Federal environmental regulators on Monday ruled that Utah failed to meet requirements to clean up the ozone in the Uinta Basin, and that the state must take larger steps to clean up the region’s air quality.
The decision from the Environmental Protection Agency comes after Utah and the Ute Indian Tribe were given years to reduce average ozone levels in the basin and comply with air quality standards set in 2015, according to findings published by the agency Tuesday.
The EPA was poised to grant the state a second one-year extension to hit the required ozone mark, but changed its mind and ultimately denied the extension request after hearing concerns raised by the public in recent months.
In 2018, measurements showed the Uinta Basin — an area that contains parts of Duchesne and Uintah Counties — was one of 52 areas around the United States that did not meet the ozone level requirements strengthened by the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
The state was given three years to reduce those emissions and come into compliance. But when 2021 came around, the Uinta Basin’s ozone levels once again measured too high. While the 21 other regions that also failed that follow-up test faced heightened mitigation requirements, Utah requested and was granted a one-year extension.
Utah and the Ute Indian Tribe both requested another extension a year later, and the EPA was initially poised to grant the second extension. But after weighing feedback from the public and considering how it could affect populations, the agency decided to deny the request, according to the document.
Bryce Bird, the director of Utah’s Division of Air Quality, wrote a letter to the EPA urging them to approve the proposed one-year extension, arguing that the Uinta Basin’s topography and cold-weather related emissions and ozone needed to be considered.
“Some aspects of the Clean Air Act (CAA) are not conducive to the best regulatory paths to improving,” Bird wrote.
On Tuesday, Bird said the EPA’s move doesn’t change the state’s focus on air quality in the Uinta Basin.
“We’ll be reviewing the action and seeing what our options are, but it’s early at this point,” he said, noting Utah has 30 days to request a reconsideration and 60 days to dispute the ruling.
He said part of his concern is that increased regulations could make it harder to get permits to extract petroleum from the area in the future, though he doesn’t know of any plans for new projects.
The Utah Petroleum Association previously argued that the Uinta Basin saw a 25% reduction in ozone levels from 2013 to 2023, despite a 90 percent increase in oil production. Jeremy Nichols, a senior advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Salt Lake Tribune that even if data is correct, there still is too much pollution in the area.
“Because of unchecked oil and gas development, the region has actually experienced smog levels as high as big cities, actually higher than Los Angeles and Houston at times,” Nichols said.
He described the EPA’s proposal to grant the second extension earlier this year as a “free pass” about cleaning up ozone within Uinta Basin and said claims from the state that the basin’s meteorology is part of the reason for the area’s high ozone levels are disingenuous.
“The region’s not in compliance, and the EPA’s decision today says that,” Nichols said. “It forces Utah to have to do more, have to recognize that things aren’t cleaned up yet and that they need to meaningfully address this problem and not find ways to get out of it.”
As part of Tuesday’s decision, the EPA will require Utah to submit a revised plan for how it will bring the Uinta Basin into compliance with federal air quality standards. The EPA said it will set deadlines for meeting those standards in a separate action.
“EPA intends to fulfill our legal obligation to protect air quality in Indian country, by continuing to work with the Ute Tribe and taking appropriate regulatory steps to identify and control emissions in Indian country that contribute to ozone formation in the Uinta Basin,” EPA spokesperson Virva Aryan said in an email.
