OGDEN -- Although particulate matter 10 in Ogden air has decreased since 2005, the state may have to go through another expensive, yearslong process to develop a PM10-reduction plan.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently submitted a proposed disapproval of the Utah Division of Air Quality's plan to maintain areas in Utah with air polluted with small particles known as PM10. The polluted areas are called nonattainment areas.
The issue is the plan was submitted in 2005, but in the time between the submission and the response in December 2009, the EPA changed some of its rules.
The agency is using that as a reason to not approve the maintenance plan for those nonattainment areas in Ogden city and Utah, Salt Lake and Davis counties.
Bryce Bird, Division of Air Quality branch manager, said the EPA has three main problems with Utah's maintenance plan: existing state rules that are inconsistent with EPA policy, technical issues with the submission and a conflict with a rule change made in 2007, after the plan had been submitted.
The potential denial is particularly frustrating, he said, because the state spent three years developing the plan and the EPA was involved during the entire process.
Now the Air Quality Board is drafting a response to the EPA that Bird said will address the three concerns and point out that the plan has created better air quality.
Since the plan was created, Bird said, the areas have never exceeded the PM10 level of 150 micrograms per cubic meter in a 24-hour period. The closest they have come to the limit is 70 percent, he said.
According to the EPA, Ogden had PM10 violations before 2005 but has not had any since.
Bird said the Air Quality Board is hopeful the EPA will reconsider.
"We went through the process already. We submitted a plan, and it's been effective," he said. "We shouldn't go back and re-create history but use those in future plans for PM2.5 rather than waste staff time."
Not only would it take years to make a new plan, but it would also take millions of dollars the state doesn't have right now to do studies such as air modeling, Bird said.
If the plan is ultimately denied, he said, the state could lose federal transportation dollars.
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