Toxic Utah: Mending toxic Utah

In recent years, Utah has taken a decidedly different approach to enforcement of environmental laws, one based largely on incentives that foster voluntary compliance.

"The best way (to achieve better environmental results) may not be to pass new laws but to work with business and industry to voluntarily make changes," Nielson said. One example of that, she said, is a successful state program that is cleaning up sites contaminated with hazardous materials.

Another example can be found at Magnesium Corp. of America's plant in remote Tooele County. Long labeled the nation's worst air polluter, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory, the company voluntarily plans to add a new "sealed cell" production unit that is much cleaner than its traditional production technology. In doing so, it will set the standard for magnesium refineries.

"That's why Magcorp is such a positive story for us," said Stephen Packham, DEQ toxicologist. "Their new cells are going to be so efficient, reduce chlorine emissions 90 to 95 percent."

But rank-and-file regulators inside the department, while supportive of the voluntary programs, are nonetheless skeptical of a statewide regulatory system built too much around voluntary compliance with environmental law. Only rarely does DEQ impose civil penalties or fines for noncompliance.

When it comes to filing the appropriate public disclosures or reporting dangerous leaks and spills, there are laws requiring industry to take certain actions. But who's to say if the law is ever followed?

In most cases, "We rely on the honesty and goodwill of industry," said one DEQ scientist. "We could be doing a lot more."

The air we breathe

One area where the state could be doing more is air pollution, more specifically the fine particulates that seep deep into the lungs where they cause respiratory ailments, said Brigham Young University professor C. Arden Pope, a national expert on air pollution and its costs to public health and the economy.

"If Utah does as little as it can get away with, then I see it as a problem," Pope said. "If not, we'll continue to have this ugly pollution along the Wasatch Front, and it will get worse," he said.

A pending U.S. Supreme Court decision, expected later this year, could allow the EPA to set tougher fine particulate standards for all states. Currently, the EPA requires state regulators to measure the fine particulate matter that causes poor visibility and threatens public health.

The focus of the summer air pollution problem is ozone, a harmful chemical reaction caused mostly by car fumes and heat. In the winter, microscopic particulate matter known as "PM2.5" is a concern.