Latest news with #UtahDivisionofAirQuality
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Why groups remain ‘deeply concerned' about Great Salt Lake
A dust event near Saltair over the weekend highlights how dust is still flying off the Great Salt Lake despite its recent gains, a local environmental group says. They add that it also highlights the need for more dust monitoring around the lake. 'We often think of the impacts of Great Salt Lake dust on our public health as a far-off, distant future. The reality is that dust storms ... are infiltrating our communities and impacting the air we breathe today,' Jake Dreyfous, managing director of Grow the Flow. The Great Salt Lake's southern arm is up to 4,193.4 feet elevation, nearly 1½ feet from its low point at the end of the last irrigation season, but a little more than 1½ feet below its peak last year. Its northern arm remains about a foot below the southern section, per U.S. Geological Survey data. With 8.7 inches of snow-water equivalent still left in the mountains within the lake's basin, nearly half of its peak this year, the lake could make some additional gains, depending on how much of that water ends up in it. Yet despite its gains, Grow the Flow points out that it remains only about 40% full by volume, leaving hundreds of square miles of lakebed exposed. A cold front that pushed through the region on Sunday visibly kicked up dust, which is often deposited in nearby communities. That's a problem because — as documented in a Great Salt Lake Strike Team report earlier this year — the dust can create a 'health hazard' from increases in particulate matter concentrations, as well as 'chronic exposures to carcinogenic elements such as arsenic.' 'We're deeply concerned about what the shrinking Great Salt Lake means for our families and communities,' said Carmen Valdez, senior policy associate for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, in a statement on Monday. State air quality officials aren't surprised by the recent event. They point out that 'unvegetated or disturbed soils' across the state have the potential to release dust in the air during wind events. Dry lakebeds, such as the Great Salt Lake, pose greater concerns because of the 'small size of the particles' and large surface area to pull from, said Bryce Bird, director of Utah Division of Air Quality. 'The conditions in the spring and summer are favorable for creating large dust events,' he wrote in an email to 'In the spring, the freezing and thawing of surface moisture can loosen the protective crust that may otherwise protect the surface from wind erosion.' Utah lawmakers ultimately set aside $150,000 in funds this year toward air quality monitoring, including ongoing funding for personnel. But that was below the $650,000 that the Office of the Great Salt Lake requested to help the Utah Division of Air Quality compile an analysis of dust issues by the lake. Brian Steed, Utah's Great Salt Lake commissioner, said last month that his office intends to help the division acquire the monitors through other means and set up a monitor 'distribution scheme' across communities near the lake or as soon as possible. This would help the state better understand where dust goes when it flies off the lake and other important datasets that can help the state manage dust impacts. He added that the state has been 'under monitoring' dust compared to other Western saline lakes with similar issues, such as Owens Lake or the Salton Sea in California. On top of state funding, Bird said the Utah Division of Air Quality received federal grants to acquire more particulate air samplers and 'low-cost' particulate sensors closer to dried portions of the Great Salt Lake. It's unclear how many sensors are needed to monitor its dust, but state officials plan to focus on communities east, north and south of the lake first as they build up a network. 'It would be helpful to have that baseline information,' Steed said. 'People want to know, and people want to know how much of a problem it is. Without those monitors, we don't have a full picture.'
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘State of the Air': Utah among top 10 state for worst ozone pollution, according to report
SALT LAKE CITY () — Salt Lake City is in the top ten for worst ozone pollution in the U.S., according to the American Lung Association. The American Lung Association's 26th annual 'State of the Air' report finds that nearly half of the U.S. population is living in unhealthy levels of air pollution — Utah ranking #9 among the 'most polluted cities' in the U.S. by ozone pollution. Ozone is a gas molecule that is found high in the upper atmosphere, where it shields people from the sun's ultraviolet radiation, but when ozone air pollution is at ground level, where people breathe, it can lead to health problems. 'Ozone aggressively attacks lung tissue by reacting chemically with it,' the American Lung Association states. The report said that the geographical distribution of citations on the Worst 25 list follows a pattern seen consistently in the last decade, where the highest levels of ozone pollution more often occur in the west. 'Although cleanup of ozone precursor pollutants from industrial, power generation,and mobile sources has been working to reduce ozone concentrations, the impact ofclimate change has resulted in widespread wildfire disasters and has also meant highertemperatures, dry, sunny skies and more frequent stagnation events. Taken together,these conditions produced much higher numbers of unhealthy ozone days than wouldotherwise be the case,' the report said. The cities on the list of the worst 25 for ozone, year-round particle pollution, and short-term particle pollution are ranked according to their weighted average number of unhealthy air days. 'Note that some cities rank high on one list and don't show up on other lists because of the differences in their pollution problems,' the website said. The Utah Division of Air Quality admits there are challenges with ozone pollution, especially now and in the next couple of months. 'Those emissions are then acted upon by warm temperatures and sunlight, and then that forms a reactive form of the oxygen molecule, ozone that then interacts with the lungs and, of course, causes the health harm that we're really concerned about,' Utah Division of Air Quality Director Bryce Bird said. In the American Lung Association's findings, 27 counties in the U.S received failing grades for all three measures of pollution. Salt Lake is one of them. Bird said the Environmental Protection Agency scale paints a different picture. 'For a daily PM2.5, we're meeting that standard. For annual PM 2.5, we're meeting the standard and we're currently not meeting the ozone standard, but that is just a little bit different scale, a different focus, but the Lung Association is there to push policy, push action,' Bird said. 'PM2.5' refers to particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less. These are inhalable fine particles that can cause various health problems and are regulated by agencies like the U.S EPA. Bird said to focus on scaling back on emissions, especially cars and trucks, as they are the largest of those emissions and affect people. 'Extra burden on your lungs. Really, it is an irritant. Of course, it's a trigger for asthma. We see higher asthma utilization and higher hospitalization rates for asthma during those days, so it is a serious concern for us,' he said. Bird adds ozone peaks in the afternoon. So, he says exercising in the mornings and evenings can get you away from the bad air that can harm your health. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
