[Northernlad]

This is one of the Blessings that is generated by growth and sprawl!:hell:



http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,655192366,00.html


Remember clear air? 'Red' days lingering

By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News
Monday marked one full week of cold, awful air. Not since Jan. 15 has the atmosphere in the capital been good quality — and it's not expected to improve substantially until Wednesday or Thursday.
Laura Seitz, Deseret Morning NewsFoul haze obsures the view of the White Chapel across from the state Capitol. "We've had seven consecutive days of 'red"' — hazardous air conditions, Neal Olson, environmental scientist with the Utah Division of Air Quality, said Monday.
"We had a break on the 21st and 22nd, when we went to a yellow," or moderately polluted conditions. The five days prior to that were all red alert days.
During red alerts, the 24-hour average level for the finest particles, called PM-2.5 particulates, is above the EPA's health standard of no more than 35 micrograms per cubic meter. Wood and coal stoves and fireplaces must not be used, and state officials ask residents to reduce vehicle use.
On yellow air quality days, people are asked to voluntarily forgo burning wood or coal and to cut down on vehicle use. On green days these restrictions are lifted.
Before Dec. 18, 2006, the standard was 65 micrograms, but since then it has been 35. Air pollution in Salt Lake City was measured at an unhealthy 69.4 micrograms on Monday.
But glimpsed through the dense smog, hope is shimmering on the horizon.
"By Wednesday we should be getting some colder air aloft," Len Randolph, meteorologist at KSL, said Monday. "Yesterday Cache Valley got a little relief." While pollutants dropped there, the clearing did not extend beyond Cache.
Colder temperatures aloft could stir the atmosphere, thinning the haze. "That'll help a bit," Randolph said. "That's not going to clear it all out."
A small storm is expected on Thursday, he added. "We'll just have to see whether it's going to be strong enough to blow it out of here."
While air quality has been unhealthy every day, that doesn't mean the level was consistently bad all day long. Sunday night the pollution concentration "actually dropped quite a bit," said Cheryl Heying, planning manager for the Division of Air Quality.
The night was relatively warm, causing the ceiling of the inversion to lift to a higher level of the atmosphere. With the cap lifted to a higher level, the gunky air spreads out further. "The pollution kind of disperses a bit," she said.
Besides wretched air conditions, Salt Lake residents are suffering from a barely precedented cold snap.
"We've been 32 or below since the 12th of January," said Randolph. As of Monday, Salt Lake City was in its fourth-longest stretch of temperatures at or below the freezing point (32 degrees), since record-keeping began in 1928.
If Monday's temperature did not rise above the expected high of 32, according to Randolph, the city will have tied another cold-spell record.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E-mail: bau@desnews.com






First, the bad news: Our air stinks!
You've probably noticed.
It's so polluted out there that you have to floss the grit out of your teeth.
Airplanes have to build up extra speed to clunk through the atmosphere hanging over the valley.
The good news: It's not as bad as it used to be.
The Division of Environmental Quality reported earlier this month that our air is cleaner than it once was, based on annual averages.
Our "temporary" inversions are another matter. When it comes to 24-hour averages and winter inversions, we are way over the EPA's newly established limits. We have about four years to clean up or the federal government will send us to our room without any federal highway and transit funds.
The Great Inversion of '07 rages on. The gunk is hanging around the valley like a ring around a bathtub. If you want to see how bad it really is, drive up to Park City, look in your rear-view mirror and ask yourself this question:
Where do we flush this place?
First, some background: Air pollution is measured two ways: (1) Concentration levels; (2) Size of the particulate matter floating in the air.
On Monday morning, Salt Lake City's air was in violation of the EPA's standards for PM (particulate matter) 2.5. That's tiny (a human hair is about 60 micrometers in width) — and tiny is bad. These particulates are so tiny that they can be breathed deeply into the lungs; the big particles that are blown into the air by storms can be filtered in the nasal passageways or in the mucous of the upper airways.
That morning, Salt Lake's air measured 70 micrograms of PM 2.5 per cubic meter of air. "This would be high even for Los Angeles," says Brigham Young University professor Arden Pope. Clean air is 10 micrograms. By early Monday afternoon, the concentration of pollution reached 100.
"It's been climbing like a rocket," said Neal Olson, an environmental scientist for the state. "It's almost as bad as I've ever seen."
A red burn day is 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a 24-hour average. Salt Lake has reached the red-burn level 15 times in January, 12 in the past 17 days.
There were three red days in Salt Lake-Davis County last year, by comparison. The record was set with 23 days in 2004.
In the past month, pollution concentrations have climbed so high that Olson wonders if we won't be forced to go to a next level above red — Purple. That's DEFCON 2 or 3 in air pollution talk.
The length of the inversion is approaching record levels; the amount of pollution, however, has improved.
"We hear a lot of people who haven't been here long say it's getting worse," says Rick Stott, director of the DEQ. "That's not scientifically accurate by a long stretch."
But it's bad and Stott says so. On Monday, walking around downtown Salt Lake City was about the equivalent of sitting in a living room while someone smoked a cigarette. Some people are wearing masks in public. The problem is that Utah's particulate matter is too small to be filtered by masks. But, as Olson says, "It won't hurt. If you see a different color (on the white mask), then it must be doing something."
Utah is pretty much the perfect place for dirty inversions. Normally, these pollutants would rise into the atmosphere, but cold temperatures, combined with the bowl-shaped valleys and snow, prevent them from escaping. Along comes a stationary high pressure system and a vicious cycle ensues. A layer of snow on the valley floor and the thick gunk in the air prevent the ground from warming, so the cold air (and pollutants) are trapped.
Taken together, it's a perfect recipe for a thick, chunky soup. M'm, M'm, not so good.
What can you do? Reduce your driving, which accounts for about half the pollutants. Stott likens the situation to compounding interest — "Each day of the inversion traps pollution from the previous day. What you did last week is still there in the air."
So if you eliminate one or two days of driving, or if you walk to lunch instead of drive, or combine all your errands into one trip, that's less pollution collecting in the air — and in your lungs.


