The Salt Lake Tribune

Utah will receive its largest environmental grant ever from one of its most frequent adversaries: the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Utah Department of Environmental Quality and the Utah Inland Port Authority are looking to move away from diesel-powered equipment at Union Pacific’s Salt Lake City Intermodal Terminal and reduce logistics-related emissions statewide. The EPA — which has been the target of a state lawsuit and legislation over air quality rules this year — granted the state bodies $112 million in hopes of achieving cleaner air in the Beehive State. “We’re excited about the opportunity to allow us to lead out in this space,” DEQ Executive Director Kim Shelley said, “and draw attention to the fact that there are electric alternatives out there that can be used and are just as effective in moving these types of materials and goods that Utahns rely on every day.” #airquality #environment #grants #cleanair By Jose Davila IV

Big Cottonwood Canyon’s time was coming. Any skier or snowboarder who has ever called DoorDash while stuck on the shoulder of Wasatch Boulevard waiting for State Route 190 to open after a big snowstorm or who has painstakingly followed the red snake down the highway at 5 p.m. on a weekend knew that. They wouldn’t even need to glance over at Little Cottonwood Canyon for clues. Now, according to Utah Department of Transportation officials, that time is here. UDOT announced this week that it is midway through conducting an environmental study to determine the best method of reducing winter traffic on the oft-congested Big Cottonwood Canyon Scenic Byway. The agency plans to present its preliminary ideas at in-person and virtual meetings Nov. 13-14 and will be taking its first round of public comments from Nov. 13 until Dec. 13. A synopsis of the plan is also available online. Spoiler alert: Unlike in Little Cottonwood Canyon, the top options do not include the construction of a gondola. “There’s no talk of a gondola, or a train,” said UDOT project manager Devin Weder, PE, “or road widening.” Read on to see what the agency is focusing on instead. #roads #transportation #traffic #tolls #publictransit Solitude Mountain Resort Brighton Resort By Julie Jag

Last year I wrote about the launch of RISE Culinary Institute. Tomorrow, the program's second cohort, made of 10 immigrant and refugee women, will graduate. It was great chatting with two of the soon-to-be graduates and Lavanya Mahate on how the program has gone so far — and where it can continue to grow. For The Salt Lake Tribune 👇 https://lnkd.in/gaQAg-8i

The Utah Transit Authority — and Utah skiers and snowboarders by association — will get by with a little help from its friends this winter. UTA has been trying to claw its way out of a supply-side hole ever since it slashed its Ski Bus services due to a driver shortage prior to the 2022-23 season. The cuts, which included lopping off the entire 953 route to Little Cottonwood Canyons, coincided with a surge in resort visitors and Ski Bus ridership over the past two winters. As a result, would-be passengers were at times left waiting hours at valley bus stops or trapped atop one of the Cottonwood Canyons with no way back down. For the 2024-25 season, though, the UTA is bringing in backup. A spokesperson confirmed to the Salt Lake Tribune that the agency has contracted with a third party to provide drivers for Ski Bus routes this winter. With the additional drivers, UTA plans to expand its service up Little Cottonwood Canyon with two “enhancements” that will essentially reinstate the sorely missed 953 route. The rest of the routes, UTA spokesperson Gavin Gustafson said, will remain the same as in 2023-24. “Route 953 was our most popular route for both employees and guests,” said Dave Fields, Snowbird’s general manager. “To have it back is such great news. And we just really appreciate the work UTA has done to come up with a creative solution to get it back.” #skiing #snowboarding #skiutah #transportation #busservice #skibus By Julie Jag

Utah’s housing crisis isn’t only about the typical person’s inability to buy a house. More than 300,000 Utah households are cost-burdened and struggle to afford their rent or mortgage, according to new statewide data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, because they’re spending a large portion of their income on housing. Households are considered cost-burdened when they spend more than 30% of their income on rent, mortgage payments, and other housing costs, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Households spending more than half their income on housing costs are considered severely cost-burdened. The Salt Lake Tribune wants to talk with Utahns about their housing costs and how what they spend to keep a roof over their heads affects their health. #housing #costofliving #survey #utah #housingcrisis #housinginsecurity By Megan Banta

Elections officials in Utah and nationwide are facing an onslaught of disinformation from people trying to discredit democratic institutions, Lt. Gov. Deidre M. Henderson said Monday, and it requires that voters be “vigilant” and trust the systems in place. Henderson’s comments came as students at Utah Valley University presented the results of their research on people’s ability to recognize a deepfake video generated with artificial intelligence. Half of those students surveyed in their research could not tell a deepfake from an actual human, and, in many instances, the deepfake was considered more knowledgeable, trustworthy and persuasive than a human speaker. “The tools may be different, the methods may be different, but the attempts to dissuade, the attempts to undermine, the attempts to trick people, that’s nothing new,” Henderson said, “but it is something that we have to be continually vigilant and guard against.” Read the full story to learn more about the research and what the researchers plan to do next. #elections #AI #deepfakes #disinformation #electionintegrity #research By Robert Gehrke

