Utah partnership working to reduce air pollution in state
STATE & LOCAL
Issues at the state and community levels
Education, grants lead to changes
Utah partnership working to reduce air pollution in state
WHEN IT COMES to air pollution in Utah, the state has a tricky situa tion. Because of the state’s geography, the air quality starts to dip when cold air is caught under warm air, trapping a hotbed of pol lution throughout Utah’s valleys
Long aware of the state’s air pollution issues, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert in 2012 organized a group of environment-conscious Utah residents to form the Utah Clean Air Partner ship, known as UCAIR.
The partnership today is a coalition of more than 30 groups statewide focused on reducing air pollution through education, coalition building and awarding grants to programs that help the cause.
The partnership was designed “to educate people on what they can personally do to alleviate air pollution,” said Ted Wilson, MEd, the partner ship’s executive director. “Can they drive better? Can they carpool?”
The grant funding helps programs make air pollution reduction practices a reality. SmartTrips
is one such program. Run through Salt Lake City Green, SmartTrips began in 2012 to encour age residents in Salt Lake City neighborhoods to reduce their car trips and explore their communities with the help of walking, biking and public transit kits.
The kits, which are hand-delivered by Smart- Trips employees on bike, include resources such as maps, safety tips and pedometers.
Thanks to a $30,000 partnership grant, Smart- Trips was able to funnel that money into resources such as a reloadable
fare card for the public transit kit SmartTrips
staff provides to Smart- Trips users, said Kate Lohnes, communications manager for the Salt Lake City Corporation’s Divi sion of Sustainability and the Environment.
“Participants can create an account and reload the card when they use it up,” Lohnes told The Nation's Health. “We’ve taken away the barrier of having to purchase the card online or locate it at a store. Although it might seem small, all barriers matter when we’re working to shift transit behaviors.” Based on participant surveys, the program ’s first two years resulted in 268,000 miles traveled without a car and a reduc tion of 5,600 pounds of air pollutants such as particu late matter.
While the amount of pollution reduction in 2014 is still being tabu lated, the grant money played a role in nearly
500 households participat ing in SmartTrips this year, compared to 200 in 2013 and 132 in 2012.
Lohnes said that the partnership has fit the community’s needs.
“Our air quality is such a complex issue that we need a lot of different people working on a lot of different factors related to air quality and air pol lution,” Lohnes said. “The ideas are there because you have so many people that care about air quality. If you have an idea and formulate a plan you can receive funding and actually do it. It’ll be really fun to see what this next round of grants does.”
The grant program has expanded to include Air Assist awards for businesses with fewer than 100 employees. The Air Assist program, funded through the Utah Depart ment of Environmental Quality and the Utah Department of Workforce Services, provides grants to small businesses for equipment upgrades that reduce emissions, accord ing to the partnership website.
The partnership’s web site, www.ucair.org, offers educational materials on how residents can reduce air pollution in their com munity, their job and at home.
Online fact sheets are available on types of pol lutants, such as ozone,
and resources that encour age people to reduce emissions from cars by walking, using public transportation or biking instead.
Other tips range from being conscious about products people
buy to creating personal air action plans based on state clean air standards.
For more information about the Utah Clean Air Partnership, visit www. ucair.org. ■
Members of SmartTrips, a Salt Lake City-based group aimed at reducing car trips to lower air pollution, stand with the S-line, a public transit train, in August. The Utah Clean Air Partner ship awarded grant money to the group, which was used in part for reloadablefare cards to ride the transit line.
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Major concerns for pollution in Utah have been around for more than a decade some efforts have been made since then
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Real solutions implemented within our city to help those locally and inexpensively help our community
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positive results have shown through the program after just 2 years of running, which led to the reduction of 5,600 pounds of air pollutants
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