Utah report praises gains in cleaning up environment

Utah has made big gains in cleaning up the state's environment, according to the first-ever "State of the Environment" report. But the job is far from over.

Issued by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, the report was prepared by a leadership development committee of five division heads in the DEQ. It was released to reporters Thursday and made available on the Internet at www.deq.utah.gov/envrpt/index.htm. The report summarizes "the condition of Utah's air, land and water over the past few decades" and outlines problems ahead.

Air

In the 1980s, violations of health standards occurred in one or more of the state's counties for four of six criteria pollutants identified by the Environmental Protection Agency.

"As of Dec. 18, 2006, all Utah counties attained current federal air quality standards," the report says. "Remarkably, the improvement comes after significant population growth, an achievement equaled by only a few other states."

However, new EPA rules on tiny particulate pollution — PM 2.5, meaning particles 2.5 microns across or smaller — "will prove to be much more difficult to meet" than under earlier regulations. "DEQ monitors the air for the criteria pollutants hourly at air monitoring stations around the state."

Land

"The amount of toxic chemicals released into the environment has steadily declined in recent years, in part because of industry's voluntary efforts," the report says.

In 2004, the most recent publication of the Toxic Release Inventory available, total toxic releases in Utah were about 167.8 million pounds of chemicals — a decline by one-third from the amount released in 2003, according to the report.

In municipal solid waste, it says new regulations require landfills, "with some regulatory exceptions," to have liners and barriers to prevent contaminants from leaching into the groundwater. "In 2005, 83 percent of the 2.3 million tons of municipal solid waste was disposed of in lined landfills."

Concerning radioactive waste disposal, the report says EnergySolutions Inc. has been disposing of low-level waste from most of the country. Volume disposed at EnergySolutions' Tooele County operation has increased "substantially from 13 million cubic feet in 2001 to 24.7 million cubic feet in 2005." All companies sending such waste into Utah must do so by permit, according to a law passed by the 2002 Legislature.