SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah Division of Air Quality held a meeting on Wednesday to address the issue of the state's polluted air, making several new regulations.
Utah has had 22 red air days this winter, compared to 5 last season. Utah and Cache Counties are the worst, with 19 days with excessive levels of PM 2.5 pollution, and Salt Lake County
The board decided that wood-burning boilers that heat homes will no longer be allowed in counties with excessive pollution. Restaurants that use certain types of charbroilers will now have emission controls.
Those regulations add to the 20 already in place. The state is working to control emissions on everything from dry cleaning businesses to mom-and-pop bakeries, which put out about 30 percent of Utah's winter pollution.
More regulations may be on the way, tweaking a plan to clean up our air by 2014. The goal is to reduce pollution across the Wasatch Front by 30 percent.
"The state now is doing more than it's ever done for air quality. We can go through a long list of things that are happening but the state is going through a process of regulating businesses that have never been regulated before," said Alan Matheson, the Governor's environmental advisor.
The Department of Environmental Quality is now opening public comment to consumer products like oven cleaners and hairspray. They're considering putting more regulations on manufacturers of those products to reduce pollutants
The Department of Environmental Quality meets at the end of the month.
