This summer was one of the best in the past five years for Salt Lake City’s air quality, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. But there is still progress to be made, local officials say.
From May through Sept. 1, Salt Lake City had 112 days where the air quality index — or AQI — was either good or moderate according to ratings from the EPA. These ratings determine how clean the air is by dividing up AQI ratings into six categories: good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, very unhealthy and hazardous.
Only 11 days this summer were rated as unhealthy for sensitive groups and one day was rated as unhealthy. There were not any days this summer where the air quality in Salt Lake City was considered very unhealthy or hazardous.
“Last year, we saw a ton of smoke coming from California and Idaho, and those wildfires and the weather patterns were just really perfect to push that smoke really long distances into Utah,” said Ashley Sumner, a spokesperson with the Utah Department of Environmental quality.
“This year, we haven’t seen that as much,” Sumner continued. “There’s still smoke coming out of California but it’s really not impacting Utah. … So this year has been significantly better.”
Over the same period in 2021, Salt Lake City had 30 days in the unhealthy for sensitive groups category and eight days in the unhealthy category. Last summer tied with summer 2018 for the highest number of unhealthy days, as summer 2018 had 36 days where the air quality was unhealthy for sensitive groups and two days where the air quality was unhealthy.
“We definitely know that last year we saw a lot more particulate matter pollution, which in turn provided more pollutants that exacerbated our ozone pollution,” Sumner said. “I think the wildfire season made it one of one of the worst summers in recent memory just because of the way that the wildfire smoke was getting pushed into Utah.”
The state’s “monsoon season” helped prevent wildfire smoke from moving into Utah this year, Sumner said. But officials also believe Utahns were more responsible this fire season, so even less smoke filtered through the Wasatch Front.
Residents can also do their part to improve the state’s air quality by using public transit and by switching to electric engines for lawn equipment, Sumner said.
“People have probably— hopefully — felt more freedom to be able to go out and enjoy the summer,” Sumner said. “I think people remember August 6 last year, when our air was just thick with that smoke, and you felt like you couldn’t breathe your outside air — sometimes even your inside air. So we’ve had more freedom to be outside enjoying the summer weather.”
