The Uinta Basin recorded its first exceedance of the EPA ozone standard of the year on Monday. According to the report from Dr. Seth Lyman, USU Bingham Research Center Director, ozone has continued to increase in the Uinta Basin and the likelihood of high ozone will not pass for several more days. Ozone has slowly been building in the Uinta Basin since Thursday of last week but it wasn’t until Monday in Roosevelt that it inched over the 70 ppb EPA standard. “It is getting warmer, and the snow in most of the Basin is melting out. Once the snow is gone, the local ozone production will be gone, also. My best guess,” shares Dr. Lyman, “is that ozone will continue to increase [Tuesday], and that we will see exceedances of the EPA standard at Roosevelt and probably other monitoring stations [Tuesday] afternoon. If it gets warm enough and enough snow melts, that could be the last high ozone day.” In the meantime, all are encouraged to continue to reduce ozone-forming emissions, especially those working in the oil and gas industry.
