Colorado pursues better air pollution monitoring in ‘disproportionately impacted communities’

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — It’s been more than two years since Colorado passed the Environmental Justice Act, establishing the right for all Coloradans to clean air and water. But for environmental activists who live near areas were pollution is worse in the Front Range, the state isn’t keeping up with the goals as outlined in the law.

Such is the case for people who live near the Dahlia Trailhead in Commerce City, where the path winds along the Sand Creek and beside polluters like the Suncor Refinery.

“A lot of our Black and brown communities are placed in these areas that are disproportionately impacted by air quality,” said Shaina Oliver, an activist with Moms Clean Air Force who lives northeast of Denver in an area that was once a superfund site and where highway expansions and industries pollute the air.

Oliver is also a tribal member of the Navajo Nation, and said the rights of Native Americans are undermined once they move away from reservations.

“Native Americans that move from the reservations to the urban cities, we are placed in these disproportionately impacted areas,” she said. “A lot of our rights get undermined because we’re off the reservation.”

Oliver lives with asthma, as did her grandparents, and now her son. That’s why she started advocating for Colorado to pass more environmental justice laws and make progress implementing them.

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