SALT LAKE CITY — Ozone in the Uintah Basin that has been measured in levels twice the national air quality standard continues to be a target of multipronged studies in an attempt to get it under control.
In a briefing Wednesday before the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee, state air quality regulators said the challenges in the basin include navigating a complex labyrinth of multiple jurisdictions — from the state oversight to federal rules and tribal lands.
The EPA's proposed lowering of the national ozone standard to 65 parts per million will further complicate regulatory efforts because the state has little control over what happens with industry in neighboring states such as Colorado, said DAQ manager Brock LeBaron. The same holds true for tribal lands, where much of the oil and gas development in the area occurs.
A joint study initiated last winter with a grant through Utah State University and the Space Dynamics Lab is nearing completion and should help provide some answers, LeBaron said.
"The chemistry (of ozone) is very complex and the regulatory authority is very complex," he said, adding that regulators aren't quite sure of the cause of high ozone levels in the basin.
"We know there are few emission source types in the basin, that it occurs only when the inversion caps the basin and it forms a bowl. It is very closely associated with snow cover. If you don't have the snow cover, you don't have the ozone."
Ozone is typically a summer-type pollutant caused from the interaction of sunlight with emissions from industry and exhaust from automobiles.
Along the Wasatch Front, it creates an ugly brown haze that settles over the valley floors, generally on hot, still days.
Ground-level ozone can pose respiratory problems particularly for vulnerable populations, such as children with asthma.
LeBaron said arriving at the source of wintertime ozone pollution in the Uintah Basin has also been helped by a $200,000 infusion through the governor's budget that is funding a coordinator. An air monitoring station has been placed in the central basin area by DAQ, and the tribal representatives have installed two stations.
The $200,000 will also go toward pollution-control efforts in other rural areas of the state.
Another study taking aim this winter will specifically examine ozone formation chemistry in the basin and involves the state and several federal agencies, including the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management.
LeBaron stressed it is important to arrive at the source of ozone in the basin area, which has not experienced typical winter-time pollution problems like that of PM2.5 — routinely measured along the Wasatch Front.
"Certainly air quality is a big issue and has the potential to impact the oil and gas industry," he said.
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