Reader comments
Group seeks pollution solutions

These people are pioneers. It takes courage to step up and fight babies right to begin life with a chance to breathe and develop and for adults us to breathe what we can't see. Industry can do better (if they're forced to).

I believe there are solutions to the quagmire of dirty air and I think its going to take private individuals banding together to move Utah Air Quality to get off their posteriors and work for air that is safe to breathe. Won't be easy, but good things never are.

People acorss the state are coming together to fight for our very lives. Organizations like Sevier Citizens for Clean Air & Water, Health Professionals Opposed to Pollution, and Utah Moms for Clean Air. Its a new frontier out there and people are coming together to do it. We had to fight for a woman to vote, we had to fight to organize labor - now we've got to fight to breathe.

The problem is the republicanism mentality in Utah. It could (and should) be much better. The irony is that many in Utah government are LDS, which preach/teach to be stewards of the earth. I would have expected better of our leaders because of this doctrine. Kind of sad...

A good step would be timing traffic lights so the dominant flow of commuter traffic doesn't have to stop. Another step is build more lanes on the freeway to reduce the stop-and-go, which is a major contributor to smog. These are know, proven steps that can help immediately.

Then individuals have to step up by keeping vehicles in good running condition, turning off the engine instead of idling, and combining trips to reduce overall driving.

Because of its geography, Salt Lake has always had a smog problem. It cannot go away entirely. But I would challenge the article's assertions about health problems--are these assertions backed up by reliable scientific studies?

Yes, FORCE is the solution. Industry can do better (if they're forced to). We can do better (if we're forced to). We need more laws, more force behind them and more people like Pioneer to do better!

Does anyone want to recognize that we had fewer red days this year than last? No, we can only focus on making everyone feel guilty and tell everyone they are not doing enough.

I think monitoring air quality and teaching the public what they can do to help and warn/inform them when air quality is a problem is a good thing. I don't think Pioneer's FORCE is the answer.

Some of Pioneer's statements sound like we're gearing up for war...
-"Private individuals banding together" I assume to correct the behavior of those not in their band?
-"People accross the state coming together to fight for our very lives"?
-"We had to FIGHT for a woman to vote, FIGHT to organize labor, now we've got to FIGHT to breath"!

Sounds like a speach from Obama or Gore. Of course there are solutions to the quagmire of dirty air, but I would not propose FORCE as the best approach.

Yes, let's stopping calling dirty air HAZE. Haze sounds like a weather phenomenon that we have no control over. Smog, on the other hand, is clearly human-caused, and thus is allows room to consider what we can do to clean-it up. A human problem with a human solution. Soem ideas on what we can all do:

skip the drive-through
do not idle your car more than 10 seconds (turning off and on your car uses less fuel than idling for more than 10 seconds0
leave the car at home
skip errands on red alert days
shovel your snowy walk instead of using a highly polluting snow-blower
don't burn fragrant candles

The air belongs to all of us and we all need to be proactive about protecting it.

Most of the cars I see on the highway have one person in them and are speeding. Large pickups are not a good commuter vehicle. Government incentives like the compressed natural gas (CNG) free parking and $2000 tax credit and cheaper fuel are the best way to motivate the public to cooperate.

Until then, in spite of all of the air pollution gagets mandated and manditory annual emmission testing, air pollution will only get worse. Carrots work better than sticks in a democracy.

Utah needs to quit trying to rethink and remake a wheel that has not only been done, but has been incredibly successful... copy the California State standards for vehicle and industry emissions.

I remember when in the early 1970's I drove into Los Angeles and the smog was so bad that the sun was orange mid-day and my eyes burned and throat tickled if I opened my car window. Today, it's nothing like back then, and for the most part I can drive with my window open (provided I'm not in stop-and-go rush hour traffic).

Only when Utah State's legislature and its governor craft, pass and sign into law strict emission standards, aimed particularly at the Wasatch Front and Cache valley, will the problem get solved to an acceptable level.

There really is no other option, no matter how hard the neo-CONS, big business and special interests may have us think otherwise.

How many bad air quality illnesses, deaths and resultant lawsuits leveled at Utah for inaction is needed before the State legislature and governor finally get it?

Most of the cars I see on the road have only one person in them and are speeding. Heavy pickups are not a good commuter car. Compressed natural gas cars (CNG) are very clean and have incentives to own, free parking, $2000 tax credit and low cost fuel.

