Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of posts—published every Wednesday during July—of what DEQ employees are doing to reduce emissions during the 2014 Clear the Air Challenge. By Bryce Bird I enjoy a green yard and a productive garden. Unfortunately, when I water and add fertilizer some of the “green” starts moving …
Read MoreBy Mat Carlile We all want to keep our cars running well and our emissions low, particularly during the summer ozoneand winter PM2.5 seasons. If your vehicle was built in 1996 or later, you get some extra help keeping your emissions in check from the on-board diagnostics (OBD) system that came with your car. The …
Read MoreBy Brandy Cannon Businesses and other sources that emit pollutants into the air often require permits, which set limits on the amount of pollution they can release. Permit writers at the Division of Air Quality (DAQ) are always looking for ways to improve air quality and reduce emissions, particularly the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that contribute …
Read MoreBy Ken Bousfield It’s easy to take your safe drinking water for granted, whether it’s coming out of your kitchen faucet or the tap at your son’s Boy Scout camp. One of our jobs at the Division of Drinking Water is to conduct sanitary surveys—onsite inspections of drinking water systems—to ensure that the water they …
Read MoreBy Bo Call As the snow melts, so does our memory of winter inversions and bad air days. But with the spring and warmer temperatures also comes the summer ozone season. DEQ’s Air Monitoring Center is now gearing up to battle Utah’s other air-quality demon—ozone. And it’s a battle that’s harder to fight. Just like …
Read MoreBy John Whitehead The Willard Bay Diesel Fuel Spill in March 2013, was certainly not a welcome event for anybody—not for Chevron, not for DEQ, and certainly not for Willard Bay State Park, the folks who recreate there, and the animal and plant life that call the reservoir “home.” The cleanup was essentially complete in …
Read MoreBy Walt Baker The one-year anniversary of the Willard Bay diesel spill last month was a sobering reminder of the environmental damage our waterways suffer when oil or chemicals spill into our lakes and streams. While the “hero beavers” did their part to help save the day last year, the folks in our division were …
Read MoreBy Brock LeBaron When we talk about ozone pollution in Utah, we usually think of wintertime ozone in the Uinta Basin and summertime ozone along the Wasatch Front. What we don’t always take into account is the global nature of ozone; what we often view as a localized problem actually comes from a combination of …
Read MoreBy Rik Ombach For those of you who are not familiar with Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky Program, it is a voluntary option on your electric bill that supports renewable energy development. Specifically, the program supports wind and solar energy programs throughout Utah and the region as well as educational programs on renewable energy. Each …
Read MoreBy Glade Sowards I work in the Mobile Sources section at DEQ—we’re the folks who look at emissions from vehicles. A few weeks back, a couple of us from the Mobile section bumped into DEQ director Amanda Smith as we were coming back from a meeting. She told us she was glad to run into …
Read MoreBy Pat Sheehan Household hazardous waste (HHHW) is any waste produced in the home which contains hazardous substances or may pose a threat to the environment, pets and wildlife, or human health (think little children as the most immediate risk). Products containing hazardous substances are often labeled with words such as: toxic, flammable, corrosive, reactive, …
Read MoreBy Candace Cady I have slowly become more and more obsessed with…R’s! R’s you ask? Yes, Recycling, Reducing, Re-purposing and Refusing. It started with potato peels and carrot peels and a little book about composting. Then the county delivered the blue bin. In went the cardboard boxes from the warehouse food stores. In went the …
Read MoreBy Bob Ford Since I work for the Utah Division of Air Quality, I guess I better “walk the walk if I talk the talk” (no pun intended!). Actually, I have a new saying when trying to encourage friends to walk, bike, trip chain, use public transportation, etc. … If Bob can do it, you …
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