Oil and gas companies’ claims that air pollution from their operations is decreasing are false, according to air monitoring performed by municipalities in Colorado’s Front Range, the Colorado Sun reports. Not content to take fracking companies’ at their word, Broomfield, Boulder County, Erie, and Longmont have all undertaken their own air pollution monitoring.

Boulder County observed “no decline” in ground level methane, and Broomfield recorded benzene levels as high as 24x health standards with the worst pollution coming during drilling, fracking, and tubing of new wells — Broomfield residents living within a mile of well sites also report more frequent upper-respiratory problems, nosebleeds, and nausea than those living more than two miles from a well. Industry groups, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and API-Colorado, say their data taken by satellite is superior to the municipalities’ data collected, for example, next to the Erie community center and baseball field. (The Colorado Sun)