All of the emission add ons on conventional engines and manditory emission testing help, but only slightly. Air pollution will get worse simply because there are more cars on the road. Carrots work better than sticks in a democracy.

Do you even know the history of air quality in Utah?

The air we breathe today is measurably cleaner than anytime in the past 50 years, and in Salt Lake County is probably cleaner now than anytime in the past 100 years.

The air in Salt Lake County hasn't violated federal standards for sulfur dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides for more than a decade. The only pollutants of concern now are ozone and fine particulates, and levels of both are largely dependent on meterological conditions.

Indeed, other than a few weeks in the winter and a few weeks in the summer, the air quality along the Wasatch Front is rated "good" by the EPA.

No one likes pollution. But there's simply NO evidence to support the assertion that Utah's air quality is getting worse, and that it's due to inaction or apathy on the part of the Utah Division of Air Quality.

If clean air is important to you, please write our legislature and governor and tell them to toughen up SB202.
It would allow Coal and nuclear plants to be considered for renewable energy if they meet certain requirements. Even with tougher standards the coal plants still put out much more pollution than wind, solar or geo-thermal. If coal and nuclear are included in the renewable energy criteria, than what will be the incentive to produce the clean alternatives. We need to stand together now and let say enough pollution!!!

Most particulate pollution comes from cars when they are doing a cold start and when they are idling, turning over at low speed. So the amount of particulate pollution is about the same from a 5 mile trip as a 30 mile trip. Doing errands as much as possible in one day, in one trip will reduce particulate totals.

But particulate pollution is disproportionately high from small inefficient engines like those on lawnmowers and snowblowers. There are new, more efficient engines available for those applications. A single snowblower puts out as much particulate as a car. If government wants to spend money efficiently to cut down on particulate pollution, it could give financial incentives to take the appliances with the old engines as trade-ins for the new ones.

One way to reduce pollution is to get less cars on the road thats a given. One very good way to get less cars on the road, is to have less people here in our valley. One very good way to have less people in the valley, is to send ALL the illegals packing back to were ever they came from. It's a start.

There is no such thing as pollution!
It's just more lies from the liberals and Al Gore!

I'm so glad to see the efforts people are making to improve the air quality along the Wasatch Front! It's great to have motivated people spearheading these discussions. I live out of state but the number one reason I hesitate to move back is because I don't want to breathe Utah air and I don't want my kids to either. It's interesting how often my friends here with Utah ties mention the poor Wasatch Front air quality. It's probably not what you'd want Utah to be known for.

How do you explain the oxygenated gasoline requirement then? There goes your argument!

It is people like you that are in denial of our poor air quality that allow companies to continue to pollute. Yes, there have been strides made by industry to clean up their pollutants, but we now have a much larger population than we did 50 years ago and we also have many, many more cars, who are the worst offenders. Lets stop being in denial and work together to put high standards in place so we can all breath easier for years to come. I don't want to continue to be known as the state with the tenth highest increase in pollution!

One sure thing that could be done -- right now! -- to reduce polution, would be to time traffic lights during rush hours into and out of downtown Salt Lake so that cars wouldn't have to stop and start again at each and every traffic light. My car idles for an incredibly long time at each light on each block coming from the freeway exit every morning, and then driving to the freeway entrance every evening. And the car kicks out even more pollutants as it revs up to start driving again each time the interminably long red light finally turns green. Better timed lights on major entrance and exit streets could reduce pollutants significantly, immediately!

If you want to find out the real truth about air quality -- instead of blindly believing the hysterical assertions of biased interest groups -- then go to the Utah Division of Air Quality's website and click on the "Public Interest" section and look under "About Air Pollutants".

There you can find historical data that confirm the dramatic improvements in Wasatch Front air quality over the past 30 years.

Or you can go to the website of that right-wing denialist group EPA, find their "aircompare" section, and discover that although Salt Lake has about 15-20 "unhealthy" air days per year, it pales in comparison to the dozens or even hundreds of "unhealthy" air days per year in Southern California or Arizona.

Don't be afraid of the truth, folks.

(Sorry I can't post the links, but URL's are not allowed in commments).

The Air Quality IS an interest group. :) Maybe you shouldn't be so biased and dependant upon government sources. Especially when ran by 'publicans who are in denial.

Even if the air is better than it was 30 years ago, the fact remains that it is still bad more often than many would like it to be. How can anyone not agree with wanting cleaner air to breath. Sheesh