A multimillion dollar study is poised to measure wintertime ozone across the Uintah Basin, but with this unusually warm winter, researchers are asking “where’s the snow?”

“Ozone is formed in the atmosphere a photo-chemical reaction of sunlight on snow and without it, there won’t be ozone, but air quality issues remain,” said Scott Hill, a researcher with Utah State University Research Foundation, Energy Dynamics Laboratory.

Planned as a world-class study, the original goal was to model how wintertime ozone develops in a snowbound basin and identify appropriate mitigation strategies.

With no snow to create ozone, researchers are focusing on what they can study now, which is “emissions of chemical pollutants from sources throughout the Basin at all elevations,” Hill said.

Ozone occurs naturally in the presence of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, and nitrogen oxides, NOx, which are together called precursors.

Last year’s initial study found that ozone forms quickly as “it doesn’t take much snow cover to reflect enough sunlight to start the chemical reactions,” Hill said.

Preliminary results suggest precursors concentrate at lower elevations in proximity to oil and gas wells.

NOx and VOCs are a family of compounds that are particularly reactive in creating smog, said Brock LeBaron, program manager for the Basin-wide study, Utah Division of Air Quality.

“The wintertime evaluation will identify the point sources and distribution of emissions,” he said. “A lot can be learned even without the snow cover.”

The assessment will rely on data from 20 deployed monitoring stations and two air quality supersites established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration located in Roosevelt and Horsepool.

“Our evaluation will look at atmospheric chemical reactions, develop an emissions inventory linked to atmospheric chemistry, develop a baseline inventory of the emission precursors,” LeBaron said.

This first-of-its-kind distribution inventory will also establish three permanent air quality monitors at Fruitland, Roosevelt and Vernal.

“We’ll use a mobile lab to drive around the Basin during an inversion event, Hill said. “It is capable of detecting polluting chemicals by collecting samples from certain point sources like well sites, city streets, evaporation ponds, power plants, compressor stations and so on.”

Last year’s study looked at weather and wind patterns to determine whether ground-level ozone or other pollutants were blown into the Basin, he said.

“Some air flow occurs but, for the most part, we’ve established it’s pretty much a homegrown problem,” Hill said.

Last year’s study found ozone concentrations in excess of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for healthy air during inversions that occurred between January and March.

Healthy air quality can sustain concentrations of ozone at 75 parts per billion, according to the NAAQS but last year, a one hour value of ground level ozone registered 149 ppb at the Ouray station.

The highest eight-hour value of 134.6 ppb occurred at at Pariette Draw, which also had the greatest observed fourth-highest value at 121.6 ppb.

Breathing polluted air can contribute to health problems, especially for older people, adults with heart or lung problems or infants whose developing lungs can easily be damaged.

“We want to help people and improve the air we breathe, not necessarily scare them,” Hill said.

The total funding of $5,496,000 for the project has come from the Uintah Impact Mitigation special service district, Western Energy Alliance, Bureau of Land Management’s Utah Office and Environmental Protection Agency Region 8.

Significant in-kind equipment contributions have also come from the state of Utah, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and University of Colorado at Boulder.

Cooperative research partners include the Utah State University Energy Dynamics Lab, NOAA, University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Utah Division of Air Quality, TriCounty Health Department, the EPA, BLM, and local oil and gas producing members of the Western Energy Alliance, Anadarko. Newfield Exploration, Bill Barrett Corporation, Ute Energy and a host of others.

For more information about local conditions http://www.tricountyhealth.com/AirQuality.html or http://www.airquality.utah.gov/aqp/vl-currentconditions.html.