This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Activists, politicians and spiritual leaders implored a crowd gathered Saturday at the Capitol to remain diligent in demanding "the right to breathe clean air."

Several of the speakers at the Clean Air Now, No Excuses Rally 2015 referred to a new set of "experts" in the clean air debate: their children.

Utah composer Kurt Bestor told a large ­— but smaller than the 5,000 organizers said attended the 2014 Rally — crowd he knew he had to get involved in the clean air battle after a recent discussion with his 6-year-old daughter Ella while taking her to school and he pointed out the fog.

"It's not fog, it's pollution," Bestor remembers her saying. Interested in her response, Bestor asked what caused pollution, what happens when it fills the Salt Lake Valley and what can be done about it.

"A myriad of things, Daddy… It means we can't go out for recess… We need to plant more trees," she answered.

"At that moment I knew I had found my cause," Bestor said. "What I love about my daughter us she just didn't point the finger and say somebody else has to take care of it."

Law enforcement estimated between 2,500 and 3,500 people attended the rally, organizers said.

HEAL Utah executive director Matt Pacenza demonstrated the increasing awareness of air pollution in the state by sharing information gained from his 10-year-old son while checking out trends on Google.

"Utahns search air quality terms more than anywhere else in America," Pacenza said. "If you go back to the mid-2000s hardly anyone in Utah searched those terms. Air quality has become the pre-emptive environmental issue of our time."

Eleven-year-old Bella Sabala rode bikes with her mom, Angel Hayes, to the Capitol from their home in the Avenues. She liked how children were incorporated into the speeches and the many references to kids missing recesses.

"I feel like if kids are paying attention it will help everybody pay attention," said Sabala, who says many of her friends have asthma and frequently can't go out for recess even when other kids can. "When grown ups are listening to each other they get so opinionated, but when it is someone so innocent, sometimes it does speak louder about the issues."

The crowd seemed most inspired by two speakers with very different connections to Clean Air.

New Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes told the crowd he appreciated the efforts they were making to contact lawmakers and expressing how important clean air is to the residents of Utah.

"We are working hard and we will find common ground. You will see something coming out of the Capitol during this [legislative] session. We will leave the place better than we found it and leave Utah better than we found it," Hughes said.

As one of the lead plaintiffs in the civil rights lawsuit that brought marriage equality to Utah, Derek Kitchen knows all about standing up for what you believe. Kitchen implored the people on the Capitol steps to keep fighting.

"It is great to be back at a cause that is so important to me," Kitchen said. "Just like freedom of speech, the right to drinkable water or the freedom to love, access to breathable air is an inalienable human right."

Rep. Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, told the crowd there are currently 17 bills and six funding requests "to help clean air in the 2015 legislative session and that they will cost taxpayers money.

"They will only pass with your help," she said.

Arent said bills focus on everything from retiring old polluting school buses to providing more funding for improvement in monitoring, research and enforcement and working with local communities to expand mass transit.

Many of the attendees of the rally arrived under their own power or via mass transit. A group chanting "Clean Air Now" marched up State Street just before the rally started. Bicycles filled a special parking area and were scattered on the Capitol lawns.

Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, rode her bicycle to the Capitol and apologized for wearing a beanie cap to hide her helmet hair. Romero said she is often asked why she talks about clean air issues because "that is an upper middle class white issue. People on the west side [of Salt Lake] don't care about clean air."

Romero disagrees.

"Clean air is not about where you live. Clean air is not about your political party. Clean air is not about your ethnicity or your race," Romero said. "Communities of color are at very high risk when we have the inversion. Many of us live by the industry and many of us live by freeways."

There was little discussion during the rally about a Utah Department of Environment Quality-proposed ­— and encouraged by Gov. Gary Herbert — wintertime wood burning ban in seven northern Utah counties that are out of attainment for particulate pollution.

Wood burning accounts for about 5 percent of the Wasatch Front's PM2.5 pollution, according to state air quality monitors. Industry is responsible for another 11 percent. Cars make up more than half of wintertime particulate pollution.

A 2014 Tribune-commissioned poll found that 57 percent of Utahns reported being more concerned about air quality than they were five years ago and by a 3-1 margin favoring tougher emission standards. An Envision Utah's 2015 Quality of Life survey concluded Utahns list poor air quality more than any other negative aspect of life in the state — including lack of diversity, education constraints and crime.

Twitter:@BrettPrettyman