| Description |
Ambient air pollution has many sources, both man-made and natural. In Salt Lake City, UT, the mountains create a setting where pollutants get trapped between them, thereby exposing the population to higher than United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) primary standards. In fact, Salt Lake County has been classified as a nonattainment county for at least one National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) components since 1992. The health risks associated with exposure to NAAQS range from respiratory irritation to cardiac arrest and stroke. This research contributes to the general knowledge of air pollution within the Salt Lake Valley in two ways: the first is through a cluster analysis using EPA Air Quality Systems (AQS) monitoring site data to determine sources of air pollution at a local elementary school; the second is through an exploratory analysis to find the elemental concentration of soil along the Great Salt Lake dried lake bed. The cluster analysis identified four distinct clusters of air pollution at the AQS monitoring station using the following data: PM2.5 (particulate matter < 2.5μm in aerodynamic diameter), elemental carbon, organic carbon, sulfate (SO4), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and speciated PM2.5 components (vanadium, zinc, potassium, silicon, calcium and iron). The first cluster had the lowest levels of the pollutants observed, except for CO, NO, and SO4, in which CO and NO were lowest in cluster 4, and SO4 was the lowest in cluster 2. The third cluster had the highest iv concentrations of elemental carbon, organic carbon, SO4, NO, NO2, vanadium, zinc, and iron. While cluster 4 had the highest concentrations of Al, Ca, K, O3, Si, and soil. The soil analysis revealed several elements were present in the soil above what the average levels were for the rest of Utah, including arsenic, calcium, iron, potassium, strontium, sulfur, and titanium. Of most concern was that arsenic was found to be concentrated in the finest soil fraction, which is in the respirable size range. Understanding the potential sources of air pollution can help those making policy decisions and employers with outdoor workers protect those living and working in and around the Salt Lake Valley. |
