National effort called for on home-grown pollution

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http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_1357129,00.htm

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Study: Haze raised locally

National effort called for on home-grown pollution

By Tim Whitmire, Associated Press

August 30, 2002

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - A 10-year study of air pollution in the southern

Appalachians has concluded that local sources cause most of the mountain

haze, going against a long-held belief that it came from the industrial

Midwest.

The Southern Appalachian Mountains Initiative, a voluntary effort by eight

Southeastern states, the federal government and affected industries, said in

its final report Thursday that each state in the region " will benefit the

most from emission reductions in that state. "

However, because some pollution crosses state and regional lines, the report

concluded that a national approach is the only politically feasible solution

to cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.

Sulfur dioxide, primarily spewed by coal-fired electric plants in the

region, is a main ingredient in the haze that often obscures vistas in the

Smokies and other southern Appalachian ranges. Nitrogen oxide is a primary

component of smog.

SAMI's effort focused on the region's two national parks and eight

wilderness areas, which were studied because the 1977 Clean Air Act requires

that they be protected from new sources of air pollution.

The report included eight states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North

Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

The numbers and bar graphs that crowd SAMI's 172-page report reveal a simple

truth: The states are the creators of much of the tainted air that they

breathe.

" In 1990, 1995, the conventional wisdom was that air pollution traveled much

farther distances than the SAMI study showed, " said Shore, Southeast

Air Quality Manager for the group Environmental Defense and a member of

SAMI's governing body.

Historically, residents of East Tennessee and western North Carolina blamed

the haze on pollution drifting downwind from states like Ohio, Pennsylvania

and Michigan.

Computer modeling that considered emissions and weather conditions in a

" one-atmosphere " model concluded otherwise.

For example, it showed that about 75 percent of the sulfate fine particles

in the air over North Carolina's Shining Rock wilderness are the result of

sulfur dioxide emitted within the SAMI region.

Some environmentalists have criticized the report, saying it doesn't go far

enough. It makes no precise recommendation on how soon or how much emissions

should be reduced, saying only that national legislation " should result in

no less than the reductions ... represented by the (Bush) administration's

Clear Skies Initiative. "

The White House's proposal would cap total output of sulfur dioxide, mercury

and nitrogen oxide and allow utilities to trade pollution credits among

themselves. Under the plan, which has been criticized by Democrats and

environmental groups as unfair and inadequate, emissions of each substance

would be reduced by about 70 percent by 2018.

Participants said SAMI was slow and cautious because it was voluntary.

However, they say that process produced the most complete scientific data

ever produced on the subject.

Tom Mather, spokesman for North Carolina's Division of Air Quality, said

SAMI data was crucial in persuading his state's lawmakers this year to

reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-fired energy

plants by 70 percent by 2013.

" That made a big difference, when the legislators saw that data, " Mather

said.

Shipp, environmental policy general manager for the Tennessee Valley

Authority, said the utility already is moving to clean up its coal-fired

plants without action from the states in which it operates. By the end of

the decade, he said, TVA will spend $2.8 billion to install sulfur

dioxide-removing scrubbers and nitrogen oxide-reducing systems at plants in

Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. The goal is to reduce sulfur dioxide

emissions by 85 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 75 percent.

Because air pollution so easily crosses state and regional borders and

because states and utilities have differed in their approaches, Shipp said

TVA believes " a national approach is the only way to go. "