Less-hazy Smokies could gain up to $300 million, study says

EAST STATE
Less-hazy Smokies could gain
up to $300 million, study says
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Cleaner
air could boost the tourism-driven
economy surrounding the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park
by as much as $300 million, ac-
cording to a study commissioned
by several environmental groups.
"It has been hazy so long that
we think it is natural. It is not,"
said Dr. Leland Deck, an environ-
mental economist at Bethesda,
Md.-based Abt Associates Inc.,
which produced the study Out of
Sight: Haze in our National Parks.
"It is a logical assumption that it
would be affecting our econo-
mies," said Ulla-Britt Reeves of
the Southern Alliance for Clean
Energy in Knoxville. "Now we can
actually quantify it."
The study examined the impact
of pollutants from coal-fired pow-
er plants on seven of the country's
most popular national parks, in-
cluding the Smokies in Tennessee
and North Carolina.
The report was released
Wednesday, one day after the
Tennessee Valley Authority, the
country's largest public power
producer, approved several mil-
lion dollars more for anti-pollu-
tion equipment, this time for its
coal-fired plant in Memphis.
State Environment and Conser-
vation Commissioner Milton
Hamilton praised TVA's commit-
ment "to help keep Tennessee's
air and the air across the South-
east pure. We know you have a
problem. You are addressing that
problem. You are committing
many resources. (And) to that we
say, thank you."
But environmentalists want
more from TVA and other utilities
that are fighting tougher emission
standards on their old power
plants.
The Environmental Protection
Agency last year issued regula-
tions requiring that visibility at 156
sites in the National Parks System
be improved by 15% each decade,
returning to pristine conditions
over a 60-year period.