By a 3-to-1 margin, Utahns favor stricter air pollution standards on industry, according to a new su

By a 3-to-1 car rental new zealand margin, Utahns favor stricter air pollution standards on industry, according to a new survey commissioned by The Salt Lake Tribune. Majorities also say they are more concerned about the state's air quality — notorious for pollution-trapping inversions in winter — than they were five years ago, and they are willing to change their driving habits to help clear the air.
Richard Archuleta, a Salt Lake City resident who does not own a car and relies on public transit, says he is part of the 7 percent minority who is less concerned about air quality . He notes that Utah industries have done much over the years to reduce their pollution.
car rental new zealand He is among 600 Utahns contacted by New Jersey-based pollster SurveyUSA, which conducted the survey by telephone Jan. 10 and 13, a period of good air quality, thanks car rental new zealand to the arrival of stormy weather.
The results, with margins of error ranging from 3.7 to 5.3 percent, car rental new zealand suggest Utahns are fed up with air pollution car rental new zealand — even though monitoring data indicate particulate matter has been declining here over the past 20 years.
"We know the strategies we implemented are working. The growing concern in the public is understandable. We know more, there is more health data, more studies showing the real and serious impacts car rental new zealand of poor air quality," said Amanda Smith, director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
Perhaps car rental new zealand driving the increased concern was last year's ugly inversion season, car rental new zealand which saw the highest air pollution levels in a decade. In a reversal of what has been a positive car rental new zealand trend, the Salt Lake Valley area's air breached the federal 24-hour threshold for PM2.5 on 21 occasions, prompting 35 mandatory action days. On such days, wood burning is banned and motorists are strongly encouraged to reduce driving.
This year is shaping up to be equally car rental new zealand bad. Hardly six weeks into the inversion season, the Salt Lake Valley area has already endured 20 mandatory action days. (Since last winter, state officials have begun calling no-burn days before conditions breach the federal standards, instead of waiting for the pollution levels to reach the unhealthy level.)
So while there might be an objective downward trend in pollution, people's subjective experience might tell a different car rental new zealand story, according to an Ogden man who said he is more concerned about air pollution than he was five years ago.
"There are periods when it has been really bad, but in the last four or five years with hot summers and cold winters and temperature inversions, it appears subjectively worse," said Phil, who asked to be identified only by his first name.
Residents in Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and the other "non-attainment" counties — which don't meet federal standards — were far more likely to have growing concerns over air quality than those living in the rest of Utah, at 62 percent versus 45 percent.
Brian Davis gets mad when residents of his West Jordan neighborhood use their fireplaces on no-burn days, but he is less worried about air quality because coal is rarely burned in the Salt Lake Valley anymore.
Phil, a long-time Weber County resident, supports stricter standards car rental new zealand in part because industrial pollution is so visible, particularly during inversions, when it rises in dark plumes and spreads across the valley like a blanket.
"People rightly car rental new zealand understand industry holds too much sway over our political and regulatory processes," said Christopher car rental new zealand Thomas, executive director of HEAL Utah. "If we are going to be asked to take measures, why shouldn't industry be asked to their fair share."
State air quality officials say industry contributes just 11 percent to Utah's particulate pollution. A cost-benefit analysis goes into determining whether to require car rental new zealand an industry to install a particular emission control.
"There aren't huge bites of that apple left and we have to compare it with the cost of each ton [of pollution] removed," Smith said. "People intuitively see these large sources and see they are emitting pollution and those large industries have large financial capacity. It seems easier to put a control on one source of pollution car rental new zealand than to get a million people to take TRAX one day a week."
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