This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

Evaluations by the EPA and even Forbes magazine perennially rank Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County in the top 10 most toxic places to live, but perhaps not for the reasons that most people think. Yes, the largest contributor to those rankings is air pollution, but more specifically the multiple consequences of mining operations, like ubiquitous mining dust. While Kennecott is the largest offender, Geneva is likely the second largest. Geneva has more than 20 gravel pits in northern Utah, but none of them in such a bad location as Point of the Mountain (POM).

Gravel pit dust not only contributes to valley-wide air pollution, but also contains unique toxins. Soil analysis of the POM area revealed significant contamination with heavy metals, especially uranium and arsenic. Crystalline silica is ubiquitous in the dust and chronic exposure is well known to cause destruction of lung tissue and function, and can lead to lung cancer and increased vulnerability to tuberculosis. While concerns regarding chronic silicosis are usually limited to those occupationally exposed, nearby residents can be exposed 24/7 rather than merely during work hours, and the exposed residential populations include children and babies in utero, greatly magnifying the public health consequences.

Thousands of medical studies have confirmed the broad base of diseases and poor health outcomes provoked by particulate air pollution. Numerous additional studies of residential populations chronically exposed to dust reveal shortened life expectancy, high rates of cancer, infectious diseases, respiratory and heart disease, reproductive pathologies, adverse pregnancy outcomes, anemia, birth defects, and infant mortality.

Since 1990, the population of communities near POM — Draper, Bluffdale, Riverton, Alpine, Highland and Lehi have grown by more than 400 percent. A once-remote pit operating at valley level has expanded to an elevation over 600 feet above the frontage road and rains down constant dust on the fastest growing part of the state.

The Point of the Mountain forms a natural venturi effect or constriction in the valley that causes wind to accelerate as it competes to get through and over this gap. These remarkably consistent winds make the POM an internationally famous paragliding site. Wind over 10 mph will pick up dust from disturbed, raw land surfaces, like gravel pits, and on 80 percent of days the wind is strong enough to blow dust from POM into the greater Salt Lake or Utah counties depending on the direction. If you are a resident in just about any part of Salt Lake or Utah counties you are already inhaling dust from Geneva's POM gravel pit.

For the last two years, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment have been calling attention to the health hazards of gravel pit dust, hoping to bring pressure on local and state officials to address the situation, made even more urgent because Geneva had requested a rezoning that would have allowed the POM mine to more than double in size, and move it hundreds of feet higher up the mountain, where it would threaten hundreds of homes below and be even more exposed to the winds.

Geneva withdrew their expansion proposal after Draper residents got involved, organized community opposition and launched their own investigation of Geneva's operations, which revealed, among other things, that Geneva had been operating outside the boundaries of their permit. While this led to a cease and desist order from the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, it did not inspire confidence that it was citizens, not the relevant state agency, that uncovered the illegal mining even though it could almost be seen from state agency offices with a pair of binoculars. Furthermore, Geneva's past history should have compelled more state scrutiny. In 2008 they earned what was, at the time, the largest state fine ever, $1.7 million, for excessive dust from multiple gravel sites.

Currently communities near gravel pits are simply not being protected. The state's controlling of fugitive dust is limited to estimating whether a certain tonnage of dust has been exceeded annually and whether the dust in the air at the property line creates a visual opacity of greater than 10 percent. Pit operators are not even required to suspend operations in high winds. It is long overdue, that gravel pits be subjected to site specific monitoring, and that nearby residents be protected from these unique hazards.

Dr. Cris Cowley is vice president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and serves as chief of Cardiothoracic Anesthesia at Intermountain Medical Center. His opinions are his own and not that of IMC. Robert Macfarlane is a technology company advisor. Adrian Dybwad is a computer network architect.