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Show CampusNews Page 2 Tuesday, March 19, 2013 Cleaning up Cache Valley's air BY PAUL CHRISTIANSEN Jean Lown staff writer USU professor A crowd of citizens wearing surgical masks and bearing protest signs converged on a Cache County Council public hearing in February in support of a bill sponsored by state Rep. Ed Redd of Logan. The bill, set to implement vehicle emissions testing in the valley, has been in the public eye because of this season's frequent red air problems. But Jean Lown, a USU professor, doesn't feel the bill's advocates represent those in the community who can make a difference. "Unfortunately, that's not a representative sample of the people who vote here in Cache Valley," Lown said. "People in that room were the people that care, are educated and are knowledgeable. Unfortunately, they're not the vast majority of voters." Lown doesn't drive: She walks or rides a bicycle to USU. She often sees automobiles pouring out dirty exhaust and visible emissions into the air nearly every day. She's fed up with county officials who say emissions testing won't solve the problem. "Let's at least start attacking the problem," Lown said. "Even if it's only going to improve our air quality five percent, let's do it. I u ven if it's only going to improve our air quality five percent, let's do it. You've got to start somewhere." You've got to start somewhere." Lown said like many Utahns, she didn't realize vehicle emissions consist of multiple components. Randy Martin, research associate professor for the College of Engineering at USU, said four compounds are checked for in an emissions test: carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds — VOCs — and oxides of nitrogen, or NOx. VOCs and NOx, the compounds of primary concern, rise into the air and react with the atmosphere after being emitted. VOCs primarily contribute to ozone photochemistry, Martin said, and react with nitric oxide emitted from vehicles, forming nitrogen dioxide. Afterward, nitric acid forms and combines with ammonia in the valley atmosphere to form PM2.5, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers that can aggravate heart diseases such as coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure when it passes through the nose, throat and lungs into the cardiovascular system. Attacking the high levels of ammonia in the valley air would be impractical, Martin said. At least 50 percent of ammonia would have to be removed before any change in PM2.5 measurements would be evident. VOCs and NOx are approximately equal in their importance in atmospheric chemistry, Martin said. "Sometimes if you pick the wrong one of those — say you reduce NOx but you don't reduce the VOCs — it could actually increase our PM2.5," Martin said. Utah's Division of Air Quality has set a goal to get Cache Valley below the federal standard for PM2.5 — 35 micrograms per cubic meter. Other than area producers, the main source of valley emissions is automobiles, Martin said. The UDAQ's models show the county's proposed vehicle emissions inspection program is estimated to reduce total vehicle emissions in Cache Valley by .46 tons per day, roughly one-third of the total reduction required to get below the federal standard. "Two-thirds of these emissions come from area sources — basically businesses — so we as individual consumers are going to be directly responsible for that onethird," Martin said. Niles Urry, producer and director of the EnviroNews documentary "Breathless in Zion," said the pollution produced by industry can only be dealt with if the public educates itself, organizes and calls for change. "These companies have to be held to a higher standard," Urry said. "The solution isn't to shut down every source polluter, but we need to make them accountable so they clean up their act in a big way." In the valley's emissions program, vehicles less than six years old will be exempt from testing. All other programs implemented throughout Utah exempt vehicles with a lifetime less than four years. "This was, in my opinion, a little bit of the county's battling to say, 'We stood up against the big, bad federal government and we got you six years instead of four,"' Martin said. Many in the community see the plan as being too minimal and lenient. "This is self-fulfilling prophecy," Lown said. "In three or five years Lynn Lemon can say, 'Oh, I told you so. It really hasn't made any difference,' but it'll be because they made it so lax." With spring approaching, Cache Valley's winter air quality problem will soon clear for another year. If future change is to be made, Martin said, it's vital the problem stays fresh in people's minds. "A lot of times you'll hear people say that an inspection maintenance program is really going to only get us a three-to-five percent reduction in PM2.5," Martin said. "They think it's insignificant, but when we only need to get a 10 percent reduction in PM2.5, that three-to-five percent suddenly becomes very significant." Martin said knowledge is key in dealing with this problem. He said the public needs to educate itself and get the facts. "These short exposures we have for two months of the year still affect your life," he said. "It doesn't matter that it's only during the winter." – pchristiansenmusic@hotmail. corn Twitter: PChristiansen86 POPE: Francis sheds high-profile security detail, other papal luxuries *From page 1 ing at their new leader's refreshing simplicity, his sense of all-embracing equality and distaste for show. But such values can sit uneasily within an institution noted for its strict hierarchy and, in some quarters, a very worldly splendor. For some Catholics, such trappings form part of their experience of the divine and their idea of the glorious role of the church and the pope as God's representative on Earth. Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, brought back the ermine-trimmed elbow-length cloaks and winter hats and other ceremonial garb that had fallen into disuse. "You have to remember that Benedict was a clotheshorse. He loved the pomp and circumstance and the old-fashioned outfits; he just reveled in that," said Christopher M. Bellitto, an expert in church history at Kean University in New Jersey. "Now you have a man who criticizes priests for strutting around like peacocks. I do think he'll try to tone down as much as possible the pomp and circumstance." Not for Francis the red leather shoes favored by Benedict. Indeed, the Catholic newspaper Avvenire reported that a priest at the cathedral in Buenos Aires banded together with some friends to buy a pair of new shoes for Bergoglio before the archbishop left for the papal election conclave in Rome because his footwear looked so embarrassingly tattered. On Friday, after an audience with senior prelates, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles tweeted, "At our meeting today with Pope Francis, I noted that (he) is still wearing his older black shoes. I pray that he keeps them as a sign for us all." But even as the head of what is essentially Europe's last absolute monarchy, Francis is already discovering that his power, and his insistence on humble practice, has limits. On his visit Thursday morning to the St. Mary Major basilica in downtown Rome to pray, he rode in a modest Vatican car with only a small security detail, eschewing the papal Mercedes (license plate SCV 1, abbreviating the Italian and Latin names for Vatican City) and a police escort. When the guards in charge of his safety moved to close off the basilica to the public, the pope asked that it be kept open. Nothing doing. "The gendarmes of the Vatican said no," said an employee at the church who declined to give his name. "The pope wanted it open, but the wish of the pope was not obeyed." Such precautions are understandable; one of Francis' predecessors, John Paul II, was wounded by an assailant's bullet in 1981. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, suggested that there could be some flexibility in Francis' security arrangements, since the guards "are at the service of the pope and will have to adapt themselves to the pastoral style that the pope will use." Security is likely to be tight on the pontiff's foreign trips, where the man who used to ride the bus around Buenos Aires is likely to be chagrined to see traffic blocked for his sake. In addition to head of the Roman Catholic Church, the pope will have to adjust to being a head of state who will be treated as such. "He's trying to understand; he's very attentive and obedient to what people around him say is important," said Spadaro, the editor. "But he also understands he can say, 'No, this is what I want.' " Francis has apparently said yes to the official papal apartment, spacious wraparound digs atop the Apostolic Palace, with a view over magnificent St. Peter's Basilica. The apartment boasts inlaid mar- ble floors, a frescoed loggia, chapel, private study, medical clinic and a library that was remodeled to house Benedict's 20,000 books. Though he might prepare cups of mate, the Argentine tea he drinks, for himself in the papal kitchen, he will probably no longer cook his own meals, as he often did back home. Francis probably had little choice but to accept his new lodgings. But it's a far cry from the small flat he insisted on using in Buenos Aires instead of the archbishop's palace. So is Castel Gandolfo, the 136-acre papal summer retreat outside Rome with unimpeded views across spectacular countryside to the Mediterranean, astronomical observatories and the ruins of a first century Roman theater. No one suggests that such luxuries interest the new pope. So far, his demeanor has been striking THE NEWLY ELECTED POPE FRANCIS stands on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on March 13, 2013, in Vatican City, Vatican. Francis will lead the world's 1.2 billion Catholics. Alessandro Di Meo photo, MCT for its mildness and humbleness, especially toward the cardinals. He stood rather than sat enthroned when they approached him one by one to pledge allegiance after his election. At his televised audience Friday, he looked relaxed, warm and friendly, frequently laughing with the prelates who came up to greet him. Whether some of them are as thrilled about Francis' frugality and restraint, which many will now feel duty-bound to emulate, is not clear. "If the home office starts sending signals about simplicity ... that's what's going to happen," EDINBURGH & HIGHLANDER said Bellitto of Kean University. A lot of prelates who gloried in all of the splendor will now be talking about the glories of simplicity. "My hope is that they will embrace simplicity because they see that that's the right model to follow as opposed to a path for their ambition," Bellitto said. "You can't fake humility." 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