Group tries to draw attention to air quality issues

Against the backdrop of a valley enveloped in some of the most polluted air in the country, a group of concerned citizens gathered Friday at the state Capitol to deliver a survey to lawmakers and draw attention to air-quality issues.

The group included representatives from Utah Moms for Clean Air and their children; students and teachers from local charter school City Academy; and members of the Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City.

Debbie Sigman, a member of Utah Moms for Clean Air, said the survey is intended to identify legislators who would be willing to work with the group and to determine which ideas would have a realistic chance of being enacted into law.

"We're not ready this year to create legislation," Sigman said. "These ideas are good ideas, but they're seeds. They're only intended to start a conversation."

Utah Moms for Clean Air founder Cherise Udell said the survey included questions about support for public transportation projects and about expanding a $2.5 million school bus retrofit program, funded by the Legislature last year, to include all diesel vehicles.

"Cleaning up diesel is one of the biggest bangs for your buck," Udell said.

City Academy chemistry teacher and bus driver Shea Wickelson said retrofitting the school's bus with advanced emissions controls had resulted in a 90 percent reduction in pollutants being released into the air.

"The air around school buses is 15 percent higher in dangerous particulates than EPA limits," Wickelson said. "Kids' lungs are still developing, and so they are even more susceptible to problems."

Prior to its retrofit, the bus already had been running on biodiesel fuel made by students at the school.

Eleventh grade City Academy student David Maack said he and other students routinely visit area restaurants, collecting used vegetable oil and then converting it to fuel in an area set up outside at the back of the school.

Local pediatrician and Utah Moms for Clean Air cofounder Michelle Hofmann pointed out that only four counties in Utah require emissions testing on passenger vehicles.

"We have people driving into our valley that don't have to emissions-test their vehicles on a regular basis," Hofmann said. "I'm not necessarily suggesting that we start statewide emissions testing, but we need to start thinking creatively about some of these problems that we have."

Salt Lake City resident Ed Firmage Jr., who called himself a supporter of Utah Moms for Clean Air, said that radical action was needed. He proposed making public transportation free to everyone, expanding on an idea that was presented to the Legislature last year by a group of Utah physicians — but went nowhere.

"What is it going to take?" Firmage said. "How many of our children affected with neurological disorders or lung problems or diminished birth weight will it take before they are willing to do something?"

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