It's kind of interesting that the time
of year when we usually have
inversions is the same time of year
that the legislature is in session. Hi
everybody welcome to the County
Seat today I'm your host Chad Booth.
I'm not drawing any parallels or
linkages here I'm just saying that
when we have our worst air is the
time when our lawmakers are
meeting so they can do something
about it and they have paid quite a
bit of attention over the last few
years. Today we are going to talk to
the director of the department of
environmental quality about what
Utah has done and about what the
new administration in Washington
might have as a way of impact on us
and what our goals and targets are.
But first we want to start with a little
bit of background on just why Utah's
air is the way that it is.
There is one atmospheric
event in Utah that you can
annually count on in our
long range forecast
with
over 95% accuracy. It is
the inversion. They are as
much a part of the
narrative here in Utah as
any part of our history,
and surprisingly they can be
tracked all the way back to
statehood.
Utah has three basins that
predictably bring
noteworthy inversions: The
Wasatch Front, Cache
Valley, and the Uintah
Basin.
An inversion occurs when a
high pressure area with
warmer air moves over a
valley with cold air in the
bottom.
BRYCE BIRD (O.S.):
When we see the very
highest concentrations
during the wintertime is
when we have snow on the
ground, when we get a good
big storm event, we get 8
to 10 inches of show on the
ground then a high pressure
moves in and brings some
warm air in over the top of
that. Because the valley
floor is cold with the snow
there, it is reflective, it
doesn't heat up and mix.
That is when we see the lid
go on the valley and
everything we put into the
valley until the next storm
comes and clears it out.
Summertime inversions
somewhere and
usually are not driven by
particulate pollution, but
rather ozone build up.
Many people think that our
overall air quality is bad
most of the year. However
the number of days where we
are out of compliance with
federal guide lines is
relatively small, even
though they are bad days.
On average about 5 percent
of the days or about 18
days per year we don't
comply with the current
federal standards
In fact if the Wasatch
Front were moved lock stock
and barrel to Kansas where
there are no valleys, we
would have air cleaner than
most American cities.
We compare very favorably
with other metropolitan
areas, it is the topography
that traps the pollution
that they don't have to
deal with that we do.
While headlines over the
last 40 years have brought
attention to legions of new
regulations and plans to
reduce pollution, people
still wonder why we seem to
have just as many days that
trigger an alert for air
quality despite our efforts
to clean the emissions
from our cars, factories
and make our homes more
efficient.
Well in truth, we have
improved it.... quite a
bit. You see, while the
amount of pollution keeps
going down due to our
collective efforts, so to
does the threshold for non-
attainment.
Today's allowable standard
for air quality is only 20%
of what was allowable in
1986, so in essence we have
reduced particulate
pollution by around 80%.
That doesn't mean that
anyone is backing off the
clean air pedal however, as
Utah faces a population
expected to double in the
next 40 years, we will need
and can do much more.
For the County Seat, I'm
Malia Stringham.
Thanks Malia, I really appreciate your
report. Now we have an
understanding of what unique
features make the air the way it is in
Utah it's time to look at what we
have done and where we are headed
and we will do that in right after we
come back from this commercial
break.
Welcome back to The County Seat
joining us for our conversation today
is Allen Matheson who is the
executive director of the department
of environmental quality. Allen thank
you for taking the time out of your
busy schedule particularly during the
legislation session to spend time to
talk with us.
This is important and I am happy to
be here, Chad.
Every year we go through cycles we
have inversions in the winter a couple
bad ones in the summer at least get
the traffic signs going and people
don't pay much attention to it
otherwise has anything really
significantly changed in how the state
addresses air quality in the past 5
years?
It's important to know that air
quality is important and it affects all
us it's our healthy our concern for our
families our economies quality of life
the pride that we have in our state.
There is a commitment to address
the air quality challenges in fact I
think the record is pretty good if you
look over the last roughly ten years
we have added about 600,000 people
to the state population 20% increase
but we have reduced our overall
emissions 30% so that is about a 46%
per capita reduction in emissions. So
something is working. That does not
mean that is where we need to be.
We know that Utah's air quality is
generally pretty good and 95% of the
days on average we meet the federal
health standards. But there are these
roughly 17 to 18 days a year where
we don't and that is too many. So
there is an effort to reduce that. If
you look at what has happened over
the last few years there have been
new standards applied to industry
requiring that they put best
technologies in their plants to reduce
emissions. We have had 30 new
regulations that they are addressing
in area sources, homes small
businesses etc. trying to find a
balance that allows us to reduce
emissions without putting too much
strain in a small business. There has
been the you care program that the
governor started that is putting out
public education information how
people can take steps to reduce their
emissions.
How is that working?
It's working really well. I think
anybody that has watched TV and has
seen any of the weather reports has
seen the you care logo people are
getting educated on the things they
can do in their life to reduce
pollution, not idling as much, not
driving as much, turning down their
thermostat etc. there has been a lot
being done with renewable energies
you can that Utah has been among
the leaders in the nation in increasing
solar resources over the last couple
years. I think 800 new megawatts
over this past year.
