Twenty-Year Review of Outdoor Air Quality in Utah, USA

TL;DR

This review summarizes 20 years of air quality research in Utah, highlighting regional differences, research gaps, and suggesting future directions for better understanding and managing air pollution in the state.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive regional analysis of Utah's air quality research over two decades, identifying gaps and proposing new measurement strategies for ozone mitigation.

Findings

Research is concentrated in Uinta Basin and Salt Lake Valley.

Significant gaps exist in source apportionment and VOC analysis.

Measuring glyoxal and formaldehyde could improve ozone mitigation efforts.

Abstract

Air quality is a prevalent concern due to its imposing health risks. The state of Utah, USA, has, at times over the last 20 years, experienced some of the worst air quality in the nation. The propensity for Utah to experience elevated concentrations of particulate matter ($\mathrm{PM_{2.5}}$) and ozone ($\mathrm{O_3}$) can, in part, be attributed to its unique geography, which features dry, mountainous terrain. Valleys in Utah create ideal environments for extended cold-pool events. In this review, we summarize air quality research conducted in Utah over the past 20 years (2002-2022) by dividing the state into six regions: Utah Valley, Summit County, Southern Utah (regions south of Utah Valley), Cache Valley, Uinta Basin, and Salt Lake Valley. We review the published literature chronologically and provide a summary for each region, identifying areas where additional research is warranted. We found that research efforts are heavily weighted toward the Uinta Basin and Salt Lake Valley, with the remaining regions collectively accounting for only 20% of studies. We identified the need for more source apportionment studies, speciated volatile organic compound (VOC) analyses, and ozone isopleths. Where ozone isopleths cannot be created, measurements of glyoxal ($\mathrm{CHOCHO}$) and formaldehyde ($\mathrm{HCHO}$) concentrations could serve as cost-effective surrogates to inform ozone mitigation policies.