--------------------------------------------------------------

[jedikermit]

It is BAD out there...I feel like when I was a second-hand chain smoker for a while.

[Viperlord]

I am having a hard time reading my computer screen through all the smog, can someone from a cleaner aired state please call me and tell me what this thread says. :)

[Northernlad]

There may be a poster or two out there who may want to send the Mormon Mafia after me, but this is an issue that cannot be ignored. We all want growth here along the Wasatch Front, but it is a double edged sword. The narrow valley's are responsible for some of the worst air in this country and our local leaders seem to be desperate to push for more growth.
Anybody ever seen the Oblongs cartoon?
:slob:

[delts145]

While much needs to be done along the Wasatch and all 50 major metro's, The Wasatch is toward the bottom of the list, not the top.


Air in Your City Environmental Defense ranked the major population centers according to where dirty air affects the greatest number of children. Rankings over a three year period

50 Worst Cities

Rank Metro Statistical Area

1 Los Angeles, CA

2 Riverside-San Bernardino, CA

3 New York City, NY

4 Philadelphia, PA

5 Houston, TX

6 Washington, DC

7 Chicago, IL

8 Baltimore, MD

9 Atlanta, GA

10 Detroit, MI

11 Fresno, CA

12 Sacramento, CA

13 Bakersfield, CA

14 Dallas, TX

15 Boston, MA

16 St. Louis, MO-IL

17 Cleveland, OH

18 Pittsburgh, PA

19 Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

20 Charlotte, NC

21 Newark, NJ

22 Memphis, TN

23 Monmouth-Ocean, NJ

24 Indianapolis, IN

25 Cincinnati, OH

26 Hartford, CT

27 Middlesex-Hunterdon, NJ

28 Columbus, OH

29 Raleigh, NC

30 Grand Rapids, MI

31 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY

32 Richmond, VA

33 Greensboro-High Point, NC

34 Providence, RI

35 Denver, CO

36 New Haven, CT

37 Salt Lake City, UT

38 Louisville, KY

39 Wilmington, DE

40 Ventura, CA

41 Dayton-Springfield, OH

42 Akron, OH

43 Kansas City, KS/MO

44 Allentown, PA

45 San Antonio, TX

46 Birmingham, AL

47 Knoxville, TN

48 Bridgeport, CT

49 Harrisburg, PA

50 San Diego, CA

American Lung Association/ The most polluted US cities

Rank Smog: Rank Particles:

