Environmental advocates are awaiting the decision of the Utah Supreme Court after oral arguments were heard last week about whether state regulators made the right decision by approving expanded operations at the Tesoro oil refinery in Salt Lake City.
Environment groups argue the refinery contributes to northern Utah’s bad winter air that is sometimes the worst in the nation. It's sometimes listed in the “non-attainment” zone with National Ambient Air Quality Standards, according to the EPA.
Joro Walker represents environmental groups including Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club. She said the Utah Director of Air Quality, Bryce Bird, did not properly apply the best technology to determine an emission limit for the refinery before approving the refinery’s expansion.
“The director didn’t properly apply the best available control technology, because he did not come up with the emission limit that represented the maximum reduction of pollution,” Walker said. “He skipped that step and essentially adopted pollution control equipment that has been in place since before 2006.”
Walker said that having equipment without emissions limits is like having speed limit signs without numbers written on them.
“Our air pollution problem is so serious that we’re supposed to be finding emission reductions from every sector,” Walker said. “And at a time when every emission reduction is critical to putting us on the path to attainment, we cannot allow emission increases as were allowed at the Tesoro refinery without imposing these strict requirements and trying to reduce those emission increases for the maximum extent.”
The court could take up to a year to reach a decision on the case.