EPA may take action on air
The Evironmental Protection Agency may step in if Cache Valley’s air quality mimics that of last winter’s.
Logan’s winter air claims three of the country’s top 15 highest particulate matter (PM) 2.5 levels, with only two California cities holding a higher record than Logan’s 137.5.
PM 2.5, particulate matter fewer than 2 microns in size, makes up the pollution familiar to many Utah State University students during the winter months.
If PM 2.5 levels exceed 65 again this year, the EPA will designate Logan as a non-attainment area, said Grant Koford, an environmental health scientist at the Bear River Health Department. The state of Utah would then be required to write a plan to correct the problem, he said.
Engineering professor Randy Martin, who has been studying PM 2.5, said this winter has about a 75 percent chance of being another bad year.
“As a community, we need to be prepared for that,” he said.
Many residents blame the bad air on the inversion, but Martin said inversion is not the cause of pollution.
“It’s not the inversion, but the pollution humans put inside the inversion that causes the problem,” he said. “Nothing can be done about the inversion.”
He said inversion is only a weather term meaning cooled air is trapped below warm air, inhibiting air mixture. This is common in Cache Valley because the ground never gets to warm during the winter, he said.
“We’re in a bathtub and the air has nowhere to go,” he said.
PM 2.5 levels are only a problem during the winter months, Koford said. Logan usually has the lowest level in Utah during the rest of the year, he said.
Martin said he and other faculty members are trying to characterize PM 2.5. About half of PM 2.5 is made up of ammonium nitrate, which comes mostly from cattle waste and combustion products such as cars, he said.
The best solution to lowering PM 2.5 levels, Koford said, is to require car emissions testing. A roadside emissions test last year showed that 10 percent of cars are causing 45 percent of the pollution, he said.
“We need to get [bad cars] off the road or get them to clean themselves up,” Martin said.
Emissions testing was proposed to the city last spring and a task force has been formed to work on the project, Koford said.
Some people are against emissions testing because they believe it will be too expensive, Martin said. The estimated cost is $1.6 million, but that number is created by multiplying the $25 fee with the number of car owners, he said.
Opponents also argue that testing won’t solve the problem, Martin said.
“It’s true that inspections won’t solve it, but it will solve part of it,” he said. “We know that it will make a difference.”
Koford said, “Emissions will take a big chunk out of the pie, but it’s not the silver bullet. We are so high above the standard it will take lots of things to change it.”
PM 2.5 levels are not only a problem in Logan, but in all of Cache Valley, Martin said.
The particles have health impacts, Martin said. Children under 12, babies and adults over 65 are more at risk because they have “underdeveloped or compromised” lungs, he said.
The particles are small enough that they can get down into the very bottom of your lungs, he said.
Particles can then dissolve into the lung tissue and cause unhealthy physiological effects, Martin said. It can also interfere with a person’s immune system.
Chelsea Call, a senior in business marketing, said she went running at night last year in the polluted air.
“When I got back I couldn’t stop coughing,” she said.
She said she found out later that it was recommended to not go outside and especially to not exercise in the bad air.
There is no way a person can protect themselves from PM 2.5 unless they stay indoors more during the winter, Martin said.
A study in a home last year show the heated indoor air is not dangerous, Koford said.
This winter, three elementary schools will be tested in the same way, Koford said. Elementary schools will also have a guide for when kids should not be allowed to go outside for recess, he said.
Protection is a good idea, but is also “kind-of closing the door after the horse is already out of the barn,” Martin said.
“We need to find a solution,” he said.
One thing people can do this winter is reduce their vehicle miles traveled because emissions will not yet be required, Martin said.
For more information and updates on air quality in Cache Valley and other Utah areas, visit www.airquality.utah.gov or www.cleanair.utah.gov. These Web sites update information daily.
-ashschiller@cc.usu.edu.