The most polluted cities
1 Los Angeles (CA) 1 Los Angeles (CA)
2 Visalia-Porterville (CA) 2 Visalia-Porterville (CA)
3 Bakersfield (CA) 3 Bakersfield (CA)
4 Fresno (CA) 4 Fresno (CA)
5 Houston (TX) 5 Pittsburgh (PA)
6 Merced (CA) 6 Detroit (MI)
7 Sacramento (CA) 7 Atlanta (GA)
8 Hanford (CA) 8 Cleveland (OH)
9 Knoxville (TN) 9 Hanford (CA)
10 Dallas – Fort Worth (TX) 10 Birmingham (AL)
11 Washington (DC), Baltimore (MD) 11 Cincinnati (OH)
12 Philadelphia (PA) 12 Knoxville (TN)
13 New York (NY) 13 Weirton (WV)
14 Charlotte (NC) 14 Chicago (IL)
15 Cleveland (OH) 15 Canton (OH)
16 Greensboro (NC) 16 Charleston (WV)
17 Pittsburgh (PA) 17 Modesto (CA)
18 Phoenix (AZ) 18 New York (NY)
19 San Diego (CA) 19 Merced (CA)
20 Modesto (CA) 20 St Louis (MO)

[SLC Projects]

This air is making me sick. :yuck:
Drives me nuts when i'm driving on the freeways and I can't even see any of my buildings in salt lake. It should be clearing out by later today or tomorrow.

[delts145]

I noticed last night it had already lifted quite a bit. Hopefully this will be the last of it for the year. Neighbors tell me this has been the longest inversion in the past few years. We need to get that snow pack up also. Hopefully, w'ell start to see some more moisture in the mountains. The Rockies have been kind of freaky this winter.

[PHX31]

The one day I was in Salt Lake the air was ridiculously smoggy. I think it was coupled with a little fog/low clouds, becuase it was atrocious.

[delts145]

^^^
We all have our times of the year and we all need to be more pro-active about it. I've been in Pheonix during the Summer when the pollution was worse than atrocious. I haven't seen more smog,even in L.A. at its worst.

[Cottonwood]

An Aunt and Uncle of mine had to move out of Salt Lake because of the persistant smog problems which in turn caused health problems for them since they are elderly. The only time in my life that I had bronchitis was when I was living in Salt Lake , in the avenues to be exact.
Yes, we all deal with dirty air on occasion, but I remember even in the summer driving South down I-15 and descending Malad Pass and noticing the layer of gunk in the distance towards Ogden and Salt Lake.

[wrendog]

well, thank goodness this little storm blew through last night! clear that gunk out.. of course it added 45 minutes to my commute, but oh well

[SLC Projects]

For reals, for once i'm glad it snowed down here. :haha: I can see my buildings again. yay.

[WonderlandPark]

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site204/2007/0131/20070131_015050_14.jpg

That is naaaasty. I have been in Salt Lake in the Winter a few years ago and descending into the Valley was just like descending into LA.

[Wasatch_One]

^ that is more fog than anything due to our topography. Even when just the Indians lived in the valley we have a natural phenomena called an inversion causing these issues (obviously the polution amplifies this issue.)

Salt Lake is basically a bowl, cold air is dense and stays there if there arent consistant storms passing through. Its been about two weeks (until today) since our last storm and this is just what you have to expect in Utah in Jan and the beginning of Feb when we go through stretches without a storm.

In all, we have decent air. The only time you ever hear about our air quality is in Jan...

I actually feel that we are doing a pretty good job (transportation-wise) in working with the issue. Light rail is seeing about 60,000 riders per day. Commuter rail is going to take cars off the freeways. And if you compare other metros around our size, we are one of the best in that area.

This is just an issue we would deal with no matter what. WERE NOT IN KANSAS! ;) hehe

:whip:

[Northernlad]

:previous: Inversions may sometimes start out as fog but regardless the fog becomes smog. If there are desert/brush fires in the summer near the valley the air becomes almost as bad as winter.

[Wasatch_One]

...unfortunately a lot of that summer smoke comes from California fires and fires in the northwest...

Our valley just likes to scoop it right up and hold on :)

[delts145]

^ .

In all, we have decent air. The only time you ever hear about our air quality is in Jan...

I actually feel that we are doing a pretty good job (transportation-wise) in working with the issue. Light rail is seeing about 60,000 riders per day. Commuter rail is going to take cars off the freeways. And if you compare other metros around our size, we are one of the best in that area.

This is just an issue we would deal with no matter what. WERE NOT IN KANSAS! ;) hehe:whip:

Fact is Wasatch, the Statistics bear you out and The Wasatch Metro is now considered as having one of the best future prognosi's because of our agressive approach with Mass Transit. Rather than fabricate an agenda as a couple of pseudo sophiticates have done, we need to read the FACTS.

Of the fifty largest Metro's in America The Wasatch is ranked as the 18th cleanest overall and the prognosis for moving up the ladder further is excellent.

