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Clean Air Progress Thwarted by Out-of-State Pollution Asheville, North Carolina, has a history of clean air and magnificent vistas. But recent studies show that pollution from coal-burning power plants-mostly outside the state-is not only fouling the air but also contributing to respiratory and heart ailments and lung cancer among Asheville residents. Although North Carolina is taking steps to solve the problem, the Bush administration's lax policies will allow out-of-state pollution to thwart the state's efforts to clean up Asheville's air. The major population center-and only real city-in far-western North Carolina, Asheville is nestled in a picturesque valley in the southern Appalachian mountains. Historically, people would visit for its clean air and scenic vistas. The air was so clean in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that people afflicted with tuberculosis came to Asheville to recuperate.(1) The Great Smoky Mountains, currently the country's most visited national park, is located a short distance west of the city. Unfortunately, Asheville's air quality has taken a turn for the worse. In recent years, air pollution generated in neighboring states has inundated western North Carolina. The pollution has gotten so severe that it reduces average visibility in the Great Smoky Mountains by 80 percent during the summer months.(2) The pollution is also causing illness in Asheville. Studies consistently demonstrate that air pollution is related to myriad health problems in the city, including respiratory and heart diseases, lung cancer, and possibly strokes.(3) Although the young and the elderly are most at risk, otherwise healthy people are not immune to the effects of air pollution. Dr. Clay Ballantine, a local physician specializing in internal medicine, concludes that air pollution is indeed causing health problems in Asheville. He notes that Asheville suffers from the highest incidence in the state of lung disease deaths from emphysema and pneumonia, while also having the lowest lung cancer death rates.(4) "We've had to send tourists packing because of asthma problems that they've suffered when they come to visit," said Dr. Ballantine. "We run pediatric asthma rates at more than twice the national average, and our local health department is spending almost half-a-million dollars a year on asthma treatment and programs. While medical studies can give us numbers about how many people have died or been hospitalized as a result of air pollution, they'll never be able to show us how deeply air pollution reaches into their lives and lifestyles."(5) A large amount of the pollution in Asheville comes from coal burning power plants. North Carolina recently passed legislation that will eventually reduce soot and smoke pollution from power plants in North Carolina by about 75 percent.(6) However, without getting similar reductions from power plants in neighboring states, the city of Asheville will continue to suffer from bad air quality. Local citizens and political leaders led the statewide battle to clean up North Carolina's coal-burning power plants.(7) State Senator Steve Metcalf and state Representative Martin Nesbitt, both from Asheville, were the principal sponsors of the legislation, supported by an active local community that understood the importance of clean air to Asheville's economy and public health.(8) They also knew that cleaning up North Carolina's pollution was only a partial solution, but a necessary one before the state could go to the EPA and seek pollution reductions in other states.(9) Preliminary conclusions from the Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative (SAMI), a multi-year, multi-stakeholder process, are troubling. Data from this study strongly suggests that a majority of the pollution in western North Carolina comes from other states, primarily Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina.(10) In the mid-1990s, states in the northeastern United States successfully petitioned the EPA to require reductions in smog-forming pollution in the Midwest and Southeast during the summer ozone season. Other states, including North Carolina, could now use this process to seek reductions in soot and other pollutants that are blowing in from other states.(11) In late July, President Bush's ironically named "Clear Skies" proposal was introduced in Congress. Not only does this proposal allow factories to buy the right to pollute as the sole means of reducing air pollution, it prevents the EPA from taking action for 10 years to clean up pollution blowing from one state to another.(12) Asheville will also suffer due to other Bush administration changes. On June 13, the EPA announced changes to the New Source Review program,(13) that part of the Clean Air Act requiring factories, including power plants, to install modern pollution control technology when they make changes that increase pollution. Unlike the Clear Skies plan, which will require legislative approval, the EPA can make this change without input from Congress or the public. These changes will create new loopholes in this program, allowing big polluters like the Tennessee Valley Authority to expand their facilities without installing modern pollution controls. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
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