Cutting through the haze: smaller businesses targeted to help clear Wasatch Front air.

• Author: Peck, Ashley A.
• Position: Legal Brief

It's no secret that the Wasatch Front is facing big challenges when it comes to air quality, particularly in the wintertime. During a stretch of weeks in January, fine particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, exceeded federal health standards and prompted national news headlines, local rallies, demands from doctors to declare a health emergency and an "F" grade from the American Lung Association.

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The Utah Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Air Quality (DAQ) has been working on plans to cut PM 2.5 emissions, but so far has come up short of federal emission reduction requirements.

But what may surprise some smaller business owners are the wide-ranging regulations that the DAQ finalized earlier this year, which place restrictions on restaurants, large bakeries, auto-body shops and others that historically have not had to worry about compliance with air quality regulations because of their size. Affected businesses will want to become informed about the particular requirements and act within the upcoming deadlines to avoid running afoul of these new state laws.

Regulatory Backdrop

The federal Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and periodically revise national health-based standards for several pollutants in ambient air, including PM 2.5. Areas that do not meet standards are designated non-attainment areas. The act requires each state to develop an implementation plan describing the air pollution reductions it will require from specific sources to attain and maintain these standards, subject to approval by the EPA.

Fine particulate matter can be primary or secondary: primary PM 2.5 is emitted as a particle from tailpipes or other sources, whereas secondary PM 2.5 is formed when a reaction between precursor pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides or volatile organic compounds (VOCs), form PM 2.5 in the atmosphere. The majority of PM 2.5 in the ambient air along the Wasatch Front area is thought to be secondary.

Development of a state implementation plan normally includes inventories of all emissions in the airshed, including not only permitted major industrial sources and vehicle emissions, but also more dispersed "area sources" that do not emit enough pollutants individually to meet thresholds for permitting, but are instead inventoried and ultimately regulated collectively by source category.

States must require reasonably available...