Are most of those done on an
individual home by home basis or are
we talking about large projects as
well?
That 800 megawatts I'm talking about
is utility scale so the large projects
that generate power for the grid that
is not including what is happening in
homes. The state is taking the lead
and trying to set an example so we
are cleaning our state vehicle fleet.
The governor's required each of the
state agencies to develop plant to
reduce travel. There is a new
employee that works with each of the
agencies of state government to take
actions to improve air quality. Anti-
idling requirements and more so
there are good things happening
more needs to be done.
Every time I have a conversation
occasionally you see social media 2
people will explode back and forth on
this it's like the guys that are
defending their cars are blaming
industry and the guys that are
business owners are blaming the cars
and this fight goes back and forth are
we advancing on all those playing
fields?
We have to and pointing fingers does
not solve the problem. So the reality
is we have to make progress in all of
these sectors and we are the state
plan targets industry targets area
sources our homes building
restaurants small businesses etc. and
it targets automobiles and fuels and
in fact we are working very hard to
bring cleaner cars cleaner fuels into
the region.
Excellent good place to take a break a
we will turn our attention to what's
ahead in legislation when we come
back on The County Seat.
Welcome back to The County Seat we
are talking about air quality in Utah
with Allen Matheson from the Dpt. Of
Environmental Quality as we left to
break you talked about a whole string
of things the state is being engaged in
I would like to target what you think
the one biggest accomplishment of
the state of Utah in the tenure of the
time you have been there?
I think there are a number of things
that have happened and really the
strategy to address air pollution
requires lots of little things there are
no silver bullets but there are some
things that have made a difference.
One of those is research and a lot of
the clean air act and the EPA
standards are based on research that
was done on California or the East
coast and Utah's situation is different
because of our topography and the
chemistry that creates the pollution
in the air we need to understand
what happens here in our
atmosphere so that we can target
actions that make the biggest
difference at the lowest cost. The
Legislature been well about funding
some of that research over the last
few years. That really is making it
possible for us to develop affective
strategies not just looking at what
others have done.
Balance becomes part of it, if you
were to take Chicago's EPA standards
and apply them here and had to
comply with their regulations is that
to say that those regulations might
not get the same bang for the buck if
we were to build them ourselves.
So there are national standards that
set he targets we have to hit but
under this process of collaborative
federalism that is set up under the
clean air act EPA is supposed to let
the states to develop strategies to
reach those standards. Sometimes
they micromanage a little more than
they would like but for the most part
as we get good information about
Utah's atmosphere and situation and
can understand Utah's social
dynamics and political dynamics we
can develop programs that are more
tailored to get the job done here.
Let me shift this to a different
conversation, what is as we are in the
legislative session are there any big
tweaks going on this session what is
the legislative climate about air
quality?
I think there is a general concern
about air quality in the legislature
and there have been steps that have
been taken in the last few years that
have made a difference one of those
has been a bill passed last year to
require that the beginning in 2018
only ultra-low NOx water heaters will
be sold in Utah and that does not
sound like a big deal but you think
about the literally millions of water
heaters in the state and each of them
with a flame that is creating some
emissions these new water heaters
will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions
by 70%. That will make a big
difference in our community at very
little cost if any. As we look at this
session really the biggest issues are in
terms of appropriations. We have a
request for air quality monitors we
want to make sure that we have
monitors that are up to date and in
the right places so that people know
what the air quality is in their area
and make decisions about when they
exercise and we can get better
information about our compliance.
So that is the big one another is a
project that we are hoping to fund in
the Uintah Basin there is a lot of oil
and gas development out there its
good for the economy of the state
but it does create an air quality
challenge so we are looking for
appropriations that allow us to get
infrared cameras that allow you to
see through the camera leaks in the
system so in cooperation with
industry with local governments out
there trying to come together and say
just got out if you see the leak you
can make quick little fix its non-
regulatory but it can make a real
difference in our community. So
those are things we are really
targeting.
So turning to it nationally there back
to social media I have heard a lot of
people in a state of panic that saying
with our new administration our EPA
is going to roll back to where it was
30 or 40 years ago or when they first
founded it I believe it was in the
Nixon administrating when EPA came
to life and we are going back to that
standard can you give us an
enlightened answer to that?
Well I'm not sure we fully know what
is going to happen in the coming
months with the new administration.
My sense is that they will be more
ready to listen to the states and some
of the challenges that we are facing.
We do have clean air act that has
been passed and it establishes some
requirements on states and on EPA
and my guess is that will not change
dramatically or any time soon., just
to let people know what is happening
in Utah in terms of the regulatory
structure. Might have been reading
in the papers that EPA is proposing to
change the Wasatch Front from being
a moderate non-attainment area to
being a serious non-attainment area.
