Smoky September skies are dragging out a high-pollution trend that’s dogged Utah all summer.
“This is really a bumper year for, for ozone,” said Bo Call, who oversees pollution monitoring at the Utah Division of Air Quality. It “isn’t really what you want to hear, but that’s the way it is.”
Call told the state Air Quality Board this week that smog exceeded national allowable limits 19 times, and the count’s rising. Record summer heat’s a big factor. The sun basically cooks up ozone pollution.
Salt Lake City and Bountiful have been worst, said Call. “And we don’t seem to be out of the – out of it yet.”
Call says it’s not just ozone pollution that’s been a problem in the first week of September, but wildfire smoke is driving up particulate pollution too. That’s pollution mostly from combustion.
