Articles / What Is Salt Lake City Doing to Clear the Air?

Credit: Edgar Zuniga Jr./Flickr

Salt Lake City has the ignominious distinction of ranking as the country’s seventh most polluted city by short-term particle pollution, linked to increases in heart attacks and heightened asthma attacks. Motorized vehicles are responsible for more than 50 percent of air pollutants in the Salt Lake valley and inversions during winter months trap air, creating pea-soup smog more commonly associated with Los Angeles. There is not much room left in the valley to build new highways, but plans to add capacity to current ones will only encourage driving, not curb it.

To tackle car pollution, in 2009 a consortium of non-profit, business, community and government organizations created a competition called the Clear the Air Challenge to spur Utah residents to reduce their car mileage by using public transit, biking, telecommuting, and carpooling. After attracting more than 23,000 participants in 2009, the Challenge ran again in the following two years with a $368,000 Climate Showcase Communities Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

During the 2010 Challenge, the organizing partners focused on increasing business participation. “In 2009,” says Kate Lilja, Program Manager of the Clear the Air Challenge, “we saw that some of the most dedicated individuals came from local businesses who really encouraged their employees to participate.” In 2010, over 100 businesses created company teams – roughly 40 percent of total registered groups.

Based on participant pledges, the 2010 Challenge saved more than 2 million pounds of heat trapping emissions and 1.3 million car miles. ADP, Inc. won the Large Company category, eliminating 111,407 pounds of emissions and 66,353 vehicle miles.

Among individual participants, Brian Parker, an architect, avid outdoorsman and father of four from the Salt Lake suburb of Sandy achieved the greatest emission reductions with a savings of 25,000 pounds, 15,000 car miles and $8000 in gas.

In 2009, Parker thought about participating but declined. “I had no idea how I would make it work. I have too many meetings and long drives, sometimes up to 700 miles round trip.” But in 2010, Parker decided to join his company team participating in the Challenge.

One of the biggest changes Parker made was to reduce his car trips to Southern Utah. Instead, says Parker, “I invited our clients to participate in web conferences. We were still able to meet, get the work done and I saved all sorts of miles and time.” He also saved his client money. When driving was necessary, Parker participated in carpools and combined car trips when running errands.

Salt Lake City leveraged the success of the 2010 Challenge by reaching out to partners like the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, which created its own Clear the Air Committee to address the threat of pollution to economic growth. The city will also partner with the Utah Transit Authority and Utah Department of Transportation to analyze public transit rider ship and traffic counts in the valley in 2012. The UTA reported an increase of 53,004 rides on public transit from July 2009 to July 2010.

Despite the success of the Clear the Air Challenge, transportation watchers in Utah stress the importance of recognizing the limitations of a volunteer-based program. “A purely voluntary effort can’t effect the kinds of results that we’re hoping for,” says Mark Clemens, Manager of the Sierra Club’s Utah Chapter.

“The Utah Department of Transportation,” Clemens points out, “is continuously pushing the notion of building new roads, however destructive they are to communities.” Road building and repairs enjoy “enormous political patronage” in Utah, says Clemens. Indeed, in May of this year, the Utah State Legislature overrode a governor veto on a bill that sets aside 30 percent of sales tax revenue increases for road projects.

A tool like the Clear the Air Challenge must be one of several tactics, Clemens asserts. “With any change, no single option or set of policy ideas is going to work. One has to pursue a whole range of changes simultaneously.”

In the meantime, the city just completed another Challenge this summer, eliminating more than 2 million pounds of heat-trapping pollutants and saving approximately 1.2 million vehicle miles. The city will survey the population of Salt Lake County this fall and compare the results to a 2010 baseline poll to identify any shifts in public awareness of transportation’s impact on air quality and receptivity to alternative transportation.