Environmentalists blast Appalachian air pollution report

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Environmentalists criticized the Southern Appalachian Mountains Initiative's final report for lacking strong policy recommendations to address regional air pollution, despite scientific findings that power plants—particularly in the South—are major contributors to haze in the region's national parks and wilderness areas. The report recommends reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, but utility companies like Southern Company resist stricter standards. SACE is mentioned in the article's reference section.

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Environmentalists blast Appalachian air pollution report

CHARLOTTE (AP) — A decade-long effort to study air pollution in the southern Appalachians was a scientific success but a flop when it came to prescribing solutions, according to environmentalists.

"We failed. It didn't work," National Parks Conservation Association official Don Barger said of efforts to include policy solutions in the final report of the Southern Appalachian Mountains Initiative. "What you can look for from SAMI is analysis, the best we've got so far. ... But what you will not see is the really strong set of recommendations" for reducing pollution.

The 172-page report is to be formally released Thursday at SAMI's final meeting in Asheville. States that participated in the voluntary effort are Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginian and West Virginia.

Also involved were federal officials, environmental advocates and representatives of affected industries.

The study focused on air quality in the southern Appalachians' two national parks — Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah Mountains — and eight wilderness areas: Cohutta, James River Face, Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock, Linville Gorge, Shining Rock, Sipsey, Dolly Sods and Otter Creek. Congress requires such areas be protected from new sources of air pollution.

"We failed. It didn't work."
Don Barger
National Parks Conservation Association

Careful studies of the region's air showed that much of the haze that often blankets the southern Appalachians comes from sulfur dioxide spewed by the region's power plants — not from the Midwest, as many had previously believed.

"In the past, we've had a tendency to blame states upwind from us," said Michael Shore, Southeast Air Quality Manager for the group Environmental Defense and a participant in SAMI's governing body. "As we clean up our air pollution, which we should, the state which will benefit most is the one that cleans it up."

John Jansen, principal scientist for Atlanta-based energy giant Southern Company, a holding company for five regional utilities, said after the SAMI studies, "There's no doubt that sulfur dioxide is a contributor to regional haze."

Jansen, a SAMI participant, said Southern supports national legislation to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, which is a recommendation of the group's final report.

The report also urges national legislation to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide, a major component of smog. Jansen said Southern does not agree that reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by power plants would show significant benefits.

Jansen said the next set of decisions — how much to reduce emissions and how fast — should be made outside of the federal Clean Air Act and regional haze rules.

Shore wanted the group's report to endorse an emissions-reduction plan.

"One would think that, after going through this process and after the utilities admit clearly that there are significant sulfur dioxide reductions needed to improve air quality, that they would be open-minded for policies to do that," he said. "But many of the utility companies, Southern Company in particular, are fighting stricter standards tooth and nail."