton said reducing the amount of ground-level ozone will reduce the incidence of health problems from ozone and smog, such as premature deaths and respiratory illnesses.

He explained that ground-level ozone is in the air people breathe, but the nation is at a point in its environmental situation where people usually can’t see the particulates. But they’re still there. “We still have unhealthful levels of ozone,” he said.

Once the standard is formally adopted, which is required to happen no later than Oct. 1 under the lawsuit, states will have to figure out the sources of ozone and how to address the reductions, Carleton noted.

“It’s a plan based on the best available science,” Carleton said.

Carleton also is working on changes to the Clean Water Act, which will go into effect on Aug. 27. Under the revised Act, also known as Waters of the US, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers would assert jurisdiction and regulatory authority over waters that do not connect to navigable waterways. That could include intermittent streams and wetlands, isolated ponds and marshes, flood plains and seasonal flows.

Carleton believes the rules will have little impact on agriculture, and few requirements that farmers and ranchers would have to get special permits to use the water on their lands. “Agriculture will be protected in many ways from having to get permits,” he said.

– Marianne@coloradostatesman.com