SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — It’s a “true story that might surprise you.” Utah’s air quality is better than it ever has been in the last few decades and it’s trending in the right direction.

On Thursday, Jan. 18, State Sen. Todd Weiler (R-Woods Cross) made the claim on Twitter/X that Utah’s air is “significantly cleaner” than it was 30 years ago. Gov. Spencer Cox backed up that claim saying that despite Utah’s multi-million growth in population, Utah’s air is cleaner.

Air Monitoring Manager Bo Call with the Utah Department of Air Quality told ABC4 those two men were right. Call is part of the team that monitors air pollution across the state. He is primarily responsible for making the “No Burn” calls or advising the public to drive less, if possible.

Call said there are a variety of reasons why air quality across the Wasatch Front has been improving, but a change in regulations has been the greatest factor.

“Sources that were creating a lot of pollution are all now well-regulated,” said Call. “You don’t see smokestacks out there that are just spewing forth unregulated emissions. You may see a smokestack that looks like it’s really kicking forth a lot of stuff, but a lot of that is water vapor and isn’t pollutant steam.”

Call said the refineries and the industry sector along the Wasatch Front only account for about 13% to 17% of Utah’s air pollution. The majority — about 45% to 50% — comes from Utah’s population. Call said cars are the largest contributor to Utah’s pollution but “area sources” such as fast food places, emissions from heating homes, apartments, dry cleaners, and more all play a role in the air quality. Call said area sources contribution is often very small, but there is a lot of them.

Still, to Gov. Cox’s point, innovation has played a miracle in the human impact on air quality.

“Now cars are cleaner. And so that number is steadily going down as we get cleaner cars,” said Call. “We’ve had fuel formulations that have changed that are used on those cars, and coupled together that amounted to about 70% to 80% reduction in the emissions from newer cars using the newer fuels. And that went into effect in the late [2010s]. Pretty much any car you buy now is going to be super clean.”

There is still a lot of work to be done though. Call told ABC4.com that federal regulations are constantly getting stricter, and the proverbial goalposts are always moving. What would have been a clean air day 30 years ago would be cause for panic by today’s standards. Not to mention, Utah still has those bad days where inversion traps air in the valley, worsening air quality to awful levels.

So what can be done? Call said the best thing to do is just make smart choices.

“If you’ve got a big truck and you have a little car that is better pollution-wise, if you choose to drive your little car that’s better on pollution. That’s a choice you can make right now,” said Call. He said those kinds of little decisions make a difference.

UCAIR, a statewide partnership for cleaner air, said finding transportation alternatives can provide the biggest impact on Utah’s air quality. These alternatives could be carpooling, working from home, if possible, or taking public transit – which has been gradually expanding its role in providing cleaner transit.

Call also said that sometimes, the air quality just looks worse than it is. The way the air looks, Call said, is largely determined by the way sunlight bounces off the fine particles in the air.

“The reason that the air looks bad is because there are these super fine particles in the air. You can see it and you can look at it but a lot of that is depending on where the light is, where the sun is, and how the light’s bouncing off it,” explained Call. “One of the biggest things that I have to correct people on or catch them about is just because it looks bad doesn’t necessarily mean that it is.”

Community members can always check in and monitor the air quality around them using the Department of Air Quality’s Air Quality App. Call said the app can be a really helpful tool to inform the public on how they should make their choices about transit, or even recreating outside.