What’s the cleanest big city in the U.S.? How about the dirtiest? In our July issue, we decided to find out, by analyzing data to score each of the 50 largest cities on air quality, water quality, industrial pollution (toxics), Superfund sites, and sanitation. Rather than just the cities themselves, we looked at metropolitan areas, which include surrounding counties and suburbs. (This can have a real effect on a place’s score; Chicago, for example, has excellent water but its score is brought down by problems in the outlying areas). Because we only looked at the 50 largest places, there may be smaller cities that are much cleaner or dirtier than these—and because the scores represent relative rankings, that a city comes in first or last in a given category does not necessarily mean it’s perfectly pristine or dangerously filthy.



HOW WE SCORED: Metro areas earned points on a scale from 1 to 50 in each category, with the numbers reflecting a city's ranking next to the other places. Since it's a 50-city survey, the cleanest in a category got 50 points. Next, to get a preliminary score, we weighted the five categories in terms of the health threat each one posed relative to the others (the weighting was further adjusted for cities with no sanitation data.) Water and air scores, for example, got twice the weight of sanitation scores, since it's of little value to have pristine streets if what you drink and breathe are killing you. To get final scores, we averaged all the points for each city.

Here, then, is our list of the 50 largest metro areas in America and how they compare. Higher total numbers mean a cleaner city.


NAME Air Water Toxics Hazardous Waste Sanitation Total

Portland (OR) 49 50 35 32 43 44.00
San Jose 41 50 50 21 32 40.71
Buffalo 34 50 27 26 47 38.29
Columbus 24 50 31 45 NA 37.33
San Francisco 47 50 34 16 12 36.57
Denver 27 50 44 19 NA 36.17
Rochester (NY) 46 32 32 43 19 35.71
Austin 44 9 48 50 NA 34.00
Orlando 48 23 9 38 48 33.86
San Diego 13 50 46 42 14 32.57
Hartford 32 29 47 9 44 31.71
Sacramento 4 50 49 40 24 31.57
Las Vegas 12 50 40 49 7 31.43
San Antonio 42 18 42 47 8 31.00
Oklahoma City 43 1 45 41 40 30.57
Minneapolis 33 30 21 35 31 30.43
Indianapolis 23 31 33 44 27 30.29
Salt Lake City 26 50 2 14 42 30.00
Jacksonville 45 24 19 20 NA 29.50
Charlotte 28 34 22 27 28 28.71
Virginia Beach 35 17 29 33 30 28.00
Cincinnati 19 35 11 38 34 27.29
Nashville 30 14 18 46 38 27.14
Riverside (CA) 1 50 43 25 15 26.43
New Orleans 39 13 10 48 21 26.14
Milwaukee 37 10 38 38 10 25.71
Seattle 36 21 37 15 13 25.57
Baltimore 16 33 14 24 41 25.29
Miami 50 11 36 8 9 25.00
Dallas 20 28 30 31 16 24.71
Tampa 40 3 17 17 50 24.29
Memphis 22 12 24 29 46 23.86
Providence 39 8 41 7 22 23.43
Louisville 21 15 15 39 35 23.00
Washington (DC) 25 19 12 13 45 22.57
Phoenix 17 37 1 22 23 22.00
Detroit 10 27 20 10 49 21.86
Richmond 31 4 13 34 36 21.86
Cleveland 9 25 26 31 26 21.57
Atlanta 15 26 4 11 39 19.43
Houston 7 39 3 19 20 19.14
Los Angeles 2 38 28 3 17 18.29
Boston 29 7 39 5 11 18.14
Philadelphia 14 22 16 2 37 18.14
Kansas City 19 16 25 13 NA 18.00
Birmingham 8 20 8 28 33 17.86
St. Louis 5 36 6 6 25 17.00
Pittsburgh 6 5 5 23 29 11.29
New York 11 2 23 1 NA 8.33
Chicago 3 6 7 4 18 6.71

[delts145]

posting error.

[JCarp]

I actually feel that we are doing a pretty good job (transportation-wise) in working with the issue. Light rail is seeing about 60,000 riders per day. Commuter rail is going to take cars off the freeways. And if you compare other metros around our size, we are one of the best in that area.


Is the commuter rail going to be diesel or electric? I guess that either way, it will help with the air quality through to all the cars that will be taken off the road.

As a past SLC resident, I'm a bit jealous that Phoenix still does not have their light rail up and running yet, and never mind about commuter rail… :hell: I miss my light rail :tantrum:

[Makid]

Commuter Rail will be electric from everything that I have been able to find.

