Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The inability of the Provo and Salt Lake City regions to meet 2006 federal clean air standards for fine particulate pollution resulted in the Environmental Protection Agency reclassifying the metropolitan areas into a new category of "serious" non-attainment.
The new classification means Utah's air quality regulators will have to come up with enhanced strategies to keep the formation of fine particulate pollution, or PM2.5, in check. The agency will have to come up with those additional pollution-control regulations by the end of this year.
The EPA's new administrator, Scott Pruitt, signed the notice Friday, with the classification scheduled to take effect in a month's time.
The Salt Lake City and Provo regions were unable to meet 24-hour standards for PM2.5 between 2013 and 2015 because at least one monitor in those areas showed pollution values that exceeded the federal threshold.
Although the Logan and Franklin, Idaho, region had been proposed for a serious designation, the EPA did not take any action on that area because of insufficient data.
Salt Lake City and Provo join Fairbanks, Alaska, as the three areas that did not achieve compliance with the standard as of Dec. 31, 2015, and received the new classification.
Over the past several years, Utah air quality regulators weighed and ultimately adopted more than two dozen new rules aimed at curbing pollution and also required technological upgrades at Salt Lake-area refineries to curtail emissions that contribute to the formation of PM2.5.
Related:
Chaffetz, Lee want regional haze rule scrapped for Utah
Arguing the regional haze rule by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is needless and burdensome for Utah, Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Sen. Mike Lee introduced a resolution to get the regulation repealed. The rule affects two Utah power plants.Other rules — including those targeting businesses and homes — also have gone into effect, such as low-fume hairspray, paints and certain solvents.
Still, state regulators acknowledge much of the "low hanging fruit" when it comes to fighting the Wasatch Front's pollution problem was picked clean some time ago.
Utah Division of Air Quality Director Bryce Bird said the new classification puts in play a 2019 deadline for the state to meet the standard.
Many of the new regulations passed by the Utah Air Quality Board are now in full effect, which Bird said is helping those regions meet the PM2.5 standard.
There was not a single exceedance of the standard in 2015, only one in the Salt Lake and Utah County area in 2016, and none in 2017, he said.
But Matt Pacenza, executive director of clean air advocacy group HEAL Utah, said he hopes this move by the EPA gives Utah lawmakers and Gov. Gary Herbert the motivation to make more dents in the problem.
"The coming year will be an critical opportunity for the Herbert administration to submit a bold, innovative plan for controlling emissions," Pacenza said.
"For nearly 10 years, the quality of our air has been failing federal health standards. Now, the EPA is giving Utah one final chance to take a careful look at our pollution from our cars, homes, buildings and businesses to find innovative solutions that can protect our families," he said.
