This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Occupy SLC and Peaceful Uprising briefly took over the Utah Air Quality Board meeting Wednesday.
In a protest called a "Mic Check," about three dozen members of the two groups interrupted the board's session and delivered a scathing critique of the board's decisions and its makeup.
"Division of Air Quality Board, we breathe the pollution you permit," they chanted as surprised board members looked on.
"We envision a cleaner community, but you actively prevent it. We demand incentives for responsible businesses to create a green energy future," they said in unison. "We demand that this board set stricter standards for pollution permit approvals."
The disruption lasted just a few minutes. So, by the time a trio of security officers arrived at the Department of Environmental Quality public meeting room shortly after the protest most of the activists sat quietly in their audience seats.
In the hallway afterward, one security officer told the group to leave the building when Jesse Fruhwirth, an Occupy spokesman, was asked to turn off a video camera he was using to record the interactions and refused. The protesters, who were already on their way out, complied.
Fruhwirth said the groups mounted Wednesday's action in part because members believe state environmental officials are too cozy with industry and they won't do more to clean up the air. The protest also took place just as this winter's first inversion of the year had begun to set up and trap dirty air in the basins.
Leaders of both groups also said their members are steamed that the board agreed to lift a federal pollution cap to allow Kennecott Utah Copper to expand its operations in western Salt Lake County — and, in their view — pump more pollution into the valley's sometimes foul wintertime air.
They also singled out a board decision to reject a petition brought by a group of teens and their supporters who implored the board to start taking action on climate change.
"Our hopes are so much higher than this," Fruhwirth said. "And our efforts on any day are just a grain of sand on the beach."
Cori Redstone, of Peaceful Uprising, said members of her group have been monitoring the board for about two years. But she said her group never seems to have an opportunity to fully raise its concerns.
Redstone called Wednesday's protest "a public shaming."
"They have been advocates for specific industries," she said, "and not for the public interest."
After board members worked through their agenda of regulation updates and reports, they discussed the disruption. Board member Nan Bunker, said it was too bad the protesters had left before listening to the panel's dialogue about several important air-quality programs, and fellow board member Darrell Smith said the protest was "a little overboard."
"I realize there is freedom of speech," he said, "but there's also order and a process" that allows members of the public to fill out a form to request an opportunity to speak to the board.
Kerry Kelly, the panel's vice chairman, said plans already are in the works to look at how to improve the board's public-input process, given some of the misconceptions the protesters and others seem to have about the board's authority.
"Even though it was scathing," she said of the group's disruption, "they were polite and they didn't go on too long."
Emily Hall, a member of the Utah Clean Air Coalition, welcomed the protest even though she understands from personal experience how difficult the board's job is.
"It was an act of civil disobedience, which is legal" said Hall, who served on the board from 1980 to 1990." I welcome a little stir-up occasionally."
fahys@sltrib.com Raw video from PeacefulUprising.org:
http://bit.ly/ufq8fN