DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE HERBERT HOOVER, SECRETARY BUREAU OF MINES SCOTT TURNER, DIRECTOR SMOKE - ABATEMENT INVESTIGATION AT SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Sold only by the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1926 PREFACE-KEEPING THE ATMOSPHERE CLEAN When an industrial community realizes that keeping the air clean is a project of similar magnitude to keeping streets clean, providing clean water, removing city waste, or guarding the moral atmosphere, then there may be hope of success in smoke abatement. We usually think of the project in too small terms. It is thought of as is the dog catcher or the boiler inspector-a matter of a man or two, a job or two, and a small appropriation of variable and uncertain amount, to be abolished in a fit of economy and reestablished under pressure of a vigorous minority. Even so, it is surprising how much is obtained for the effort; but the community is rarely satisfied, for the job is bigger than it was conceived to be. Continuous, never-ceasing effort is required to clean up a smoky city. A few months of relaxation and some years of effort are canceled. The It is useless to look for a spectacular cure. Success comes only after long-continued, highly skillful effort. When a new plant goes in and it proves to be a smoker, remedying the condition is difficult. The community will probably have to stand smoke for a long time while the owner spends money temporizing with weak expedients, finally arriving at the conclusion that "it can not be done." remedy is to provide such engineering oversight of new installations as to insure a nonsmoking plant to begin with. This can be done. It may mean changes in building plans, a larger investment, a greater responsibility of management, a more intelligent operation, but these things are the price of clean air. The higher grade of installation usually pays well by reducing running expenses. It is of little use to complain of smoky stacks and allow new ones to be added daily. It is not often that smokelessness is one of the main objectives in an installation. Capacity, convenience, efficiency, and low cost come first, with a weak but laudable hope that smokelessness can be had also at no increase in cost. This order must be reversed in the public mind if we are to have clean air. Smokelessness must be a first requirement. These simple illustrations indicate that successful smoke abatement is a problem requiring high technical ability, the administration of a difficult human problem, a change in attitude of a community, willingness to wait for results, and readiness to pay for continuous, long-time effort free from political control. So far we have not found this combination, so that results are incomplete. There is a great waste of ineffective effort in smoke-abatement agitation that gets nowhere because of a lack of vision as to the kind of job it is and an unwillingness to pay the price. Engineers believe that it can be done, and at a price not out of proportion to its worth. The work at Salt Lake City illustrates the methods the Bureau of Mines advocates for a smoke abatement campaign in a city of the size of Salt Lake City. The records show the degree of success that can be expected and also the penalty for discontinuous effort. O. P. HOOD, Chief Mechanical Engineer. II Jar contents from different localities__ Comparison of atmospheric pollution with that of other cities--. Supplementary investigations, 1920-21-Continued. Determination of atmospheric impurities, February 8 to April 29, Atmospheric filtration___. Page Determination of sulphur dioxide__. Soot-fall samples. Abstract of report on four and one-half years of smoke abatement, Organization of smoke-abatement campaign_ Results of temporary cessation of effort. 1. View southeast from City Creek Canyon on a clear spring day---. 2. View northwest from University of Utah, showing edge of smoke 3. View southeast from City Creek Canyon on a smoky morning.. 67 |