Industrial Particulate Pollution and Historical Land Use Contribute Metals of Concern to Dust Deposited in Neighborhoods Along the Wasatch Front, UT, USA.

The Salt Lake Valley, UT, USA, is proximal to the desiccating Great Salt Lake (GSL). Prior work has found that this lakebed/playa contributes metals-laden dust to snow in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains. Dust and industrial particulate pollution are also delivered to communities along the Wasatch Front, but their sources, compositions, and fluxes are poorly characterized. In this study, we analyzed the dust deposited in 18 passive samplers positioned near the GSL, in cities in and near the Salt Lake Valley for total dust flux, the <63 µm dust fraction, 87Sr/86Sr, and trace element geochemistry. We compared spatial patterns in metal flux and abundance with community-level socioeconomic metrics. We observed the highest dust fluxes at sites near the GSL playa. Within the urban corridor, 87Sr/86Sr and trace element relative abundances suggest that most of the dust to which people are regularly exposed may be fugitive dust from local soil materials. The trace metal content of dust deposited along the Wasatch Front exceeded Environmental Protection Agency screening levels and exhibited enrichment relative to both the upper continental crust and the dust collected adjacent to GSL. Sources of metals to dust deposited along the Wasatch Front may include industrial activities like mining, oil refining, as well as past historical pesticide and herbicide applications. Arsenic and vanadium indicated a statistically significant positive correlation with income, whereas lead, thallium, and nickel exhibited higher concentrations in the least wealthy and least white neighborhoods.

tert-Butyl 2-benzoyl-2-methyl-propanoate.

The title compound, C(15)H(20)O(3), is bent with a dihedral angle of 67.28 (9)° between the mean planes of the phenyl ring and a group encompassing the ester functionality (O=C-O-C). In the crystal, mol-ecules related by inversion symmetry are connected by weak C-H⋯O inter-actions into infinite chains. On one side of the mol-ecule there are two adjacent inter-actions between neighbouring mol-ecules involving the H atoms of methyl groups from the dimethyl groups and the O atoms of the ketone; on the other side, there are also two inter-actions to another adjacent mol-ecule involving the H atoms on the phenyl rings and the carbonyl O atoms of the ester functionality.