The Interim Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee attacked the notion, the brainchild of a task force involving representatives of industry, government and interest groups that met throughout the summer.
The task force offered several options for raising nearly $3 million a year for air-monitoring programs. Its ideas included assessing a $1.96 fee on annual vehicle registrations or raising the same sum through a slight hike in gasoline taxes.
The money is needed, said Utah Department of Environmental Quality Director Rick Sprott, to cover the cost of data collection that will be needed to develop Utah's plans to meet new federal air-quality standards, especially the fine-particle pollution limit that is expected to affect Utah counties from the Idaho state line to Tooele and Nephi.
Without added monitors and staff, the state may find the federal government imposing limits on transportation projects, cutting transportation programs or taking over the air regulation program now overseen by the state, said Sprott.
“This was the year we kind of crashed through the floor,” he said, noting that the agency's staff had not grown in 15 years and that budget cuts a few years ago have never been restored.
And, while industry has paid for much of the air-quality program through operating and permit fees, drivers, whose vehicles account for as much as half of the pollution problem, don't cover any of the regulatory costs, he said
“The need here is pretty daunting,” Sprott told the committee.
Lawmakers rejected the task force's funding ideas and offered none of their own.
Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-West Jordan, attacked the funding proposal for doing nothing to reduce pollution.
He asked why the task force didn't ask for general funds.
“I'm not there [in supporting new air-monitoring funds] by a long shot,” he said.
Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, asked Sprott to provide a capital needs list so that the Legislature could possibly consider the funding all at once. He also urged air-quality regulators to try to save money by privatizing some monitoring.
Brian Moench, a co-founder of the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, said he was disappointed that the lawmakers failed to back more funding for the anti-pollution programs.
He said his group, which participated on the funding task force, would step up efforts to educate lawmakers about the health impacts of air pollution, which is a statewide problem.
“The Legislature has to help the public rather than continue to act as an obstacle to progress,” he said. “We can't let that stand.”
fahys@sltrib.com
