Never before have we seen such a threat to the Western Slope’s air quality as we do now from oil and natural gas development. With more than 3,000 new wells expected to be drilled in Moffat County, more than 20,000 wells in Rio Blanco County and many more in Garfield and Mesa counties, we must pay close attention to how this development could degrade air quality enough to affect public health.

Currently, the Bureau of Land Management is completing an Environmental Protection Agency-mandated air quality assessment addressing how oil and gas drilling will impact Moffat and Routt county’s air quality as part of the BLM’s Little Snake resource management plan revision. The study fails to address the cumulative impacts of energy development on our regional air quality.

In November, Pinedale, Wyo., town Councilman David Smith visited the Yampa Valley to warn residents that Pinedale’s neighboring Jonah Field has degraded the town’s air quality to resemble the acrid pall that hangs over Beijing, prompting the EPA to issue an air quality warning there. Such a fate could easily befall the Yampa and Grand valleys if we choose to ignore the cumulative impacts of energy development throughout the Western Slope.

I urge you to pay close attention to the outcome of this air quality assessment lest our clean, crisp Rocky Mountain air become as dismal as the Beijing smog.