Our National Parks: Polluted Classrooms
Air
Pollution Alert
President Theodore Roosevelt once described America's
national parks as the greatest group of outdoor classrooms
the world has ever seen. What would he think now,
some 80 years later, about the lessons we are learning
from these classrooms?
These environmentally protected parks—the most splendid natural treasures of the American landscape—have not only become polluted, in some cases they contain dirtier air than cities. How did this pollution happen, and what are we doing about it?
Air pollution in our national parks is difficult to fathom. But in such stunning, vast places as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, Great Smoky National Park, and many of the 153 other federally protected parks in America, the air is often dirty enough to reduce the view and dangerous enough to damage species of trees, animals, fish, and amphibians.
Ironically, the very majesty of the mountains in our national parks has created perfect conditions for trapping air pollution. This pollution comes primarily from coal-burning power plants located hundreds of miles away and carried by wind currents into the hearts of the parks. And despite considerable clean-up efforts by the power plants and monitoring efforts by the federal government, the problem still persists.
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Too
Smoky
"When it comes to unhealthy air, we've got it," said
Air Resource Specialist Jim Renfro of Great Smoky
National Park.
Since 1948, average visibility in the Southern Appalachian mountains, where Great Smoky National Park is located, has decreased by 40% in winter and 80% in summer, according to National Park Service (NPS) reports.
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Clean Air Laws The 1970 Clean Air Act established a national policy for protecting and enhancing air quality in the United States. In 1977, Congress amended this Act so national parks with greater than 6,000 acres (Class I) were specifically protected and monitored for violations of air quality standards. Since then, additional amendments have been passed that require power plants to reduce pollution-causing emissions. |
- If vistas at Great Smoky once stretched 93 miles or more, calculate how far you can see there with polluted conditions during a) winter and b) summer months.
With 10 million
visitors annually, Great Smoky is, in spite of its unhealthy
air, the most popular of all the national parks.
And yet,
says Renfro and his colleagues, Great Smoky National
Park also receives the highest levels of pollution
from nitrate and sulfur deposits—causing acidic
precipitation and ozone smog haze—of anywhere
in North America! "Even compared
to Atlanta, which is the dirtiest city in the East
for ozone smog, we're two times higher! Something
has got to give," says Renfro. In 1998
there were 52 days when air pollution levels violated
the federal health standard. According to the National
Park Service (NPS), this kind of ground-level ozone
can cause coughing, sinus inflammation, chest pains,
even permanent lung damage and reduced immune functions.
Terms
of Pollution Acid
rain: One of a number of precipitations
(also sleet, snow, fog) mainly caused
by the release into the atmosphere of
sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and
oxides of nitrogen. Acid deposition occurs
as wet precipitation (snow, sleet, rain,
fog) and also as dry particles from the
atmosphere absorbed directly by lakes
and streams. Ozone
smog: Not to be confused with the
beneficial ozone layer that filters the
sun's ultraviolet rays, this is the bad
kind of ozone, a colorless gas created
when nitrogen oxides (NO x) mix with hydrocarbons
in the presence of sunlight. Sulfur dioxide
(SO 2 ) is the primary pollutant
contributing to visibility loss and regional
haze. Mercury
(Hg) contamination: Once in water,
mercury is converted to methyl mercury,
which acts as a toxin in sufficient doses.
This toxin is known to cause health problems
such as kidney failure and mental retardation
in children. A recent
study by the Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham
& Women's Hospital, and the Appalachian Mountain Club
showed that even healthy hikers' respiratory function
decreased when ozone levels were elevated, making
people with asthma at greater risk. At Great
Smoky, the acid deposits already have reduced the
red spruce population significantly. They have also
damaged over 30 different species of vegetation.
Although
it is more difficult to pinpoint damage to specific
populations of migrating animals and fish, laboratory
research has shown that mercury—an airborne pollutant
whose largest industrial source is also coal-burning
power plants—is being absorbed into the muscles
and tissues of these creatures, which are also being
injured by acid rainfall. Report
Card This chart
from the National Park Service indicates the fourth
highest daily maximum eight-hour ozone concentrations
over a three-year period. (The chart will open
in a separate browser window.) EPA studies
indicate that ozone levels above 85 ppb can cause
shortness of breath, reduced lung function and may
cause permanent lung damage. In 1998,
Acadia National Park in Maine was the first place
in the country to record an ozone violation, with
higher concentrations of ozone smog than in Boston,
Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That
same year, Shenandoah National Park in West Virginia
recorded higher concentrations of ozone than any city
in the Southeast except Atlanta, Georgia, and Charlotte,
North Carolina. Bad air in Shenandoah has significantly
reduced visibility, killed fish, and damaged vegetation.
Park personnel at Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National
Park post public health advisories due to high ozone
levels there. What's going
on? Coal-Burning
Power Plants Serious
Numbers Why, then,
is coal the biggest source of electricity in this
country? Because, according to industry spokesman
John Kinsman, coal is reliable, plentiful, and affordable.
"Burning
coal allows businesses to remain competitive and it
keeps the cost of electricity relatively low. We believe
this is important," says Kinsman, representing the
Edison Electric Institute in Washington, D.C., a private
trade organization and lobbying group for the utility
industry. In 1977,
older coal-burning power plants were granted an exemption
from meeting federal Clean Air standards, because
it seemed likely that they would be closed within
a few years. But not only are these so-called "grandfathered"
plants still operating today, they release four to
ten times more pollution than modern coal-burning
plants. Congress
will be considering legislation this summer to reduce
that pollution. Pending finalization of an EPA plan,
the federal government will restore our national parks
to their original visibility levels by the year 2065.
Unhealthy air is not confined to Great Smoky. A study
conducted for the National Parks and Conservation
Association (NPCA) by the Colorado State University
showed that most of the parks' chief stewards regarded
their parks to be in only "average" condition, with
some even receiving "failing" grades.
Coal-burning power plants are America's largest industrial
source of acid rain, haze-producing ozone smog, and
mercury pollution, according to the EPA, the Park
Service, and environmental lobbyists.