Because Utah is the youngest state in the nation, I wanted to know what Utahns between the ages of 18 and 30 care most about ahead of the election, what they think about the impact of their vote and how they’re handling increased polarization. More than 20 young voters joined The Salt Lake Tribune for a solutions-focused conversation. It was a new format for many of us, and it was amazing to see how free-flowing the conversation was — and how much we all learned about each other in such a short amount of time. I’m grateful for the participation of everyone involved, and I’m heartened to hear its effects. In a post-event survey, participants said they learned about another person's perspective, connected with someone who has different beliefs and learned new bridge-building skills. That's all progress on the goals I set when I started as Voices editor: To create a public forum that disrupts the outrage machine and instead fosters curiosity, builds trust and creates connection. To prioritize debate over discord. To promote understanding over agreement. I’m also thankful for Maven CREATE for letting us use their space, for Becca Kearl and Living Room Conversations for facilitating and for my Tribune colleagues who offered their help. And none of this would have been possible without the generous support of the American Press Institute, which funded this effort. We are all grateful for their ongoing support as we continue to evolve opinion journalism to be more of a service to the community. Read more about the event — and what I learned — in my latest Inside Voices newsletter: bit.ly/InsideVoices102624.

A restoration project decades in the making has opened to the public at Utah Lake, providing a spot for a threatened fish species to flourish and giving Utah County residents new trails to explore. The Provo River Delta, a half-mile north of the Utah Lake State Park, opened Saturday. Included in the new recreational area is the Skipper Bay Trail, a 1.2-mile paved loop that is open to bikes, pets and fishing. This southbound trail also connects to the existing Provo Canyon Trail, creating a 3.8-mile loop. The Provo River Delta Restoration Project, which began construction in March 2020, was put together by the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission, the United States Department of Interior and Central Utah Water. One of Utah’s “largest restoration[s],” according to commission director Michael Mills, the project received $10 million from the federal government, through what the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said was the Biden administration’s “Investing in America Agenda.” In addition to giving residents a place for recreation just 10 minutes from Provo’s city center, the project also provides a haven for the June sucker, a threatened species that only inhabits Utah Lake. #recreation #trails #restoration #threatenedspecies #parks #fishing #conservation By Shaylee Navarro

In a landmark partnership for the state, the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium and Utah State University are diving in together to offer a degree in marine biology — the first and only such program available in Utah. Utahns will be able to study and research close to home, with access to the more than 4,000 animals at the aquarium: a 100-mile field trip from Logan to Draper. “We’re bringing the ocean to Utah in a unique way that will shape a new generation of marine biologists — those born in the mountains and the deserts,” said Trisha Atwood, an associate professor of watershed sciences at USU. There’s been demand at the Utah school for this kind of offering, said Atwood, who will help lead the program, and it’s the perfect institution for it, with USU’s existing agriculture and animal focus. Currently the school has options for students to study local aquatic restoration and fisheries, such as researching the trout species native to Utah. And it offers the only veterinary degree program in the state. There’s also a zoology program. But species study has been limited. Now, students and faculty — from across those programs and the new major — will have access to far more in the aquarium’s blue waters, filled with sharks, rays and turtles, as well as the land exhibits that offer access to snakes, birds, river otters and a Komodo dragon. #education #college #university #marinebiology #utah By Courtney Tanner

After more than three years of work, the Salt Lake City International Airport celebrated the opening of a new shortcut to concourse B with the help of a 150 million-year-old guest. The 900-foot-long “River Tunnel” opened on Tuesday, saving travelers a half-mile of walking, and adding a twinkling blue art installation set to water-themed songs. The new tunnel cuts the two-thirds of a mile trip between the airport’s concourses in half, and hastens the journey with three moving walkways in each direction. The airport’s mid-concourse tunnel only has two moving walkways in each direction, and when they’re used, the journey from concourse A to the farthest B gates takes passengers at least 13 minutes. The new central tunnel brings that travel time down to under six minutes, according to the airport website. The gates right outside of the River Tunnel are now home to Southwest Airlines, the airport’s second-largest carrier behind Delta Air Lines, Bill Wyatt, the airport’s executive director, said. “People certainly got their steps in and enjoyed the great amenities this new airport has to offer,” said Steve Sisneros, C.M., vice president of airport affairs at Southwest Airlines. “We finally get to cut that walk in half, and that’s something that we can all cheer about. While we won’t get the steps in, we’ll be able to have a quicker commute from our curb, and our customers are so happy to get to the B gates and fly.” #airports #travel #utah #saltlakecity By Jordan Miller