Cleaner Air Could Boost Smokies' Economy
K N O X V I L L E, Tenn., Sept. 1 -- Cleaner air could boost thetourism-driven economy surrounding the Great Smoky MountainsNational Park by as much as $300 million, according to a studycommissioned by several environmental groups.
“It has been hazy so long that we think it is natural. It isnot,” said Leland Deck, an environmental economist atBethesda, 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 oureconomies,” said Ulla-Britt Reeves of the Southern Alliance forClean Energy in Knoxville. “Now we can actually quantify it.”
The study examined the impact of pollutants from coal-firedpower plants on seven of the country’s most popular national parks,including the Smokies in Tennessee and North Carolina.
Old Power Plants
The report was released Wednesday, one day after the TennesseeValley Authority, the country’s largest public power producer,approved several million dollars more for anti-pollution equipment,this time for its coal-fired plant in Memphis.
Tennessee Environment and Conservation Commissioner MiltonHamilton praised TVA’s commitment “to help keep Tennessee’s airand the air across the Southeast 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 utilitiesthat are fighting tougher emission standards on their old powerplants.
The Environmental Protection Agency last year issued regulationsrequiring that visibility at 156 national parks be improved by 15percent each decade, returning to pristine conditions over a60-year period.
If the air was pristine now, the Abt study concluded thatvisitation to the parks could jump as much as 25 percent. Thatcould boost sales in the Smokies economy by $296 million, increasetax revenue $24 million and create 4,188 jobs, the study said.
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