[IdaBoi]

Salt Lake was on my short list as a city to relocate to until I flew in to check it out for a week and then decided it wasn't where I wanted to be and the air had a lot to do with it. Beautiful location, nice little city, but I decided there are other cities in equally scenic locations that don't have the issue with such extreme periods of dirty air.

[WonderlandPark]

Salt Lake was on my short list as a city to relocate to until I flew in to check it out for a week and then decided it wasn't where I wanted to be and the air had a lot to do with it. Beautiful location, nice little city, but I decided there are other cities in equally scenic locations that don't have the issue with such extreme periods of dirty air.

I know someone in Boise who mentions that you guys have the same problem.

[IdaBoi]

I know someone in Boise who mentions that you guys have the same problem.

Yeah, Boise does get inversions too just like any other city against mountains, but the inversions here seem and are mild compared to SLC's.
But, the Boise area doesn't have the same population base, traffic, and as many heavy industry smoke stacks like the Salt Lake area does which adds to SLC's inversions.

[delts145]

Salt Lake was on my short list as a city to relocate to until I flew in to check it out for a week and then decided it wasn't where I wanted to be and the air had a lot to do with it. Beautiful location, nice little city, but I decided there are other cities in equally scenic locations that don't have the issue with such extreme periods of dirty air.

Hmmmmm, I'm a former New Yorker,current Angelino and live part time along the Wasatch. The Wasatch doesn't seem little at all to me. LOL, this is particularly funny since Metro Salt Lake is about four times the size of Metro Boise. And again as the fact's state, Salt Lake is one of the cleaner large metro's

[IdaBoi]

Hmmmmm, I'm a former New Yorker,current Angelino and live part time along the Wasatch. The Wasatch doesn't seem little at all to me. LOL, this is particularly funny since Metro Salt Lake is about four times the size of Metro Boise. And again as the fact's state, Salt Lake is one of the cleaner large metro's


Delts145, calm down with your sarcasm dude. Your response seems peculiar and defensive. I referred to Salt Lake as a nice little city which it is. I am so sorry that you took my remark the wrong way. I was not intending it to be an insult but it is very obvious that you get worked up easily. Maybe I should correct myself and state that Salt Lake is a nice midsize city. Are you happy? I hope so.
If it makes you even happier, I will state that the Salt Lake Metro area is large because it is large. Happy?

[delts145]

IdaBoi, no no no, I didn't think you were personally offensive. My comment was literal, not on the offense. Believe me, I was one of those coming from a large city that use to think of the Wasatch as little. Many still do, and I honestly do find thats funny.

[MtnClimber]

Hmmmmm, I'm a former New Yorker,current Angelino and live part time along the Wasatch. The Wasatch doesn't seem little at all to me. LOL, this is particularly funny since Metro Salt Lake is about four times the size of Metro Boise. And again as the fact's state, Salt Lake is one of the cleaner large metro's

As someone pointed out early, SLC location is a blessing and a curse. Being in a valley doesn't help when it comes to inversion layers.

[Northernlad]

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660199951,00.html


http://deseretnews.com/photos/air030207.jpg

Wheeze! 28 days of really bad air

By Stephen Speckman
Deseret Morning News
The number of days that residents of Salt Lake and Davis counties had to breathe unhealthy air and were asked to limit their driving and wood burning reached an all-time high of 28 during the annual Winter Air Quality Alert program.
Deseret Morning News graphic In a report released Thursday, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality also said Utah and Weber counties saw a record amount of "red," or poor air-quality days during the program, which started in 1992 and runs from Nov. 1 to March 1 every year.
In January, Utah experienced a near record-setting number of 18 consecutive days of poor air quality, with temperatures below freezing, a condition that can — and did — create an inversion. When cold, dense air in a valley is trapped by high pressure and warmer air above, the resulting inversion puts a "lid" on air movement, trapping pollutants that can be harmful to humans.
"That just allowed those particulates to build up," said Mike Seaman, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
Specifically, the DEQ looks at the levels of a microscopic particulate pollutant called PM 2.5, which is made up mostly of automobile exhaust, followed by near equal amounts of pollution from industry, wood-burning stoves and fireplaces, and businesses.
In the past, the DEQ would declare a "red" day if the level of PM 2.5 reached 65 micrograms per cubic meter. Last December, that standard changed, following a federal mandate.
"We're calling red at 35 micrograms," said DEQ spokeswoman Donna Kemp Spangler. "We want to have healthier air."
Kemp Spangler said there are enough health studies that justify the tougher air-quality standard. She said it means people who are more sensitive to pollution in the air will know sooner that the air quality outside may be reaching a point that could be hazardous to their health.
The State Health Department has guidelines for ways at-risk people should react to red days and the less alarming "yellow" days when PM 2.5 levels are lower but still a health concern.
"We know that high air-pollution days are associated with an increase in emergency-room visits," said Libbey Chuy, the health department's asthma-program specialist. After a red day, Chuy said, there is usually a rise in the absentee rate at schools.
It's estimated that 8 percent of all Utahns suffer from some form of asthma, according to Chuy. Other health conditions impacted by poor air quality include lung disease, heart disorders and a compromised immune system. Elderly people and children with developing lungs are also particularly at risk on yellow and red days.
"It doesn't mean you can't go outside," Chuy said. "The focus is to avoid strenuous or prolonged activity outside."
People can actually register through the DEQ to receive e-mail alerts about poor air quality. For more information about the e-mails, how to reduce pollution and the monitoring of air quality, visit these Web sites: www.cleanair.utah.gov and www.airquality.utah.gov.

