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Air Polluters
Sept. 29, 1999
The nation's best-known auto club says it's time to quit blaming cars for urban smog and time to get tougher on industrial polluters.
But, as Environment Specialist John Hollenhorst reports, the proposal drew a strong counterattack today, nationally, and here in Utah.
There's no debate about one thing: cars are cleaner. The average car today emits a small fraction of the pollution an average car spewed out a generation ago. Most cities have cleaner air, even though there are far more cars.
Rick Sprott/Utah Div. of Air Quality: "THE AIR IN UTAH, PARTICULARLY ALONG THE WASATCH FRONT HAS IMPROVED DRAMATICALLY OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS."
The American Automobile Association says cars and light trucks now cause only 24 percent of urban smog.
Susan Pikrallidas/Vice President, A.A.A.: "IT'S TIME TO TURN THE SPOTLIGHT ON OTHER SOURCES OF AIR POLLUTION IF WE REALLY WANT TO CONTINUE TO IMPROVE AIR QUALITY. "
Environmentalists were quick to object.
Dan Becker/Sierra Club: "IF A LITTLE BIT OF POISON, 20 PERCENT OF THE POISON THAT'S GOING INTO OUR AIR, IS COMING OUT OF CARS, WHY WOULDN'T WE WANT TO TAKE REASONABLE STEPS TO CLEAN IT UP."
In Utah, cars and light trucks are still, hands down, the biggest sources of the organic chemicals that cause summer smog, which is unhealthy ground-level ozone.
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6 percent is from industry.
- Trains and deisels contribute 17%.
- Believe it or not, pine trees and plants spew 20 percent of the organic chemicals.
- 21 percent is from lawnmowers, paint cans, solvents and the like at homes and business.
- But the smog champions are vehicles: 35 percent of the problem.
And there are more and more all the time, so Utah regulators say car technology needs to get even cleaner.
RICK SPROTT/UTAH DIV. OF AIR QUALITY: "AS GROWTH CONTINUES, WHAT WILL HAPPEN THE OLD TECHNOLOGY WILL NO LONGER GET US THE SAVINGS WE NEED WE'LL BE BACK TO THE SAME POINT WE WERE SOME YEARS AGO. "
Triple A is fighting tougher emission controls on cars.
Susan Pikrallidas/Vice President, A.A.A.: "TARGETING CARS WILL NOT GET YOU MUCH MORE FOR THE MONEY."
But regulators say Utah industries have already spent hundreds of millions cleaning up.
RICK SPROTT/UTAH DIV. OF AIR QUALITY: " JUST AS WITH THE AUTOMOBILE THERE'S A MARGINAL POINT AT WHICH THE COST BECOMES PROHIBITIVE. "
John Hollenhorst, Eyewitness News: "THE BIG FIGHT RIGHT NOW: TOUGHER STANDARDS FOR CARS, PROPOSED A FEW MONTHS AGO BY E.P.A. IF THEY GO THROUGH, CARS WILL HAVE TO BE EVEN CLEANER BY THE 2004 MODEL YEAR.
JOHN HOLLENHORST, EYEWITNESS NEWS."
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