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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - State and federal scientists are trying to determine why so much air pollution builds up each winter in the Uintah Basin, an oil-and- gas rich region in Utah's northeast corner bordering Colorado.
The basin also has a coal-fired power plant, but scientists aren't certain that industrial emissions cause the area's notoriously bad air during winter.
The scientists from a number of government agencies and research groups are monitoring the chemistry of the atmosphere to track the formation of ozone, the main ingredient in smog.
Pollution in the basin has lingered for as many as 40 days in the winter of 2010.
The scientists say the smog appears only when weather patterns called inversions trap cold air close to snow-covered ground, but they just aren't sure why. (Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
