The Air Quality Task Force and staff involved community members in the air quality planning process. Over 100 residents and organizations contributed comments and suggestions that were considered during plan development. Today, we are confronted with new pollutants which do not fit the traditional planning model. For example, air toxics includes many compounds known to contribute to cancer or respiratory disease but that do not have individual ambient air quality standards. Air pollution sources typically contribute to several kinds of air pollution at once.
Wood burning produces carbon monoxide, particulates, air toxics, and contributes to the brown cloud.
Motor vehicles produce all of these and greenhouse gases as well. The Air Quality Task Force used the following value statements to set priorities among pollutants, in order of importance. Among pollutants that have air quality standards, non-compliance ranks higher than compliance, and unknown compliance ranks higher than known compliance. Pollutants widely perceived as a problem in the Fort Collins community rank higher than relatively unknown pollutants. The Air Quality Task Force and staff ranked the importance of various pollutants to the Fort Collins community based on the above values.