The energy boom in eastern Utah has brought with it a big pollution problem. The Utah Division of Air Quality has been studying it, and its now implementing new regulations to cut emissions. The agency didn’t even know there was a pollution problem in the Uinta Basin until a few years ago. After millions of dollars of studies, the agency is now putting new rules in place to rein in emissions produced by oil and gas development. “Keep in mind, this is the beginning of the process for developing these rules,” Brock LeBaron, the division’s deputy director, who has overseen much of the research. “It’s not at a final stage by any means, so there’s lots of room for public comment.” The first four regulations target old equipment that releases volatile organic compounds into the air. VOC’s, as they are called, factor into both summer and winter pollution. And researches now have evidence that human-caused emissions from energy development make up more than half of all the VOCs in the entire
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