No one who today found it difficult to see the base of the Wasatch Mountains through brown air will be surprised that tomorrow, Wednesday, is anticipated by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality to be a Yellow Air Quality day for Salt Lake and Davis Counties. This means Salt Lake and Davis residents have a voluntary no-burn day Wednesday, when wood burning is neither prohibited nor allowed.

CACHE County: Air quality condition as issued by the Bear River Health Dept.: GREEN
Health advisory: none

SALT LAKE & DAVIS counties: Air quality condition: YELLOW
Health advisory: none

UTAH County: Air quality condition: GREEN
Health advisory: none

WEBER County: Air quality condition: GREEN
Health advisory: none

Air quality condition and health advisories are issued separately. Utah DAQ has issued no health advisory for Wednesday. There is, however, a health advisory for Salt Lake City on the U.S. government Air Now website, which reports air quality as monitored locally. Air Now reports that because of anticipated moderate levels of PM2.5 (Particulate Matter of 2.5 microns in size),

Health Message: Unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion.

How do you interpret those messages? No wood burning seems clear, even if voluntary. But, who should consider reducing their exposure to Utah’s dirty air on Wednesday, if anyone?

This past Saturday evening, Utah Moms for Clean Air attended a presentation given by Dr. Brian Moench of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment on the effects of coal on human health. It helps to get a reminder slap in the face every once in a while that our choices as citizens of Utah do matter.

Learn about coal and make your voice heard.

Those of you in Southern Utah, please attend the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public meeting Tuesday. They want to know what you think of the Toquop Energy Project just outside Mesquite, upwind from St. George.

The plant was originally approved as a gas-fired power plant, but another Environmental Impact Study must be conducted because the developer wants to switch to cheaper coal-fired power.

What: BLM public meeting on coal-fired power plant
When: Tuesday, November 6, 4:00-7:00pm
Where: Dixie Center, St. George

Read more

• News article from St. George: “Weighing in on coal: Public meeting to focus on possible new power plant,” Alyson Van Deusen, The Spectrum, November 4, 2007.
• Comments from Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment on another coal plant, mentions Toquop and expected cumulative effects. In particular, includes information on mercury contamination. PDF. “White Pine Energy Station DEIS,” Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, 2007.

• “Mercury Fact Sheet,” Pennsylvania Department of Health.
• “Mercury Contamination of Aquatic Ecosystems,” U.S. Geological Survey.

Come to the Public Hearing on November 14th at 4:00pm at Hunter High School

Now is the time to have your voices heard!

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Mountain View Corridor has been released! The proposed Mountain View Corridor is a massive new 8-lane freeway on the western fringes of Salt Lake County, stretching down into Utah County. This sprawl-inducing freeway is set to bulldoze through neighborhoods, parks and school property, placing Utah’s children at an unnecessary risk.

Several recent peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown that children living near freeways are at extreme risk for severe health problems. For instance, a Denver study demonstrated that children living within 250-yards of a freeway are 8-times more likely to develop leukemia and 6-times more likely to develop other cancers. Another study from southern California found that children aged 12-18 living within 500 meters from a freeway are at the highest risk for permanent deformities in lung development. Toxic air pollution generated from freeways concentrates in their proximities causing these harmful effects to children. In fact, this freeway can legitimately be seen to create a new “Cancer Corridor” for those who live, play, and attend school nearby.

The proposed Mountain View Corridor freeway would travel along 5800 West in Salt Lake County. It will place several schools inside the deadly zone of distance: Whittier Elementary, Hillside Elementary, Hunter Jr. High and Hunter High School specifically will be inside this concentrated toxic zone. The Mountain View Freeway will also induce massive automobile-dependent sprawl which will greatly add to Utah’s already alarming air pollution problem.

In addition, there is no real mass transit solution in the plan to help offset the traffic the freeway will create. In the beginning of the process, UDOT appeared to be looking at new rail transit along 5600 West. Unfortunately, however, the region’s new long-range plan has scrapped any new transit plans for this area for at least a quarter of a century!!! This is unacceptable given the terrible air pollution we face along the Wasatch Front. We must demand mass transit and non-freeway road expansion in order to keep our children safe from these pollution threats.

Please Come to the Public Hearing and Speak Out against the proposed location for the freeway and to demand that mass transit is built on 5600 West to Protect Our Children’s Health!

Mountain View Corridor DEIS Public Hearing
November 14th, 2007, from 4:00pm-8:00pm
Hunter High School
4200 South 5600 West
West Valley City, Utah

This will be the most important public hearing on the the proposed Mountain View Corridor! Please come for to the meeting (even if you only stay 1/2 an hour) and bring all of your friends and neighbors!

For more information contact:
Cameron Cova (supermoms@utahmomsforcleanair.org.) or
Marc Heilson (801-631-3365).

‘Spreading the Green Word in a Red Valley‘, Utah Valley Sierra Forum; Sierra Club, Grassroots stories, October 26, 2007.

‘2 groups are warning of Mountain View Corridor’s health effects’. By Nicole Warburton, Deseret Morning News, Published: Monday, Oct. 29, 2007.