Text 
No Comments [ Add Comment ]Uintah Basin air monitoring urged
By MIKE STARKSALT LAKE CITY -- Environmental groups want state officials to reinstate year-round air monitoring in Utah's Uintah Basin, where energy development has dramatically increased in recent years.
State environmental officials said they don't have the money for long-term monitors in the basin. But, they're focusing on tracking pollution during winter inversions, when most problems have been reported.
The Utah Division of Air Quality installed an air-monitoring station in Vernal in December 2006, noting that natural-gas production in the basin had ramped up.
The equipment picked up several instances in which tiny flecks of airborne pollution exceeded federal health standards. Those unhealthy spikes came as weather inversions trapped air in low-lying areas around Vernal.
Monitoring in Vernal shut down in December 2007. Bryce Bird, branch manager for the Utah Division of Air Quality, said state officials decided the funding and equipment would be better used to meet federally required pollution monitoring along the more populated Wasatch Front.
But crews will return to the Vernal area this winter with portable equipment to monitor bad air during the inversions, Bird said. The air-quality division is hoping the work will pinpoint pollution sources.
Suspects include several activities associated with energy development, including increased truck traffic, processing operations and more workers living, working and driving in the area.
The problem will only get worse as development increases in the basin, according to several environmental groups who wrote to the state Department of Environmental Quality.
"Impending energy development in the region is sure to exacerbate serious health problems caused by already-degraded air quality," Joro Walker, an attorney for Western Resource Advocates, wrote to Bird.
The comments come as the state prepares its annual plan for air monitoring across Utah.
The letter was written on behalf of Utah Moms for Clean Air, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters of Utah and HEAL Utah.
Walker said the state needs year-round, long-term monitoring to protect Utah residents and help plan for future oil and gas development in and around Vernal. More than 1,000 wells have recently been approved for the area, she said.
"This staggering amount of development will cause continued increases in fine particle emissions, which will elevate levels" that have already exceeded federal limits, Walker wrote.
But it also comes as the state of Utah faces widespread budget cuts. In Bird's division, two positions are going unfilled and belt-tightening has left little money to replace equipment.
Monitors like those used in Vernal cost about $135,000, plus another $24,000 or so to operate.
Bird said the state is working with local health officials to track unhealthy conditions around Vernal.
Four additional monitors being installed -- two operated by tribal officials and two by a private contractors -- will also help track air quality in the basin, Bird said.
Add Your Comment
