ROOSEVELT — State and local health officials have more questions than answers about what caused life-threatening asthma attacks in two young boys living near an environmental cleanup site in central Duchesne County.

El Paso Exploration and Production began the second phase of its remediation effort on contaminated soil at one of its sites in Utahn, nine miles north of Duchesne, in mid-April. Two weeks later, a 4-year-old boy and a 1-year-old boy from two families had to be rushed to the hospital in Roosevelt after they experienced asthma attacks so severe that their inhalers and other home breathing treatments failed.

TriCounty Health Department Director Joseph Shaffer said environmental scientists with his agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality, and epidemiologists with the Utah Department of Health are investigating the incidents.

"We don't even know where to point the finger," Shaffer said. "It could be anything right now."

Stoney Monks suspects the health problems are being caused by the huge pile of polluted dirt that El Paso crews have excavated during the cleanup. Monks lives about 200 yards from the work site and on April 26 rushed his 4-year-old son Greysen, who suffers from asthma, to Uintah Basin Medical Center after the boy began gasping for air.

"They had to give him steroids, and they were going to admit him to the hospital, but they were able to get it under control," Monks said.

Monks, who said he's suffered from a near-constant sore throat and cough since the cleanup work started, moved his family to his parents' home in Myton for a few days to allow his son's lungs to heal. He said during the stay at his grandparents' home, Greysen had no symptoms of asthma.

"The odor that comes off (the dirt pile) is just unbearable," Monks said. "It burns your eyes, and it smells terrible. We're concerned that whatever is evaporating off of there is causing problems with the air quality."

El Paso company officials said Tuesday that the contaminated soil they are cleaning up is part of a "flare pit" — an earthen basin used to collect and burn off byproducts of oil and gas production. The pit, which El Paso never used, is located at a compressor station acquired in a 2001 merger with another oil and gas company.

El Paso halted its remediation efforts on April 28, after the reports surfaced that nearby residents were becoming ill.

"Our desire is to make sure that the area is safe and that the public is not harmed in any way. That's why we suspended (the cleanup)," said El Paso spokesman Richard Wheatley.

Monks said he's concerned not only about what's in the air that's making his family and others sick, but the possibility that groundwater in the area may be contaminated. The well that provides the Monks family with water is only 40 feet deep. El Paso has already dug at least 20 feet down, according to public health officials, and is still finding contamination.