Presentation description

This project is about Salt Lake County residents' perceptions of air pollution, with a focus on the differences in opinion about environmental policy between White and Hispanic residents. Salt Lake County periodically experiences some of the worst air pollution in the nation. Air pollution in the region frequently exceeds the PM2.5 24-hour national ambient air quality standard, which is concerning as it can harm human health. (PM2.5 Moderate Area State Implementation Plans (SIPs) (2009-2014), 2019). In Salt Lake County, previous research has shown that people of color are more exposed to dust from the Great Salt Lake (Grineski et al., 2024), as well as fine particulate matter during winter inversions (Mullen et al., 2020) and annual average fine particulate matter (Collins & Grineski, 2019) than are White people. Additional research shows that the US public is largely in favor of water conservation, specifically in terms of the reduction of water usage by large industries as well by private and public entities to water lawns. However, the public is not in favor of reducing water usage from agricultural sources (Stoutenborough & Vedlitz, 2014). Research also indicates that Latinos have strong pro-environmental attitudes regarding political action, and climate policy. (Ballew et al., 2019)
As such, this poster focuses on assessing levels of support for policies designed to reduce air pollution in Salt Lake County, including those policies focused on increasing water levels in the Great Salt Lake via water conservation. We examine differences between Hispanic and White (non-Hispanic) residents.