Colorado and 17 other states are missing out on millions of dollars in fees they could be charging polluters, money that could help cover the cost of overseeing air quality programs, according to a report released today by the Washington D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project.

In Colorado, state regulators could be charging an additional $2.8 million to help pay the costs of writing pollution permits, monitoring air quality, enforcing the Clean Air Act and other day-to-day activities of the state’s Air Pollution Control Division.

The fees are typically collected from power plants, refineries, cement kilns, chemical plants and other sources of air pollution.

In Colorado, activists complain the state is woefully understaffed, unable to install pollution monitors in parts of the Western Slope, and unable to appropriately monitor pollution controls in oil and gas fields northeast of Denver, among other tasks.

The millions Colorado isn’t collecting could go a long way to addressing that, greens argue.

"Colorado’s clean air is facing unprecedented threats, especially from rampant oil and gas drilling," said Jeremy Nichols of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action. "Unfortunately, while polluters are getting a bargain, our air is getting smoggier and hazier."

Christopher Dann, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said regulators were reviewing the report and would respond to it later in the day.