Press Mention The Knoxville News-Sentinel May 25, 2001
SACE Quoted
Smokies pollution prompts campaign
In this mention
The National Parks Conservation Association launches its third annual campaign to educate the public about air pollution in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, focusing on coal-fired power plants as the largest single source of pollution. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, emphasizes the park's importance as an economic engine for East Tennessee tourism and calls for federal action beyond rhetoric. The TVA has announced plans to spend nearly $1 billion on nitrogen oxide reduction systems at coal-fired units to cut emissions by 75 percent.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the crown jewel of this region. It serves as an economic engine for tourism in East Tennessee. It's time for federal representatives to move beyond talk to action.
Stephen A. Smith
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Full transcript
Smokies pollution prompts campaign
By Morgan Simmons
News-Sentinel staff writer
For the third straight year, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) is launching a campaign to educate the public about air pollution in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The campaign coincides with a recent report by the NPCA that names Great Smoky Mountains National Park one of the 10 most endangered U.S. parks.
Throughout the summer, volunteers will set up tables inside the park to spread the word about the park's air pollution problems - and especially about coal-fired power plants, the largest single source of air pollution.
Park visitors will also be given the opportunity to sign a petition or send a personal letter, attached to a Polaroid picture of themselves and their family, to their congressional representatives.
"Family photos help make this issue real, immediate and personal," said Jill Stephens, NPCA clean-air campaign coordinator. "If our parks are not healthy, then neither are our communities."
So far this year, Great Smoky Mountains National Park has recorded four days when ground-level ozone reached levels considered unsafe to human health. A powerful respiratory irritant, ozone is especially harmful to children or elderly people and to people who suffer from asthma.
Nitrogen oxide from coal-fired power plants and cars mixes with sunlight to create ozone, a precursor to smog.
Earlier this month the Tennessee Valley Authority announced it is prepared to spend nearly $1 billion on nitrogen oxide reduction systems at 25 of 59 coal-fired units at seven power plants. TVA estimates the improvements will cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 75 percent over 1995 levels.
A petition by clean-air groups seeks to close a loophole in the Clean Air Act that allows outdated coal-fired plants to continue to operate without complying with modern emission standards.
In addition to nitrogen oxide, coal-fired power plants also produce sulfur dioxide, which acidifies soils and streams and contributes to the haze that obscures the views in the Smokies.
"Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the crown jewel of this region," said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "It serves as an economic engine for tourism in East Tennessee. It's time for federal representatives to move beyond talk to action."