Whistleblowers ask AG to expand probe into Colorado air pollution division
Attorneys for the whistleblowing state air pollution division employees late Friday asked the Colorado Attorney General’s Office to broadly expand the scope of its previously announced investigation into the state health department’s handling of numerous industry permits.
The whistleblowers currently or formerly employed by the Air Pollution Control Division, who have grown from three to five since the complaint first went public March 30, want the AG’s investigation to include new allegations about the state’s handling of multiple coal-fired power plants and Newmont Mining’s Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine in Teller County.
The whistleblowers claim the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment “has not only done a disservice to Colorado’s public, but has unnecessarily endangered their health and wellbeing by exposing them to high levels of air pollution that could and should have been prevented,” according to their attorneys at the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
The original whistleblower action asked the EPA’s Office of Inspector General to investigate their allegations that air pollution supervisors unlawfully told pollution modelers to ignore federal law in drawing up industry permits, and also demanded the use of bad data to get permits to fit under EPA emission limits. CDPHE says it asked Attorney General Phil Weiser to launch a state probe of those claims; environmental and social justice groups also petitioned Weiser for an investigation.
Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2021/05/07/pollution-whistleblowers-seek-expanded-colorado-probe/
