Construction debate in the air

   Some may call it progress - rebuilt roads and bridges, new hospitals and shopping centers and sprawling housing subdivisions - but all the growth in Colorado Springs could be choking more than traffic.

   Emissions from diesel-burning construction equipment have been identified as a major source of air pollution, and El Paso County has the second-highest number of registered equipment in the state, behind Adams County, at 5,963 pieces.

   While federal regulations taking effect this year limit emissions from new equipment, and pieces built since 2000 burn much cleaner, they don't cover the many older bulldozers and backhoes in use.

   As Colorado grapples with ways to curb emissions that cause pollution and global warming, some lawmakers are focusing on construction. A controversial bill in the Legislature would require older equipment to meet the federal standards for new vehicles.

   So great was the opposition from contractors, farmers, mining companies and local governments, the bill was stripped of its teeth: fines for operators who don't comply.

   "I was kind of surprised at the reaction of the operators," said the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Randy Fischer, a Democrat from Fort Collins. "I was thinking they might actually embrace this way of upgrading their equipment."

   The debate is particularly timely. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue ozone standards this month that could put El Paso County out of compliance. If that happens, officials could reinstate mandatory emissions testing for cars, which was halted last year, impose new restrictions on power plants or take other measures.
   Limits on construction emissions is another possibility.

   "Air is free, but people have a right to breathe in quality air and this bill would take some steps to improve the air quality," said Natalia Swalnick, air quality manager with the American Lung Association of Colorado, which supports the measure.

   The EPA is implementing tougher standards for new equipment from this year through 2013 for nitrogen oxide and particulate matter, particles in the air that can also cause lung problems.

   According to the EPA, construction equipment creates 44 percent of land-based particulate matter. A 175-horsepower bulldozer generates the same amount as 500 cars.

   But supporters of the bill point out that, given the long lives of construction equipment, it will take until 2030 until the older equipment is no longer in use.

   A Colorado Legislative Council analysis of the bill found that most equipment made before 2000 - about half of what's being used in Colorado - wouldn't meet the new standards without a retrofit.
   For Jeff Bowman, fleet operations manager for the city of Colorado Springs, the cost to retrofit is a troubling unknown.

   The city, including Colorado Springs Utilities, has 424 pieces of construction equipment - backhoes, bulldozers, mixers and even a Zamboni - 190 of which were made before 2000. Some estimates put the cost to retrofit larger pieces as high as $25,000 for larger pieces.

   "There are parts of this that are unknown, and the unknown costs are what's worrisome - for Colorado Springs Utilities rate payers and city taxpayers," Bowman said.
   Contractors and builders are split on the measure.

   Tony Milo, executive director of the Colorado Contractors Association, said Fischer's measure would hurt smaller operators, who have been affected by the housing slowdown.

   "Not only do they have dozens of pieces of iron sitting idle because of the slump in the housing market, they would be required to invest hundreds of thousands into the equipment they have sitting idle," Milo said.
   "It will absolutely push some contractors completely out of business or send them out of state to look for work."

   Jim Johnson, president and CEO of GE Johnson Construction Company, said 30 percent of his company's 100 pieces would not meet the standards in the legislation. Rather than retrofit them, he said the company would probably sell them out of state and buy new equipment.
   But he is OK with the idea.
   "I don't have a problem running clean equipment, philosophically or practically," Johnson said.

   Jeff Dwire, general manager of Dwire Earthmoving and Excavating in Colorado Springs, is the one who first approached Fischer about sponsoring the legislation. He has been replacing his equipment with low-emission pieces since 1999, and said he has cut the equivalent of pollution from 40,000 cars.
   "It just, to me, is so easy to clean up," Dwire said. "It's not like we're going out to change the world."
   Dwire said the industry is not doing its part to cut pollution.
   "That attainment is being done on the backs of the average citizen," Dwire said. "Construction isn't doing anything to help us out."

   The rewritten measure Fischer came up with has not been greeted with enthusiasm, either. He now proposes a $25 fee per piece of equipment, to go into a fund to help companies pay for the cost of retrofitting equipment.

   "It would be kind of a selffunding program, but the idea was to kind of put money in the bank to allow them to upgrade their engines in a a shorter time frame than they would have otherwise," Fischer said.

   Said Milo, of the Colorado Contractors Association: "Our members are astounded that they would be taxed by the state in order to subsidize their competitors' equipment upgrades."
   The bill is not scheduled for a vote.

   El Paso County is in compliance with EPA standards, but the EPA could lower smog limits to 70-75 parts per billion. Monitoring stations here have readings as high as 72 and 73, which would place the county out of compliance.

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