The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has had an air quality program since 2010. With the first air monitoring effort at the White Mesa Community in Utah, where the community members have concern with the effluents from the operation of the Uranium Mill next door. The program expanded over the next five years with installments of air quality shelters in White Mesa and Towaoc, Colorado, where most of the Tribal members reside. At the foot of the Ute Mountain, a sacred landmark to the Tribe, the community in Towaoc has been living within thirty miles of two coal-fired electrical generation plants, and the effluents from the oil and gas production in the Four Corners area of the Colorado Plateau. With assistance of instrumentation from TAMS and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Tribe AQ Program monitored PM2.5, PM10, currently we are monitoring ozone, continuing the TSP program in White Mesa, and maintaining meteorological instrumentation at the sites. The AQ Program has initiated the effort for CAA Treatment of State status with finalizing the application mid-2021.
