Meeting EPA air standards: impact on business.

• Author: Birkedahl, Pat
• Position: Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 has Utah planning for 1992 deadline

Meeting EPA Air Standards

Environmental Protection Agency mandates for cleaning the air have a way of making business owners and managers nervous. More regulations, piles of paperwork for higher-cost permits, and hefty fines for violations of air quality standards are enough to give anyone in business a headache. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 spell out specific deadlines for states to complete their own plans for meeting federal air quality standards. The act gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to dictate policy when deadlines are not met.

Utah has begun work to meet the Clean Air Act's November 1992 deadline for the state's plan to reduce carbon monoxide levels. Carbon monoxide, CO in chemistry shorthand, is a gas produced by incomplete combustion. It is colorless, odorless and deadly. Our cars, with their internal combustion engines, are the largest source of this gas, but all combustion - from forest fires to the backyard barbecue - add CO to the atmosphere.

The state's implementation plan, or the CO SIP in EPA jargon, must demonstrate that all areas in the state can achieve national ambient air standards for carbon monoxide by 1996. The state must show EPA how air standards can be maintained for 10 years, not an easy task with increasing population growth and a continuing trend of more vehicle-miles-per-person. No other pollutant offers a greater challenge for control because 80 percent and more of CO is produced by automobiles. There are no "clean industries" where carbon monoxide is concerned. Every business that has an employee commute to work in a vehicle is an indirect source of carbon monoxide. Reducing levels of this pollutant challenge driving habits and give an opportunity to take pause and look at the workplace in new ways.

Non-attainment Area Boundaries

Air quality standards allow no more than nine carbon monoxide atoms in a million. EPA refers to an area with more CO than nine parts per million as a CO non-attainment area. In the 1970s and early 1980s all Wasatch Front counties contained non-attainment areas. Ogden exceeded the 8-hour air quality standard 62 times in 1976 with readings almost double the standard. The same year, Salt Lake City exceeded the standard 42 times, Provo 46 times, and Bountiful 16 times. Under the original Clean Air Act, the cities of Ogden, Salt Lake City and Provo were all designated as non-attainment areas for carbon monoxide. The boundaries of the non-attainment areas were the city limits.

Cleaner cars and Wasatch County emission inspection and maintenance programs have significantly...