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The official United States government definition of the metropolitan area is based on counties and includes the following 10 counties:

The nearby city of Boulder, in Boulder County, was officially included in the definition of the metropolitan area until the creation of Broomfield County in 2001. Boulder is usually considered by residents of the area to be a separate city.

The character of the various parts of the metropolitan area vary widely with the most prosperous counties being Douglas and Boulder, with Adams county being the most industrialized of the suburbs. Although each county and its various towns are self-governing, there is some cooperation in the metropolitan area. Most of the counties and towns belong to the Denver Regional Council of Governments, an association which fosters cooperative planning in the region. In addition there is a regional transportation district (RTD) which provides mass transit and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District which provides funding for scientific and cultural facilities including the Denver Art MuseumThe Denver Art Museum is an art museum in Denver, Colorado. It is known for its outstanding collection of American Indian art, and has a comprehensive collection of world art with a total of more than 55,000 works of art. The museum was founded in 1893., the Denver Zoo , the Denver Museum of Nature and Science , and the Denver Botanic Gardens . The RTD project FasTracksFasTracks is a new light rail and diesel commuter rail project being built in the Denver, CO area. 120 miles on six new rail lines are being built all at once over the next 12 years, making it one of the most ambitious mass transportation projects in Amer, a commuter rail network, is currently under construction.

The entire metropolitan area sits in a valley, the Denver Basin , and suffers from air pollutionNew Mexico releases sulfur dioxide and particulate matter into the air. Air pollution is a broad term applied to all chemical and biological agents that modify the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. Some definitions also consider physical perturba known colloquially as the brown cloud, building up if the air is stagnant as it often is in the winter. In the late 1980s the area was frequently in violation of multiple National Ambient Air Quality Standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Regional Air Quality Council (RAQC) was formed in 1989 to create plans to address the problem. Through a variety of measures the area's air quality was improved and in 2002 the EPA designated the area in compliance with all federal health-based air quality standards. Denver was the first major city in the United States to reach compliance with all six of these standards after previously violating five [1]. Since then the EPA introduced a new standard for small particulates and made the existing ozone standard stricter. In 2003 the new ozone standard was frequently exceeded in the area and was occasionally exceeded as far away as Rocky Mountain National Park. The RAQC hopes to implement plans enabling the area to comply with the new standards by 2007.

See: Colorado Front Range