by William Yellowtail -- Regional Administrator, US-EPA, Denver, Colorado A speech to over 500 Regulatory and EPA people at the Clean Air Conference - Estes Park, Colorado - September 29, 1994 "...most new cars are certified to emit no more than 3.4 grams per mile of carbon monoxide; in fact, here in Denver, the average vehicle presently on the road emits over 25 grams per mile [of carbon monoxide]. Mobile sources are also significant contributors to other air pollution problems including ozone, PM-10, air toxins and, unfortunately, much to our chagrin, the notorious Denver 'Brown Cloud.' "Well, what are we doing about all this? There are two ways to go about this solution: we make cars cleaner or we get people out of the cars . "Colorado adopted the nation's first oxygenated fuels program, and this paved the way for dozens of similar programs nationwide. We're proud that we tackled these programs head-on, here in Colorado. In fact, there are now three such programs in the region here, including not only Colorado, but in Montana and Utah. Colorado and Utah are on their way to implementing enhanced inspection and maintenance, using the so-called "I/M 240" test, which has grown out of the work done by the Colorado Department of Health. To find a better way to test the cars. This program has significant benefits for carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and NOX emissions. Utah is preparing to start a diesel line I/M program based on, once again, pioneering work done by Colorado and, of course, California. "Denver has adopted a ban of resale of older vehicles that have been impounded or abandoned. We considered, of course, a general impoundment if you will, or removal from the road of those older cars, and that is not politically feasible at this time. I want to come back to that notion after a bit, but it's just not feasible to do that. Unfortunately, the fleet turnover doesn't happen fast enough. If it were to make a real difference, it isn't going to happen tomorrow, unless we get fairly aggressive about what we do. "Denver has strongly supported alternative fuels for motor vehicles. We got buses that run on ethanol or natural gas, propane and even electricity. At Denver International Airport, with its heavy reliance on alternative fuels for ground service vehicles and shuttles and the like, we may have the cleanest airport in the world for its size. [Laughter] You're right, it emits zero right now. But that aside, and we mentioned sanding. We're moving toward cleaner sand and in fact, alternative de-icing materials in this snowy country. Street sweeping and paving of dirt roads is also helping to reduce particulate emissions that come from vehicle use. "But cleaning up cars and the roads is only half the solution; the other half, and in fact, the much more difficult half, involves getting people out of their cars. Here in the west it's the toughest thing in the world. The other part of our identity here is our sense of freedom, in fact, darn near obligation to get in the car and drive a block to the grocery store, much less drive wherever we want to drive. Because in fact we've grown up in a place where it's a long ways from anywhere to anywhere, and we've become very much reliant and victims of our cars. "People in Denver drive a total of 44 million miles a day. I can not comprehend that. And, worse yet, that figure is expected to grow to 63 million miles per day in the year 2015 -- 63 million miles a day. In addition, once again, back to Utah on the Wasatch front: they are one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, if not the fastest, and in fact several of their communities have been ranked and recognized in the top 10 of desirable places in the entire United States to live. "Growth is the enemy! This illustrates that vehicle traffic that comes with people that we measure as V.M.T. continues to rise at a faster and faster rate. And it's exacerbated by our socio-economic situation where many families have two wage earners nowadays; must have (my own family has), necessitating vehicle trips to two jobs instead of one, and often times as well to the day care center out of the way. More people are taking part in activities outside the home. We are a more and more mobile community. "Very simply, once again, our challenge is: We have more people driving more cars and more miles. The average new car is equipped with over $700 of emissions controls. In Denver that's an investment of almost $1 1/2 billion dollars in vehicle emissions controls. That blows me away, and yet we [still] have the "Brown Cloud." The benefits of that kind of investments are being essentially negated and overrun by growth and traffic. Air quality and transportation planners project that in 2015, Denver and other cities will experience greater levels of almost all the pollutants that we are struggling with today unless something is done to reverse this trend. There's your challenge - our challenge. "The situation is made more critical by the Clean Air Act's conformity requirements, and these are things I'm personally trying to learn, as are the communities and states with whom we've worked. These will prohibit the construction of highway and transit projects until it can be shown that emissions from these projects won't jeopardize attainment and maintenance of air quality standards over the long term. So our modeling and our projection are key, and our planning. I noticed by recent newspaper articles, but once again, the Municipal governments in and around Denver are very serious in planning their growth patterns over the next 25 years, understanding full well that Air Quality will be the crux of their success. "Further: Denver's first light rail system will open next month. We're quite proud of this. A similar system, by the way, is on the drawing board for Salt Lake City. We have a new bus transfer system operating in connection with the oncoming light rail which will actually remove 400 bus trips a day in downtown Denver. A remarkable gain for us. A big investment, but remarkable gain. In the future, Denver plans to extend the light rail system to the southwest part of the city where there is much of the residential load. And then potentially, and in fact, ultimately likely, a similar extension to the north and the east, which will serve the new Denver International Airport (supposing we ever get the bags transported). Then in fact, in Denver, the current 2015 transportation plan contains over 600 million dollars worth of rapid transit and light rail. We are doing our very best to be forward thinking and to make the necessary investment. "It's interesting as you drive through Denver now; just in these last few days, we now have a system of high-occupancy vehicle lanes allowing buses and car pools to bypass congested traffic. The new downtown express route that opened just this month allows buses to speed past snarled traffic in the notorious 'mouse trap' interchange, and soon a new carpool-only lane will open downtown to the south part of the city. "Once again, our other challenger on the Wasatch front is developing a trip reduction program aimed at federal, state and local government employees. The goal of that project is to reduce commuting trips by these employees by 20% -- a substantial contribution in that troubled area. I'm quite proud to say that EPA has invested in the Denver Regional Transportation District system (the RTD system), [the] 'Ecopass' system. That is a yearly bus pass provided to all our employees at a reduced rate. And, in fact, more and more companies in Denver are investing in the Ecopass system. EPA joined us a couple years ago and our bus ridership among our employees has increased 47%. In fact, now, over 60,000 workers in the Denver / Boulder area have an Ecopass and enjoy unlimited free bus service. I live 30 miles out, southwest of Denver, and enjoy the Ecopass service myself, with great bus service that comes clear out into the mountains there. "Progress is being made in the rural area itself. For example, the Aspen air quality plan includes high parking fees, across-town bus service, and a remote parking lot to reduce traffic in the downtown area. Planned expansion of Highway 82 into town will include HOV lanes to encourage carpooling, even int  Aspen. Once again, this has not happened necessarily on its own, and we have found that this is, unfortunately, the case in many of our air-troubled areas. This is an outgrowth of the Clean Air Act, in this case the Aspen PM10 State Implementation Plan.