By	Email	Only

September	18,	2015

Monica	Morales,	Unit	Chief Air	Quality	Planning	Unit 1595	Wynkoop	St.	(8P

- AR) Denver,	CO	80202

Re: Federal	District	Court March 2,	2015 Consent	Decree	Requiring	Sulfur	Dioxide Non/Attainment	Designation	Surrounding	Downtown	Colorado	Springs	Martin	Drake
Power	Plant

Dear	Ms.	Morales, I	am	writing	to	you	regarding	the recent recommendation	by	the	Colorado	Department	of	Health

and	E nvironment’s (CDPHE) that	the	Colorado	Springs	area	be	designated	as	“unclassifiable”	with regard	to	the	NAAQS	1	hour	standard	for	sulfur	dioxide	emissions.

I	will	keep	this	brief,	as	m any	citizens (including	myself) have already submitted	comments	to	t he State	of	Colorado	in	support	of	the	professional	modeling	that	has	been	conducted showing	that	our area	around	the	Martin	Drake	Downtown	Colorado	Springs	Coal	Plant has	many	occurrences	of
violations	of	the	1	hour SO2 standard.		I	trust	that	CDPHE	will make	those	public	comments available	to	you for	consideration	for	the	EPA	final	determination

. 1

Many	citizens	were	very	disappointed	to	find	that	the	State	made	this	recommendation	and summarily dismissed	the multiple professional	modeling studies conducted	in	accordance	with	EPA guidelines .		In	presentation	by	CDPHE	to	the	Air	Quality	Control	Commission	(AQCC)	and	to	the	US

EPA

, this	dismissal	is	made nearly	exclusively citing	a	“2011	Assessment” their	department	made

-- that	the	National	Weather	Service	(NWS) Colorado	Springs	Airport meteorological	tower	was	not representative	of	the wea ther conditions	at	the Drake	plant ,	located	only	8	miles	away	with	nearly
flat	terrain	between	both	facilities

. 2

Subsequent	to	the Public Hearing on	this	matter held	in	Denver	on	August	20,	2015 where	this “unclassifiable”	recommendation	was	presented	and	then	accepted	by	the AQCC ,	I	submitted	a Colorado	Open	Records	Act	(CORA)	request,	requesting	the CDPHE documents	that	described	the
“201 1	Assessment”	relied	upon by	CDPHE	for	its	recommendation

. 3 I was again	sorely disappointed	to	find	that no	measurements	or	data	were	actually	used	in	2011 by	CDPHE for	such

“ assessment ” ,	but what only appears	to	be	an	informal email discussion	by	a	former CDPHE employee was	produced .		I	am happy	to	share	the	results	of	this	CORA response if requested

.

1 https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/082015

- SO2

- comments_1.pdf http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/epa

- colorado

- springs?mailing_id=30546&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=14023120

2 Letter	sent to	Colorado	Governor	Hickenlooper	on	September	9,	2015 by	16	citizens	after	the CDPHE
Recommendation was	made	is	also	attached	to	this email	for	your	reference.

3 See	page	10, https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/082015

- SO2

- presentation.pdfAs	the	EPA	is	undoubtedly	reliant	on	actual	data	for	its	determinations, I	urge	you	to	please
consider	the proper,	and	scientific	based professional	modeling	results	conducted	by	both	Wingra Engineering,	an d	Air	Quality	Expertise,	LLC,	to	make	a	finding	of	“Non

- Attainment”	for	the	Colorado Springs	region	and	the	Martin	Drake	Power	Plant .		We	citizens	rely	on our State	and	Federal agencies,	such	as	CDPHE	and	the US EPA,	for proper health

- based determinations and	action,	and expect	that	tho se	are	based	on	science,	facts	and	data,	not	estimates	that	happen	to grant favor	the
industrial sources	to allow them	more	time	to	comply	while they	continue	to	pollute	at	levels	that

are	in violation	of	the	law. Our	health and	safety depends	on	a	proper	classification of	the	law by the	EPA	now,	not	in	several	more	years	as	the	State	is	requesting	by	its	“unclassifiable”
recommendation

, in	the	mean while	we	citizens	must	continue	to	suffer	pollution	violations	of	air quality

.

Continued	investigation	of	this	matter	will	occur,	and	upon	any	further	significant	findings	such	as the	lack	of	legitimate	data	to	support	the	State’s	recommendation already	uncovered ,	we	wil l update	you	accordingly.

Thank	you	for	your	attention	to	this	important	matter	of	public	health	and	safety.

Sincerely,

/Leslie	Weise/ Monument,	Colorado
Cell:		303.523.0016

CC: Governor	John	Hickenlooper Alan	Salazar,	Governor’s	Office Colorado	Spri ngs	Mayor	John	Suthers Mike	Silverstein,	CDPHE William	Allison,	CDPHE Dr.	Larry	Wolk,	CDPHE Scott	Mathias,	EPA Adam	Clark,	EPA Shaun	McGrath,	EPA Alexis	North,	EPA Timothy	Rehder,	EPA Members,	Colorado	Air	Quality	Control	Commission Maureen	Barrett,	Air	Qu ality	Expertise,	LLC Travis	Ritchie,	Sierra	Club Colorado	Springs	Concerned Citizens	for Clean	Air Billie	Stanton	Anlieu,	Colorado	Springs	Gazette