HEAL Utah’s 8th Annual Fall Party Fundraiser @ The State Room 11.13 with The Lab...

HEAL Utah, a nonprofit organization that battles big polluting industries on environmental protection legislation, held their 8th annual benefit dinner at The State Room with an hour long performance by The Lab Dogs, a local SLC bluegrass band. The theme for the night was simply “subert the inversion”. The local community that makes up Utah’s clean air initiative came together to discuss issues with pollution in our inversion layer.

Anyone who has survived a winter in Salt Lake City knows all too well about this major problem, but for our out-of-town readers who may be unfamiliar with what inversion is, here is a quick breakdown of the topic:

Inversion is a process where the layers of warm air near the ground and the cold air higher up in the atmosphere “invert” during the winter. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, but as a result of coal burning, wood burning, large industrial burning and car emissions, pollution collects and sits above our heads in the cold layer for most of the year. Then, during the winter, the dense cold layer gets trapped underneath the warm air layer, bringing the built-up pollution down into the air we breathe. The Wasatch Front valleys and surrounding mountains act as a bowl that keep this problem hanging around until major storm fronts come through and eventually clear out the chemical build-up.

Thursday night’s program began with a special VIP social gathering at The State Room, leading to a dinner in the main hall while The Lab Dogs played their set. Then, various members of HEAL Utah‘s staff and board of directors gave presentations on the night’s topic. They discussed the organization’s eight-year history of fighting the loopholes in state and federal regulations that allow big companies to continue polluting virtually unchecked. The presenters also discussed Heal Utah’s agenda for the 2015 fiscal year.

For more information on how to get involved in HEAL Utah’s mission or to simply donate to Heal Utah’s causes please refer to their website at HEALUtah.org.

Photos by: M.A.BARATTA / mikeybaratta.com