EPA administrator visits Great Smoky Mountains National Park

EPA administrator visits Great

Smoky Mountains National Park

KNOXVILLE (AP) — Sen. Bill Frist will tour the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman today in an attempt to further educate the Bush administration about pollution problems in the park.

Protesters were expected to rally against an announcement by Whitman last week that environmentalists say will drastically set back the Clean Air Act, said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

In her announcement, Whitman said that the Environmental Protection Agency wants to relax the "New Source Review," which requires fossil plants built before 1977 to meet new plant emission standards if they are extensively modified or upgraded and become essentially a "new source" of pollution.

The administration says doing so would make it easier for utilities, oil refineries and industrial plants to expand.

Whitman and Frist were to arrive at the park's Sugarlands Visitor Center at 9:40 a.m. EDT and then travel by bus to the Clingman's Dome parking lot. They would then hike half a mile to the Clingman's Dome air quality monitoring station for a briefing by park officials.

"Sen. Frist (R-Tenn.) extended the invitation to Administrator Whitman to come visit the Smokies and see first-hand the problem of pollution in the park," said Frist spokeswoman Margaret Camp. "He hopes that by getting a closer look at the situation and discussing the issues, the administration will be able to effectively combat the problem."

Emissions from coal-fired plants lead to acid rain, smog and haze, unhealthy conditions that can be particularly acute across the Tennessee Valley and in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border.

TVA says it is spending $1 million a day to bring its older plants up-to-date with more modern pollution equipment.

"TVA is absolutely committed to complying with the Clean Air Act and doing our part to reduce pollution that affects the Great Smoky Mountains," said TVA Director Bill Baxter.