Stan Penfold: Will air emissions cloud inland port’s success?

Time will tell if the much-vaunted and controversial inland port lives up to its promise as the biggest economic bonanza in Utah’s history. If it does, let’s hope dramatically increased air emissions from countless additional trucks, trains and their cargoes don’t choke our ability to enjoy this newfound wealth.

As a member of the Salt Lake City Council until last January, I served as council chair during 2017 and had a front-row seat to what sadly degraded into a bizarre cloak-and-dagger drama over creation of a state-run port authority. (For the record, and despite all the needless distractions, the city’s concerns about the state usurping local governments’ roles, jurisdictions and revenues are extremely valid and are likely to have wide-ranging and unintended consequences for all municipalities, not just Salt Lake City.)

But, while the focus has been on the political clash over governance and control, the most critical issue involving this potentially huge light-industrial complex — how it will affect our already compromised air quality — has received little attention. That needs to change.

Better air quality is a top priority for all of us. For years, it’s been at or near the top of surveys of what we value most about living here. But so many of us still feel (literally, as well as figuratively) that more can be done to improve the situation.

So, it naturally follows that we shouldn’t make big development decisions that might make our air even dirtier without knowing what we’re getting ourselves into. And we can’t do that without the information an in-depth study of the port’s potential effects on air quality would provide.

The reality is that very little detail about what an inland port might include has been shared publicly. We have no idea how many additional trucks, trains and airplanes to expect. We know state leaders see the port as a lifeline for Utah’s coal industry, but we don’t know what other cargoes might be transported and stored. Nor do we know what types of facilities will be built, other than bill co-sponsor Sen. Jerry Stevenson’s description of “an enormous slab of cement with a lot of railroad tracks on it.”

Clearly, a more-defined scope for the port is needed so a comprehensive air quality study can be completed. And, it’s imperative that this work must be done now, before significant amounts of public money are committed to the concept. That’s simply common sense.

With a lot to do before the first cargo container is off-loaded – resolving governance and control issues, organizing a new government agency, creating and implementing a business plan, and so on – there’s no reason not to add a long-term assessment of air quality effects to the to do list. The inland port experts, in fact, recommend it.

The Salt Lake Inland Port Market Assessment, published in August 2016 by the University of Utah’s Gardner Policy Institute, suggests that “because of the state of Utah’s and Salt Lake City’s commitment to improving air quality, the environmental impact of a proposed inland deserves in-depth research and analysis.” A feasibility study presented last December echoes that sentiment and notes the port’s large scale and long timeline creates a rare opportunity to demonstrate global leadership in sustainable economic development.

Salt Lake City has a long and proactive history of incorporating green features in its buildings and other projects. Prior to the state’s intrusion, the Council had lengthy discussions about environmental protections to put in place for a potential inland port. A clear boundary between Great Salt Lake wetlands and development, negotiated with property owners and interest groups, is now in place.

An air quality study, though, has yet to rise to the top as a clear priority. Most state and local officials I know care deeply about improving northern Utah’s horrible air quality problem and work to make it better. Most, I believe, would agree that studying the inland port’s potential air impacts before irrevocable decisions are made is a no-brainer.

If we’re going to build an inland port, let’s understand the potential air impacts first. Then, let’s commit to make it the most environmentally sustainable inland port in the world and one that sets new standards for air emissions. If we don’t, we may end up choking on our success.

Stan Penfold represented the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Marmalade, Guadalupe and Federal Heights neighborhoods on the Salt Lake City Council from 2010 through 2017, the last year as chair.