This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah's national parks are some of our greatest treasures and an important part of our economy, heritage and way of life. Unfortunately, our parks are being harmed by one of the most chronic problems affecting Utah: polluted air that is often so thick it shrouds landscapes in haze.

As a longtime resident of Grand County and an elected member of the Grand County Council, I know all too well the importance of Utah's parks. Many in my community depend on them for their livelihoods. The amazing views are one of the many reasons visitors from all over the world visit Utah's parks and communities like Moab. Yet for too long, coal-fired power plants have been allowed to dump pollution into our skies, threatening the vitality of our iconic parks and the health of local communities.

Fortunately, in December, the EPA put forth a draft plan to address this haze pollution that opens a path to protection for our parks and communities from Rocky Mountain Power's Hunter and Huntington coal-fired power plants.

Clean air is something Utah cannot afford to ignore, and we currently have an opportunity to make important strides in cleaning up one of the main sources of pollution threatening our parks. Last week, I and many from the Moab area traveled to Salt Lake City to attend an EPA hearing on the recently announced plan for how Utah will meet haze pollution standards by cleaning up dirty coal-burning plants.

I grew up in communities all over the West that were dependent on an extraction economy, including Climax, Colo., Nye, Mont,; Wallace, Idaho, and Moab. I've seen first-hand the impact that extractive industries have had on the health and well-being of local families like mine. In every case, investments in technologies to protect the environment did not cause companies to shut down or lay people off. Rather, job losses were due to changing market forces. I know from personal experience the importance of guaranteeing strong protections to safeguard the people and resources in those communities from pollution, and to ensure that communities are supported for the long haul. That is the opportunity we have today through the "Clean Parks Plan" here in Utah.

With two options before the EPA, including the state's plan that would do little to address the problem, the choice could not be clearer:  Utahns deserve strong protections from coal pollution and that means that the EPA should move forward with the "Clean Parks Plan" for Utah by requiring strong and fair reductions in pollution from the Hunter and Huntington plants.

We know how much impact that pollution from these plants has on our state and the community I'm elected to serve. The plants are responsible for 40 percent of all of the dangerous haze-causing nitrogen oxide pollution that comes from Utah's electricity sector. The National Park Service estimates that views at Arches and Canyonlands are shrouded in haze 83 percent of the time, and coal pollution is a major contributor.

At EPA's direction, coal plants in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and more than 250 across the country have already installed state-of-the-art pollution controls, showing that this technology provides common sense ways to reduce emissions that put public health at risk and sully our skies.  Rocky Mountain Power says we shouldn't invest to clean up our air and reduce pollution from the Hunter and Huntington plants, but we know that there are cost-effective solutions to address this problem.

We can come together as Utahns to clear our air and manage costs, but we cannot afford to miss this chance to protect our parks from coal pollution threats by setting strong standards to reduce haze. Too much is at stake.  Aim low on clean air and we risk harming the health of our communities and Utah's vibrant outdoor recreation economy, especially in national park gateway communities like Moab.

It's now up to the EPA to ensure that our national parks, and the jobs and communities they support, receive the same strong and fair protections as other states and communities across our region.

Mary McGann lives in Moab. This op-ed is her view as an individual, not as a member of the Grand County Council.