Winter Ozone Pollution in Utah’s Uinta Basin is Attenuating

High concentrations of ground-level ozone have been observed during wintertime in the Uinta Basin of western Utah, USA, beginning in 2010. We analyze existing ozone and ozone precursor concentration data from 38 sites over 11 winter seasons and conclude that there has been a statistically significant (p < 0.02) decline in ozone concentration over the previous decade. Daily exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone (70 ppb) have been trending downward at the rate of nearly four per year. Ozone and NOx concentrations have been trending downward at the rates of about 3 and 0.3 ppb per year, respectively. Concentrations of organics in 2018 were at about 30% of their values in 2012 or 2013. Several markers, annual ozone exceedance counts and median ozone and NOx concentrations, were at their largest values in the period 2010 to 2013 and have never recovered since then. We attribute the decline to (1) weakening global demand for oil and natural gas and (2) more stringent pollution regulations and controls, both of which have occurred over the previous decade. We also see evidence of ozone titration when snow cover is absent.