Feds reject key Utah plan for cleaner air

Federal environmental officials don't think Utah is doing enough to keep the state's urban air clean.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it's inclined to reject the state's four-year-old request for certification that it meets the Clean Air Act limit for PM 10, the technical term for airborne soot and dust pollution.

In a Federal Register notice published Tuesday, the EPA says that Utah and Salt Lake counties, along with the city of Ogden, still periodically violate the federal standard for PM 10.

Also, the Utah Division of Air Quality's plan to clean up the air, said the federal agency, continues to fall short.

The EPA's decision, if it stands after a 30-day comment period, means Utah must continue to navigate complex federal regulations for meeting PM 10 standards.

That is in addition to separate plans for reducing ozone pollution that is often a summertime problem and for small-particle "PM 2.5" pollution common in winter inversions. It also means federal funding for new construction projects would be cut off if the PM 10 problem is not eventually corrected.

State Air Quality Director Cheryl Heying said Tuesday that state officials have yet to review the EPA's reasoning in detail. She noted the state's data shows Utah has met the day-to-day federal standards for PM 10 for the past 10 years.

The problem: dust storms usually associated with Utah's freeze-thaw cycle sometimes violate federal standards.

The EPA counts those episodes against the state's air-quality record and says Utah should do more to prevent them. The state says the episodes should not count because they are unavoidable natural events.

Excessive PM 10 causes coughing, asthma, difficulty breathing and other harmful health effects. Concentrations greater than 150 micrograms of soot and dust pollution for every cubic meter of air violate the federal standard.

Heying said regulators would do better to focus on dealing with the state's acknowledged PM 2.5 problems rather than trying to tackle PM 10.

"We're looking at the future," she said. "They [at EPA] are looking at the past."

But Jeremy Nichols of the Denver-based environmental group WildEarth Guardians applauded EPA for rejecting the state's 2005 request and pushing Utah toward stronger steps to keep the air clean.

"EPA's finally putting its foot down" and rejecting the state's efforts to control unhealthy dust episodes, he said.

Nichols pointed to EPA's Federal Register notice that cited PM 10 violations during seven years of monitoring: All 14 were recorded in North Salt Lake and Magna, home of the massive Kennecott Utah Copper tailings pile.

"This is human health at stake here," he said, "and to blame it on the wind is unfortunate."

Stephen Tuber and Catherine Roberts of EPA's Denver office said the agency will probably take several months to review comments the state and the public submit.

Besides dealing with dust storms, the agency wants the state to rethink its estimates of emissions from cars, trucks and other transportation sources, such as dusty dirt roads and construction sites.

"Hopefully," said Tuber, "the state will take action and the air quality will be improved."

fahys@sltrib.com