Despite protests from local and state government leaders, the EPA announced Thursday it will include part of Tooele County in a nonattainment area for fine particle pollution — the type of sooty pollution that blankets the Wasatch Front during wintertime inversions.
The EPA identified the Tooele Valley as part of an area that didn’t meet revised standards for 24-hour PM 2.5 in December 2008, but that designation wasn’t published in the Federal Register pending a recently completed review. The designation was because the EPA claims the county contributes to poor air quality along the Wasatch Front.
The nonattainment designation could mean emissions tests for drivers and a red-yellow-green warning system.
Other areas in Utah also designated as not meeting the standard for PM 2.5 include Salt Lake, Davis and parts of Weber and Box Elder counties; part of Utah County; and part of Cache County.
In 2006, the EPA’s fine-particle standards were strengthened from 65 micrograms per cubic meter to 35. PM 2.5 — small soot and dust particles — is approximately 1/30th the size of a human hair and can become entrenched in lung tissue, which can cause respiratory problems. This type of pollution comes from fuel combustion from vehicles, power plants, wood burning stoves, industrial processes and diesel-powered vehicles such as buses and trucks.
In September, in a letter to the EPA, Sen. Bob Bennett asked the agency to postpone the nonattainment designation for portions of Tooele and Box Elder counties. Part of the letter states, “We believe that you should give additional time to the state to provide EPA with new data from comprehensive air modeling that would better inform its decision. Including either of these counties within the nonattainment area before this data is available would be premature and arbitrary, and we vehemently oppose it.”
The letter also urges EPA officials to visit the area so they can see the counties don’t contribute to pollution levels on the Wasatch Front. The letter was also signed by Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Rob Bishop.
Tooele Valley’s wintertime air quality continues to be substantially better than counties along the Wasatch Front. However, the EPA said last December when first designating nonattainment areas, “EPA’s study of the growth, meteorology, topography and emission sources in Box Elder and Tooele Counties led to the conclusion that the counties contribute to PM 2.5 violations in the nearby counties.”
In a press release issued last week after learning of the EPA’s decision, Sen. Bennett said, “I am disappointed that EPA chose to ignore our request to postpone the designation of Tooele and Box Elder Counties until it had more accurate data and the staff had actually come to Utah to see these areas firsthand. This decision is not only unnecessary but also unjustified. I will continue to work with the state and the counties to correct EPA’s data as quickly as possible.”
Earlier this year, state Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland, sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 5, which urged the EPA to adjust its configuration of areas that don’t meet the PM 2.5 standard in Utah. That included dropping the county from nonattainment status. She said if Tooele and Box Elder counties weren’t lumped in with the Wasatch Front they would be in attainment on their own. That resolution passed during the last legislative session and was sent to the EPA.
Menlove, along with an official from the state Department of Environmental Quality, will be traveling this Friday to Denver to meet with EPA region officials.
“We’re just letting them know we’re not pleased, that this is problematic,” Menlove said. “We would like to get this reversed as quickly as possible.”
A nonattainment designation, for example, could have implications for companies who may want to locate in Tooele County.
State and local officials now have three years to come up with and implement a plan to reduce PM 2.5 pollution to achieve compliance with EPA standards.
Bryce Bird, planning branch manager for the Utah Division of Air Quality, said those plans are being developed.
“The process for making that plan is a three-year process where we first spend a year developing computer models to simulate past events that we can test control strategies on,” he said. “As we look at that process, we’ll look at overall airshed and see where reductions make sense and would be most effective. The last two years are developing control strategies.”
Bird said the term “airshed” refers to an area that shares common air, where mixing and dispersal of pollutants occurs.
After the three years is up and the plan is put into place, demonstration of attainment with the standard is required.
“If you don’t meet that and the EPA finds the plan wasn’t effective, additional controls would be required at that point,” Bird said.
Bird said one measure the state might take would be the implementation of an emissions inspection program for vehicles. Another measure could be working with industry to identify emission points and what would be most effective and beneficial to reduce.
The system of green, yellow and red air days used in other parts of the state could also be implemented in Tooele County, however, Bird said the system is essentially designed to curtail the use of wood-burning stoves, of which there are likely few in the county.
“We’ll have to look at that and see if it’s necessary,” he said, adding that the color-coding system also has the beneficial side effect of informing the public to reduce driving on high-pollution days.
Bird said devising plans to reduce PM 2.5 pollution will involve the transportation sector, industry, and the public sector.
“Really the end result of this is better air quality,” he said.
Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com
Post a Comment
