SUMMARY

This petition is in protest of the Broomfield Council's decision on October 17, 2023, to change its air quality monitoring program by cancelling the 2024 contract for Boulder AIR and to continue the 2024 contract for Ajax Analytics. We believe this is an extremely wrong decision for the reasons listed below.  We hope you will sign this petition to convince the Broomfield Council to change this decision by doing the opposite: cancel the Ajax Analytics contract and continue the Boulder AIR contract.  

It is completely unclear why the Council would approve the Ajax contract but not Boulder AIR for the following reasons (please see the Additional Details and Supporting Content for explanation):

·         COSTS:  The Ajax AQM is significantly more expensive than industry standard.

·         QUALITY OF RESULTS:  The monitoring produces questionable results due to the poor performance from environmental effects on PIDs (photoionization detectors) and half of the results are tossed out.  How does this protect our Health and Safety?

·         UNACCEPTABLE ANALYSIS TIME:  It requires weeks to get the analysis results.

·         LONG LEAD TIME ON CANISTER REPLACEMENT AND MILLIVOLT SETTING:  Ajax most likely misses critical data from air pollution plumes waiting up to 48 hours for a trigger canister replacement after opening the canister.   Changing the millivolt setting indicates this is an experimental monitoring project.

·         CITIZEN AQM:  Citizens want the Boulder AIR AQM because it protects the health and safety of citizens that live near the wells, is not a R&D experimental project with questionable results, provides real time results, and it costs less. Pollutants are measured continuously, and data are reported in accurate concentrations to a website that is easy to understand (https://www.bouldair.com/broomfield.htm).  More hazardous pollutants are monitored with accurate instruments, including ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, methane, and VOCs, including benzene. We request that citizen’s and experts’ input be prioritized over staff and be considered by council.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS AND SUPPORTING CONTENT:

COSTS:

Close to 4 million dollars ($3,845,892 2018-2023) has been spent on Ajax contracts.  The Ajax contract does not protect the health and safety of citizens which is the entire point of this taxpayer funded air monitoring program.  The City and County of Broomfield (CCOB) will now spend another $430,515 for the Ajax 2024 contract which far exceeds market pricing of the included services.  The majority of the budget appears to go to the 260 weekly average canisters.  This contract should be open for other competitive bids. Ajax is to be paid some 3 – 5 times more than the industry average for the analysis of the weekly average Summa canisters.  These weekly averaged samples have very little value as they are unsuitable to identify the high concentration pollution plumes as air is averaged over a long time.  The majority of the $430,515 seems to be spent on the 260 weekly canisters which lack value in the production phase. The contract also includes some 10-15 trigger canister sampling.  Last year, the Ajax trigger canister sampling identified less than half of the Boulder AIR identified oil and gas plumes.  Boulder AIR can perform the same scope of work for less than half the Ajax contract costs because Boulder AIR charges the standard industry rate, around $300 - $350 per canister for Summa canister analysis rather than the three to five times higher rate that Ajax charges (around $1500 per canister).  

There are many alternatives to the Ajax PID samplers.  For instance, the company SGS (SGS.com) will rent the PID trigger canister systems for $1150 per month which would be $69,000 per year for the five stations in the Ajax contract.   Why does CCOB spend 3-4 times more of our taxpayer money than necessary for a vendor that has a documented record of problems with their instruments and has to toss out half of the trigger canister data?

QUALITY OF RESULTS:  

PIDs are affected by humidity, temperature, wind, and particulates leading to questionable results well documented in Broomfield’s own Dashboard over the years (this also includes the archived Dashboard).  When citizens complained, we were told the Ajax AQM was a R&D (research and development) experimental program. Half of the data has to be tossed out due to problems which is not the norm for any monitoring program.  The AQM should not be an R&D research project as the safety and health of citizens is at stake.   It is unclear how the Ajax AQM can protect the health and safety of citizens when the results are questionable.    

Boulder AIR is not an experimental AQM and provides measurements that follow EPA approved regulatory equipment and protocols.  The Boulder AIR monitoring provides real concentration data about the most important pollutants, including benzene, ozone and PM2.5, which are EPA regulated primary criteria pollutants.  Their data are valid to determine compliance with EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Their measurements do not have interferences from humidity, temperature, and wind.  Boulder AIR reports air pollution concentration data in an easily understandable format to public websites within minutes after the recordings so that citizens can immediately use this information and make decisions about exercising outside, taking asthma medications, or wearing masks to protect their health.  The Broomfield data on the Boulder AIR websites have been looked up more than 30,000 times. The data also can be used for immediately notifying authorities about pollution events and spills for immediate action to protect the people.  Boulder AIR data have been used by CDPHE and the EPA for improving air quality laws and regulations.  

UNACCEPTABLE ANAYLSIS TIME:  

Ajax Summa canisters take weeks to get the analysis results back and this is unacceptable.  People want to know if they can go outside or should remain inside their homes.  Boulder AIR provides real time results which citizens want.

LONG LEAD TIME ON CANISTER REPLACEMENT AND MILLIVOLT SETTING:

After a trigger canister has been sampled, citizens have to wait for a canister replacement for up to 48 hours.  This 48-hour replacement can result in the loss of important data as air pollution continues to be released.  The Ajax sampling makes this problem worse by taking a sample on the early shoulder of the concentration spike, which will most likely lead to a lower concentration sample in the canister than the actually encountered maximum pollutant concentration.   A canister that is opened on the oncoming shoulder of a peak is unlikely to capture the full amounts of the concentration.  In addition, the opening millivolts setting should not be changed from canister to canister as it would in an R&D project.

CITIZEN AQM:

Citizens want the Boulder AIR AQM at the current locations of Soaring Eagle and Pecos.   CCOB should be listening to the citizens and yet they are not.  There was no citizen input for cancelling the Boulder AIR contract on October 17, 2023.  Many citizens and experts have spoken out at council meetings or sent in letters to council.  Boulder AIR is less expensive and what the citizens want.  We request that citizen’s as well as the experts’ input be prioritized and considered by council.

Petition photograph:  In recognition of the accomplishments and contributions of the air monitoring at the Broomfield Soaring Eagle park by Boulder AIR, the location of the monitoring station was chosen for the signing of Senate Bill 20-204: "Additional Resources to Protect Air Quality".  The photograph shows Governor Jared Polis, with the bill sponsors senate leader Stephen Fenberg, and Dominique Jackson, and Yadira Caraveo behind him at the Soaring Eagle Park monitoring site."