[urbanboy]

A temporary solution: plan your family cruise during that time period.:tup:

[urbanboy]

Maybe we should change the name of this thread to something that is not too inflammatory, but still has the same meaning. I doesn't do a very good job of promoting the area:shrug:

[delts145]

Taken from previous page,

While much needs to be done along the Wasatch and all 50 major metro's, The Wasatch is toward the bottom of the list, not the top.


Air in Your City Environmental Defense ranked the major population centers according to where dirty air affects the greatest number of children. Rankings over a three year period

50 Worst Cities

Rank Metro Statistical Area

1 Los Angeles, CA

2 Riverside-San Bernardino, CA

3 New York City, NY

4 Philadelphia, PA

5 Houston, TX

6 Washington, DC

7 Chicago, IL

8 Baltimore, MD

9 Atlanta, GA

10 Detroit, MI

11 Fresno, CA

12 Sacramento, CA

13 Bakersfield, CA

14 Dallas, TX

15 Boston, MA

16 St. Louis, MO-IL

17 Cleveland, OH

18 Pittsburgh, PA

19 Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

20 Charlotte, NC

21 Newark, NJ

22 Memphis, TN

23 Monmouth-Ocean, NJ

24 Indianapolis, IN

25 Cincinnati, OH

26 Hartford, CT

27 Middlesex-Hunterdon, NJ

28 Columbus, OH

29 Raleigh, NC

30 Grand Rapids, MI

31 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY

32 Richmond, VA

33 Greensboro-High Point, NC

34 Providence, RI

35 Denver, CO

36 New Haven, CT

37 Salt Lake City, UT

38 Louisville, KY

39 Wilmington, DE

40 Ventura, CA

41 Dayton-Springfield, OH

42 Akron, OH

43 Kansas City, KS/MO

44 Allentown, PA

45 San Antonio, TX

46 Birmingham, AL

47 Knoxville, TN

48 Bridgeport, CT

49 Harrisburg, PA

50 San Diego, CA

American Lung Association/ The most polluted US cities

Rank Smog: Rank Particles:

The most polluted cities
1 Los Angeles (CA) 1 Los Angeles (CA)
2 Visalia-Porterville (CA) 2 Visalia-Porterville (CA)
3 Bakersfield (CA) 3 Bakersfield (CA)
4 Fresno (CA) 4 Fresno (CA)
5 Houston (TX) 5 Pittsburgh (PA)
6 Merced (CA) 6 Detroit (MI)
7 Sacramento (CA) 7 Atlanta (GA)
8 Hanford (CA) 8 Cleveland (OH)
9 Knoxville (TN) 9 Hanford (CA)
10 Dallas – Fort Worth (TX) 10 Birmingham (AL)
11 Washington (DC), Baltimore (MD) 11 Cincinnati (OH)
12 Philadelphia (PA) 12 Knoxville (TN)
13 New York (NY) 13 Weirton (WV)
14 Charlotte (NC) 14 Chicago (IL)
15 Cleveland (OH) 15 Canton (OH)
16 Greensboro (NC) 16 Charleston (WV)
17 Pittsburgh (PA) 17 Modesto (CA)
18 Phoenix (AZ) 18 New York (NY)
19 San Diego (CA) 19 Merced (CA)
20 Modesto (CA) 20 St Louis (MO)

[Northernlad]

We all crave growth, but at our air's cost:


From another online source:

Salt Lake Air Named 6th Dirtiest in the Nation -from a report by the American Lung Association:

If you care about the air you breathe...(and who doesn't?)... you'll be interested in this story.

