High levels of winter ozone air pollution have been recorded in a Utah oil and gas field — after the phenomenon was seen in Wyoming — raising concerns that such pollution could become more widespread.
A team of scientists is combing the Uintah Basin to determine the link between the area's 10,000 oil and gas wells and ozone levels, which in 2011 were higher in eastern Utah than in New York City.
"What we are seeing in the Uintah Basin and (Wyoming's) upper Green River (Basin) has implications for the entire West," said Brock LeBaron, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality's manager of the Uintah study.
Ozone pollution — which can impair breathing — has been an urban and summertime problem, but in the West, it has emerged as a rural winter issue.
As drilling picks up, particularly in areas such as Colorado where shale oil has been discovered, the concern is that the problem could grow.
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