UDAQ is currently developing the Northern Wasatch Front (NWF) Moderate State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the 2015 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard. The following tabs contain the technical support documentation (TSD) pertaining to the development of the SIP and associated administrative rules. These are draft documents and are subject to change. Contact Ryan…
Use the Interactive Inventory to explore different emission sectors and sources (SCCs). What is summertime ozone? You’re probably familiar with the Wasatch Front’s wintertime PM2.5 pollution, but Utah’s urban center also experiences harmful air pollution – ozone – during the summertime. Ozone is a highly reactive gas that causes damage to human lung tissue. Ground-level…
The development of an Ozone SIP is very much an iterative process. The technical foundation of any SIP involves numerous emissions inventories, air quality modeling assumptions, potential emission controls, and ever-fluctuating design values recorded throughout the air monitoring network. The rules for developing an ozone SIP provided by the EPA, known as the Ozone Implementation…
Ozone Overview Ozone is a colorless gas comprised of three oxygen atoms. It is not emitted directly into the air as a gas but is formed through a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight. While the ozone protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation in…
Overview Within two years after setting or revising NAAQS for criteria pollutants, the EPA must designate areas as meeting (attainment) or not meeting (nonattainment) the air-quality standard. The EPA’s final designations are based on the most recent three years of air-quality monitoring data, recommendations from the state, and additional technical information. State recommendations are made…
RACT Overview Under the Clean Air Act, all areas designated as a moderate or more severe nonattainment area for the 2015 8-hour ozone standard are required to implement RACT for all existing major sources of VOCs or NOx as well as all VOC sources subject to an EPA Control Technique Guideline (CTG). For ozone nonattainment…
RACM Overview Under the Clean Air Act, all areas designated Moderate or more severe nonattainment areas for the 2015 8-hour ozone standard are required to implement RACM for point, area, off-road, and on-road source categories. RACM applies only to those point sources not already addressed as part of a RACT analysis. RACM implementation is required…
This fall’s snow blower exchange in the Uinta Basin offered 150 Greenworks 80-volt electric snow blowers to help reduce ozone-forming emissions.
The Uinta Basin lies in the northeast corner of Utah and is bounded on the north by the Uinta Mountains, on the south by the Tavaputs Plateau, on the west by the Wasatch Range, and on the east by elevated terrain that separates it from Piceance Basin in Colorado. Duchesne and Uintah Counties occupy most…
The Uinta Basin lies in the northeast corner of Utah and is bounded on the north by the Uinta Mountains, on the south by the Tavaputs Plateau, on the west by the Wasatch Range, and on the east by elevated terrain that separates it from Piceance Basin in Colorado. Duchesne and Uintah Counties occupy most…
Emission inventories—databases that list, by source, the amount of air pollutants released in a specific geographical area—help determine significant sources of pollutants, track emission trends over time, direct regulatory actions and control strategies, and provide data for computer modeling. 2011 Uinta Basin Oil and Gas Emissions Estimates Technical Document (08/14/13) In 2006, Environ and the…
Air quality permits issued by the Division of Air Quality (DAQ) for oil and gas operations contain requirements that reduce emissions that lead to the formation of ozone. Oil and gas production accounts for 97 percent of the manmade volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in the Uinta Basin, but new federal standards, state rules, and…
These voluntary practices include a menu of measures oil and gas operators can use to reduce emissions. These voluntary practices enhance but do not replace existing rules and regulations. Recommended Controls Enhanced Inspection and Maintenance Program Infrared (IR) Camera Conduct a representative survey of facilities and equipment with the potential for fugitive VOC emissions using…
High wintertime ozone concentrations are relatively new phenomena in rural areas of the West. First observed in 2005 in the oil and gas production areas in the Upper Green River Basin (UGRB) of Wyoming, preliminary studies showed that wintertime ozone levels would spike when snow cover, sunny skies, and strong temperature inversions trapped ozone and…
Starting in the winter of 2012, the Uinta Basin Ozone Study (UBOS) (2 MB) launched a wide-ranging research effort into the ways atmospheric chemistry and precursor gases interact to create high levels of wintertime ozone. The study was by far the largest and most complex air quality study ever conducted in Utah. This effort was…
Teams of scientists continued their work in the Uinta Basin in 2013 to identify the sources and conditions that create ozone during winter inversions. The Division of Air Quality (DAQ) and its partners collected additional data to improve their understanding of the atmospheric chemistry that leads to the formation of wintertime ozone in the Basin.…