EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Brendan Blanchard’s name

Winds carry air pollutants into Boulder County from oil and natural gas development, likely in Weld County, according to local researchers.

More than a year ago, University of Colorado researchers embarked on a project to track Boulder’s air quality that is sponsored by Boulder County Public Health and in partnership with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Since then, a system of instruments in a nondescript white shed next to Boulder Reservoir has quietly collected tens of thousands of data points about 19 air pollutant compounds in the atmosphere.

Earlier this month, the researchers announced one of their biggest and clearest findings: There is a strong correlation between northeasterly winds from Weld County and levels of petroleum hydrocarbons — such as methane, ethane and propane — in Boulder’s air.

“I am very surprised how obvious and predominant that signal is,” said Detlev Helmig, an associate professor at CU’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and the project’s lead investigator. “I didn’t think it would be that strong. This is so obvious. It’s so clear. It didn’t take a whole lot of detective work to show these dependencies.”

Helmig compared the various pollutants in the air to a trail mix of nuts, M&Ms and pieces of fruit. When winds blow from Weld County, he said, the trail mix is dominated by one type of nut: the petroleum hydrocarbons.

Petroleum hydrocarbons are a type of volatile organic compounds, which can negatively affect the air quality and produce ozone, which in turn is bad for public health. In the short term, breathing ground-level ozone can cause coughing, throat irritation and chest tightness, CU noted in a story about the project. In the long term, it can increase rates of illness and death.

VOCs “are a major ingredient driving the ozone production in the region,” Helmig said. “That’s, in the wider scale, the number one air pollutant that affects by far the highest number of people in this region, from a health perspective.”

‘A big industrial operation’

Through their work, Helmig and the other researchers were able to show the spikes in petroleum hydrocarbons are most likely from Weld County oil and gas operations, which usually use heavy equipment, generate power on-site and have high truck traffic, all of which create pollution.

“In all of these steps, it’s a big industrial operation,” Helmig said. “There are potential emissions all along the sequence of production steps.”

Urban emissions and vehicles appear to be smaller sources of VOCs, the researchers said.

Cindy Copeland, a Boulder County air quality specialist, said county officials wanted to use the study to get a better idea of the pollution sources here, and they have already presented preliminary data to the state. They plan to analyze the data further to pinpoint more specifics they can use to improve air quality in collaboration with the state.

“We have been actively engaged with the state’s processes for continuing to reduce emissions from any source,” Copeland said. “One of our big areas of concern is the ozone problem.”

Copeland said many people don’t realize the area has an ozone problem, and they can contribute to the solution by driving less, especially during summer afternoons as temperatures rise.

‘Added sense of purpose’

Another element of the project is that data is collected each hour and subsequently posted to a website that anyone can visit. The team wrote scripts for the data to post to the website automatically, but they have to troubleshoot when errors in the code arise. And they have a sense of urgency because they receive calls and emails from the public if they don’t address the issue quickly. Helmig said this project has generated the most public interest of any of his research projects over the course of decades.

“What has happened in this case, which we’ve never had before, sometimes if things go wrong or stall we get calls or emails from citizens within a few hours. The people are watching that day and night,” Helmig said, adding that people use the data to decide whether to venture outside their homes for a hike or other outdoor activity.

The website has received more than 10,000 visits over the past year. Brendan Blanchard, a professional research assistant, has helped to keep the website running and improving, among other tasks.

“There is an added sense of purpose, but it does come with pressure,” Blanchard said. “It’s good to be interacting with the public and see that it has a much more direct effect than writing a paper that gets read and cited by 50, 100, 200 scientists. This is reaching a couple hundred people a week, at least. That really adds into the effect it has when the website is down for two hours, let alone two days.”

The project is funded through September, and the group is looking for new funding to keep it going beyond then. Helmig said he hopes the existing data can inform legislators when they draft regulations to target certain emissions and to help them achieve air quality goals.

He’d like to continue collecting data to measure whether those regulations work, too.

“You need to watch it,” he said. “Otherwise, you’re just hoping.”

To see the data in real time, visit: instaar.colorado.edu/arl/boulder_reservoir.html.

Cassa Niedringhaus: 303-473-1106, cniedringhaus@dailycamera.com