Proponents of banning interstate truck traffic from Provo Canyon received some ammunition this week with the completion of a study by a Seattle-based environmental consultant company.

Without some type of truck ban through Provo Canyon, TRC Environmental Consultants concluded, levels of carbon monoxide will increase along University Avenue in Provo and 800 North in Orem, while levels of fine-particulate pollution will increase in Provo Canyon and along University Avenue.Former Utah County Commissioner Brent Morris said the study substantiates concerns about increasing pollution from a four-lane Provo Canyon Highway.

Utah County, Provo and Orem - which provided major funding for the study - have passed resolutions supporting an interstate truck ban.

The study echoes truck-ban proponents' concerns about the inadequacy of a recently completed supplemental environmental impact statement for Provo Canyon commissioned by the Utah Department of Transportation.

"The environmental impact statement prepared by UDOT for the proposed expansion of U.S. 189 through Provo Canyon was incomplete in its assessment of PM10 impacts in Utah County," the study says.

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TRC found that PM10 "emitted by truck traffic would be higher on the route through Provo Canyon than it would (be) along I-15 and I-80 through Parley's Canyon," which is the alternative route for interstate trucks suggested by truck-ban proponents. The study says that diversion of truck traffic would only slightly increase PM10 levels along those highways.

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