A new report says the air along the Wasatch Front is the 6th dirtiest in the nation... at least for one important pollutant.

John Hollenhorst reports.

You've seen it... on those winter inversion days. Sometimes you can taste it. When it's bad enough, you feel like you could chew it.

A lot of the bad air is tiny particles called "PM-2.5". Essentially it's soot.

PROF. ARDEN POPE/BYU: "SO IT COMES FROM AUTOMOBILES, IT COMES FROM TRUCKS AND IT COMES FROM INDUSTRIAL SOURCES."

BYU professor Arden Pope did groundbreaking work in the 1990's that helped convince scientists and regulators.

Small particles create a small health risk, Pope says. Spread over millions of people, they add up to a significant public health concern.

PROF. ARDEN POPE/BYU: "WE TEND TO DIE A LITTLE BIT EARLIER AS A RESULT OF HAVING A LIFETIME OF EXPOSURE TO HIGH LEVELS OF POLUTION."

SMALL PARTICLE POLLUTION 1. Los Angeles, Calif. 2. Fresno, Calif. 3. Bakersfield, Calif. 4. Pittsburgh, Penn. 5. Eugene, Oregon 6. Salt Lake City-Ogden ------------------ 18. Provo-Orem

The new study by the American Lung Association ranks Salt Lake City/Ogden the 6th worst metro area for small particle pollution. Provo Orem was 18th.

The study's methodology has been critized by some as misleading. Utah's air quality director says the study uses a different method than federal regulators.

RICK SPROTT/UTAH AIR QUALITY DIRECTOR: "OUR INTEREST HERE IS NOT SO MUCH QUIBBLING WITH HOW THE LUNG ASSOCIATION MAY CHOOSE TO PROVIDE A REPORT. BUT THE FACT IS, YEAH! THERE'S SOME PRETTY HIGH POLLUTION HERE. AND THE GOAL IS TO MEET THE HEALTH STANDARDS."

Experts agree air quality has improved greatly over the last 20 to 30 years. But growth threatens to reverse the progress.

PROF. ARDEN POPE/BYU: "WHAT THESE SCORES TELL US IS THAT WHILE WE'RE MAKING IMPROVEMENT, WE DONT WANT TO BECOME COMPLACENT."

JOHN HOLLENHORST REPORTING: "THERE'S NO DOUBT THAT OUR WEATHER AND OUR TOPOGRAPHY ARE A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM. BUT EXPERTS SAY THAT'S NO EXCUSE FOR NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT IF THE AIR WE BREATH SHORTENS OUR LIVES. JOHN HOLLENHORST, EYEWITNESS NEWS, SALT LAKE CITY."

[Northernlad]

This has been such a bad winter and I pray that this is not a sign of coming winters. This affects all of us who live along the Wasatch Front so I though I would post this current story. Do you think it is a long shot for SUV hungry Utahn's to park their SUV's, Jeeps, and stinking diesel pick up trucks and take Trax or buy fuel efficient cars?



Winter's bad air still choking Utah
Logan, Salt Lake City pollution levels among highest nationwide
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 03/07/2007 12:40:12 AM MST


Click photo to enlargeA layer of smog settled in the Cache Valley Tuesday afternoon... (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune )«12»Logan stood out Tuesday for having the dirtiest air in the nation. And the Salt Lake Valley followed closely behind.
Bob Dalley, Utah director of air monitoring, pointed out March is usually a time when most of America doesn't have air-quality problems.
But Utah does, thanks to a rare combination of snow, geography, a high-pressure system, windless skies and a buildup of fine-particle pollution coughed out mainly by vehicles and industry.
"I expect this to continue into [today] - the winds might pick up in the evening," Dalley said. "We should get relief of some type Thursday. But until then, we're here."
Pollution jumped in northern Utah to levels shown to harm health, making communities ordinarily known for healthy lifestyles to register one-day pollution worse than such congested cities as Los Angeles, Houston, New York, Boston and Chicago.
The health warnings applied, in particular, to people considered ''sensitive'': the young, the old and those with heart and lung problems.
In Cache County, pollution levels were declared unhealthy for everyone for outdoor exertion. Outside recess was canceled at schools.
For Carmen Sorenson, it is a matter of trying not to let the pollution affect daily life more than it must in a household where three of five people have asthma.
A resident of Hyde