Some people get worried and they
think it means the air is getting worse
in fact the air is getting much better.
By operation of law because we did
not meet the standard by the end of
2015 we are automatically kicked up
to a serious non-attainment area.
That means that we have to develop
over this next year a state plan to
come into compliance by the end of
2019. It's not a lot of time and if we
fail to meet that standard then again
by operation of law we are subject to
what is called most stringent
measures it means we would have to
put in here the most stringent
controls and measures that are used
anywhere else in the country
regardless of cost. That is a heavy
hammer that would impact our
economy and industry and others. So
we want to meet the standard and
frankly we are pretty close. So this
new plan that we are developing over
the next year will take input from the
public will look at the research that
has been done so we can target
strategically those efforts that will
make a difference and collectively
come up with a plan that will get us
into compliance. I think we can do
that and compliance is based on a 3
year rolling average. The last period
of time was 2013 to 2015 and 2013
was a terrible year for inversions and
we had about 40 days that were over
the standard. 2014 and 2015 have
been pretty good and 2016 was
pretty good so we are getting to a
point that we are in the target range.
Isn't that really kind of a roll of the
dice because you are so weather
dependent on this that you could get
thrown the most critical thing just by
weather pattern that comes in and
sticks for a couple of years and it
almost seems unfair.
It does and it's a real challenge.
2012 we had not exceedances of the
federal standard. In 2013 almost 40
and it is weather dependent but we
cannot control the weather so what
we can control our emissions we look
at ways we can reduce or
contributions of air pollution in
thoughtful reasonable practical ways.
You don't want to interfere with
peoples freedoms or quality of life
create great expense so we really are
trying to have a targeted
collaborative effort to do what makes
sense here.
I see some extremes you put a five
day curfew on people and make them
stay home.
It's not going to happen we have to
live our lives and conduct business
and keep the economy going I think
people are stepping up our industry
stepped up some cases voluntarily
and put on new controls we are
looking very hard at tier 3 fuels in
cars the newer cars coming in are so
much cleaner and if people look for a
new car that has a smog rating of 8 or
higher that is significantly cleaner
than the newest cars we have bought
in the last few years we are trying to
bring tier 3 fuel into Utah which is
low Sulphur fuel would be much
cleaner and the combination of the
new cars and the new fuel could
reduce automobile emissions by 80%
over the next 10 years or so. That
makes a huge difference for us and
those are our targets.
Wow we are going to take a quick
break on The County Seat and we will
be right back with our conversation
with Allen Matheson from Dept. of
Environmental Quality.
Welcome back to the County Seat we
are talking with Allen Matheson
today with the Dot of Environmental
Quality I guess one of the biggest
things in the news in Volkswagen go
caught cheating and as a benefit the
state gets I think about 32 million
dollars in a settlement.
That's right we expect to get a little
over 32 million dollars in the first
phase and there may be a little more
that will bring it up to 35 million and
the consent decree under that
settlement sets out various things
that the state can do to reduce diesel
emissions and so over the course of
the next month or so we are going to
be working the a stakeholder group
and identify strategies to clean up or
replace heavy polluting diesel
vehicles. Might be old school buses
be old locomotive engines things like
that there is also an opportunity in
that settlement to develop an electric
vehicle infrastructure. That is
something the state has been
focusing on not just under the
Volkswagen settlement but through
some other grants. The office of
energy development is looking right
now at creating a corridor from the
airport down through our 5 national
parks that would support a charging
infrastructure for electric vehicles the
governor a month or so ago stood
with his counter parts in Colorado
and Nevada talking about creating an
electric vehicle corridor through the
west so the market is driving toward
cleaner vehicles many are looking at
electric vehicles we want to make
sure we have an infrastructure in
place that will help address it.
Will that infrastructure have to have
both Tesla and normal electric cars? I
know their hook ups are little
different.
It will be hook ups that will address
the standardized cars meaning all of
them. As we said about half of the
pollution that we see is from
automobiles. That is declining with
the turnover of the older fleet but the
average car in Utah is about 12 years
old so we have still got some highly
polluting vehicles out there as we
transition we will see automobile
emissions reduced by almost half in
the next few years. That will be a big
part of it. We still face the headwinds
of growth. Utah is the fastest
growing state and with more people
comes more driving more cars more
pollution from our homes etc. so all
of us need to take responsibility to do
our part to try to reduce our
emissions and do it for the health of
ourselves and our families for the
health of our economy and for the
great quality of life that we have in
Utah.
What we are doing applies to both
Wasatch, Uintah Basin and Cache
valley?
Yes, there are different issues in all
those areas but a lot of the strategies
are similar we are targeting specific
strategies in the areas where it will
make a difference.
Excellent Allen thank you so much for
taking the time to be here.
I'm happy to be here, Chad.
And thank you for inviting into your
home every week on The County Seat
remember share this with your
friends and local government is
where your life happens become
involved and be part of the solution
and we will look for you next week on
The County Seat.
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