– by Amy Brunvand
Last New Year’s Eve, air quality status for Salt Lake City, Provo and Logan was downgraded from “Nonattainment” to “Serious Nonattainment” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after failing to meet Clean Air Act standards for six years running. This is the first and, so far, the only part of the US to be reclassified as “serious.”
EPA plans to give the State of Utah 18 months to come up with a new clean air plan. Environmental groups say the plan should be completed no later than June of 2017 so that the public can participate in the planning effort and the state has time to attain standards in 2019.
Utah Physicians for A Healthy Environment: uphe.org. Utah Chapter Sierra Club: utah.sierraclub.org. Western Resource Advocates: westernresourceadvocates.org
More January 2016 Environews:
$14 million for misguided effort to privatize public lands