Park and lifelong resident of Cache County, the Greenville Elementary PTA president backs the breathing-impact tests being done since January on 100 of the school's 500 students, including her daughter. She suspects test results will validate the health problems she sees before pollution warnings are issued - her daughter's fatigue, pale skin and dark circles under the eyes.
"It doesn't just affect the kids with asthma," she said. "It affects everybody."
This week's pollution warnings were unusual, not because northern Utah normally doesn't have high pollution but because the wintertime pollution season normally ends in mid-February.
Particularly bad pollution spells in January and December, plus the lowering of the level of pollution at which alerts are declared, made Salt Lake City rack up a record 28 "red" air-quality days when health warnings were issued. During a few of those days, northern Utah pollution was among the highest in the nation, if not the highest.
But Logan had a markedly mild year until the late February snowstorms helped create perfect conditions for a rare March pollution buildup.
"We've got more fog now than we've had all winter," said Grant Koford of the Bear River Health Department in Logan.
Koford noted there are practical things people can do to help protect the air.
The most important: "Reduce driving. Now's the time to do it."
"And, if you're sensitive to this stuff," he added, "you should remain indoors and limit your outdoor activities."
People in "sensitive" groups - the very young, the very old and people with heart and lung problems - are advised to avoid exertion outdoors in Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties.
In Cache County, the health warning applies to everyone.
Microscopic particles of soot, the byproduct of combustion engines, are responsible for these wintertime warnings. "Particulate matter" 2.5 microns and smaller, commonly called PM2.5, builds up in the air, and when people breathe it, it can cause a wide variety of health problems.
Studies have shown that the particles, about one-fortieth the width of a human hair, burrow deep into the lung tissue.
High concentrations in the air can worsen symptoms of asthma, for instance. High levels also are blamed for an increase in heart attacks and deaths from heart and lung disease.
fahys@sltrib.com

Pollution by the numbers
Air-quality officials measure fine-particle pollution as a concentration, micrograms pollution per cubic meter of air. The higher the number, the worse the pollution. Here is what the Utah Division of Air Quality's monitors recorded through Tuesday afternoon:
* 25.1 Ogden monitor high reading, Monday 10 p.m.
* 34.1 Lindon monitor high reading, Tuesday noon
* 35.5 triggers "unhealthy" warning for everyone
* 47.1 Salt Lake City high reading, Tuesday noon
* 56.8 Logan monitor high reading, Tuesday 5 a.m.

[Northernlad]

Clearing the air: Legislature passed three good bills, dropped a fourth
Tribune Editorial
Article Last Updated: 03/06/2007 07:57:29 PM MST


As you breathe the muck we Utahns ruefully call air, you might be wondering what your Legislature did to help clean it up. We are happy to report some good news on that front and give Utah's lawmakers their due for passing three good bills.
As part of its tax-reform package, the Legislature extended and improved its income and corporate franchise tax credits for renewable energy systems, which had been scheduled to expire. The extensions, sponsored by Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, should make the credits more attractive both for businesses and residential developers who might use solar, wind, geothermal or biomass systems. Credits for homeowners also were extended.
Legislators also passed HB110, sponsored by Rep. Fred Hunsaker, R-Logan, to increase the fuel efficiency of the state's vehicle fleet, and HB351, sponsored by Rep. Roger Barrus, R-Centerville, to create a $5 million revolving loan fund for school districts to make buildings more energy efficient.
Unfortunately, these laws will not do much to reduce the pollution from Utahns' vehicle tailpipes, which are trapped by temperature inversions in the state's valleys. To accomplish that, we'll all have to drive less, and when we do, operate more fuel-efficient hybrid cars and trucks.
So it is disappointing that lawmakers did not pass HB122, which would have provided a state income-tax credit for clean, efficient vehicles,
regardless of which fuel or technology they use. Utah currently awards a credit for up to half of the incremental cost of an alternative-fuel vehicle, so one that runs on natural gas, for example, qualifies. But the most promising technology, a gasoline-electric hybrid like the Toyota Prius, does not qualify for the credit because it does not run on an alternative fuel.
Rep. Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake City, sponsored HB122, which would have fixed that. A version made it through the House but died in the Senate.
Utah also should follow the lead of Western states that are requiring a greater portion of their energy supplies to come from renewable sources. New Mexico recently doubled its standard, from 10 percent by 2010 to 20 percent by 2020. That is expected to give solar power generation in that state a big boost.
Utah should follow the lead of Western states that are requiring a greater portion of their energy supplies to come from renewable sources.