DRCOG aims to clear skies and reduce pollution

BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

The Denver Regional Council of Governments will receive $1 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to cut pollution and build clean energy economies across the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan statistical area.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced the news on May 3.

“This program, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, provides flexible planning resources to local governments, states, tribes and territories for climate solutions that protect communities from pollution and advance envi-

At Centennial Airport, a news release reads that 94UL fuel will be available by the summer of 2023, and the airport is incentivizing the transition to unleaded fuel.

ronmental justice,” a news release reads.

According to the news release, DRCOG will collaborate with municipalities and communities to create a climate action plan while focusing on low-income and disadvantaged communities.

The grants will be awarded and administered later this summer.

“This is the first step in a strategic effort to help our cities build common-sense solutions to reduce climate pollution,”reads EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker’s statement in the news release. “EPA looks forward to supporting locally-grown projects that will make Denver-area communities healthier and stronger.” you’re going to either, at a minimum damage the engine, or worse, cause a mishap with the engine failing in air,” he said.

Anslow said he’s con dent they will receive grants for a fuel tank, but the fuel truck is a di erent story. e FBOs would need to purchase them, but the airport is working on incentives to “legally o set those costs” if those costs are passed down to the consumer.

Robert Olislagers, the senior coordinator with the EAGLE Project, said that about 150,000 piston engine airplanes in the United States can use the 94UL fuel, which is about 68-70% of the aircraft.

At RMMA, there are 341 single-engine propeller planes, 70 multi-engine propeller planes, 43 jets and 21 helicopters according to Ben Miller, senior planner of RMMA. How many of those planes would be able to use UL 94, Airport Director Paul Anslow said he didn’t know.

Olislagers, who is the former airport director at Centennial Airport, said about half of the eet at Centennial eet can use unleaded fuel and that number is probably similar at RMMA.

“I don’t know if (RMMA) has already gone down that path (transitioning to 94UL) but I would assume that they are because that’s frankly the easiest way to begin the process of reducing (leaded) fuel and taking it out of the inventory,” Olislagers said.

He said that a potential reason why airports haven’t used the fuel in the past despite its availability is due to ease and cost. Anslow also pointed out it was recently approved, and it takes time to roll the fuel out.

“(Having one fuel at the airport) you only need one tank, one truck. If you’re going to have two tanks and two trucks with two di erent fuels, there are two issues with that: it increases cost and there’s always the possibility of miss fueling where you might put low-octane fuel in an airplane that needs high-octane fuel,” Olislagers said.

He also said a tank can cost as much as $250,000 if design, engineering, construction and buying are required, and a fueling truck can cost $100,000. He said the fuel is produced at a higher cost because the demand for it is lower.

“ e cost di erential is about $4 a gallon if we have the fuel delivered in … 350-gallon totes. And so the airport will be stepping up and paying that di erential to bring it in line with the cost of the low-lead fuel,” Mike Fronapfel, Centennial Airport’s CEO and executive director said. ose funds, however, come from a $4 million grant from the FAA that was set for a new air tra c control tower that the airport already budgeted for. With the new grant, Centennial will use its already budgeted funds to go towards the subsidies. RMMA doesn’t have that kind of cash on hand.

“We don’t have that $4 million, so we’re doing what we can,” he said.

Letters from Superior e news comes as the Town of Superior sent a letter addressed to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Je erson County Commissioners to make unleaded fuel available at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.

Contrary to the Town of Superior, Westminster will not be asking the Je erson County Commissioners and the Federal Aviation Administration to make unleaded fuel available at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.

According to City Spokesperson e letter said that nine Superior residents tested their homes for lead — two samples per household— and each came back positive.

Andy Le, the city is not planning to write a letter but pointed to a letter sent to the Environmental Protection Agency supporting their e orts in the endangerment nding regarding leaded fuel use at airports.

In the letter from Superior, the council asked for a timeline to phase out leaded aviation gasoline by May 18, 2023.

“ e Superior Town Board is concerned about the continuing and irreversible damage that lead air pollution from avgas in icts on our community – particularly to the health and development of exposed children,” the letter reads.

It also pointed to unleaded options that are already available and options that will be available in the future.

“Additionally, there is already a

94-octane unleaded fuel by Swift Fuels that has been approved for use by two-thirds of covered aircraft. Other fully unleaded fuel options are likely to be available for use by the entire piston-engine eet within the next several years,” the letter reads.

A more thorough analysis

Olislagers, who is working on the FAA’s EAGLE initiative, an e ort to eliminate leaded fuel from aviation use, said that although their timeline is to be lead-free by 2030, they are working to stay ahead of that timeline.

“We’re working on trying to stay ahead of the regulatory process,” he said.

He noted that it’s a long process and one of the steps is for the Environmental Protection Agency to nd an endangerment nding, which he said “will become a positive nding.” at will then trigger regulations from both the EPA and the FAA on leaded fuel.

According to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment spokesperson Gabi Johnson, lead levels in counties with regional airports are low.

“...based on a review of currently available county-wide data, we are not seeing an increase in blood lead levels among children who live in counties with regional airports,” she wrote in an email.

However, the department is conducting a more thorough analysis, similar to a study done in Santa Clara County, California with the Reid-Hillview Airport that found the levels of lead in children increased signi cantly the closer they were to the Reid-Hillview Airport. e study also found that children living downwind of the airport were even more likely to have signi cantly higher levels of lead in their blood.