The Democrat sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson requesting the hearing. The EPA has held public hearings in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other parts of the country on proposed new standards for ground-level ozone.

"Citizens in the Denver metro area have unique concerns, ideas and comments and deserve a forum with the EPA on this important issue," DeGette wrote to Johnson.

EPA officials in Washington didn't immediately return a call for comment. Kristofer Eisenla, DeGette's spokesman, said a hearing would have to be scheduled before Oct. 9, the deadline for comments on the proposed new standards.

Meanwhile, state health officials are waiting to hear whether the EPA will declare a stretch of the Front Range reaching north and east from Denver out of compliance with current ozone limits.

The EPA has proposed tightening the ozone pollution standard of .084 parts per million to between .070 and .075 parts per million. The agency's scientific advisers have recommended a stricter level.

A decision is expected in March.

Jeremy Nichols of the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action said he is glad DeGette has requested an ozone hearing in Denver.

"Denver is kind of the poster child for a Western city coming to terms with having to deal with air pollution caused by ozone," Nichols said. "It's an issue here and the EPA is shutting out the West in the process."

A nine-county region covering the Denver area and stretching north and east to Larimer and Weld counties appears to be losing the battle to stay below the existing ozone cap. The EPA has held off declaring the Front Range out of compliance while Colorado adopts a pollution-reduction plan, but state officials expect that to change after this summer's high levels.

An air-quality monitor in northwest Jefferson County exceeded levels allowed under a formula based on three-year averages. Christopher Dann, spokesman for the state Air Pollution Control Division, said the EPA could make a decision as early as Friday.

If the Front Range is declared a "non-attainment area," or out of compliance, the state will have to make even larger reductions in pollution, Dann said.

Ground-level ozone is created when the sun bakes pollutants such as vehicle exhaust, wildfire smoke and vapors from everything from paint cans to oil and gas wells.

In December, Colorado regulators approved the first-ever statewide emissions controls on the booming oil and gas industry and strengthened controls on oil and gas wells in eastern Colorado.