U.S. national parks need more pollution help

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

August 23, 2000
Web posted at: 12:36 PM EDT (1636 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Smoggy air and acidic soil resulting from air pollution are increasingly harming U.S. national parks, the Interior Department said Tuesday in requesting tighter clean-air regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Interior officials are formally asking the EPA to devise stricter standards specifically to shield the national parks from the effects of air pollution that is said to be increasing despite new EPA national and regional air standards.

"Recent actions by EPA to deal with nationwide and regional air pollution problems will help, but we don't think they will be enough," said Stephen Saunders, acting assistant secretary of the Interior for fish, wildlife and parks in a letter to the EPA.

"New measures designed specifically to protect the special values of parks and wilderness areas are necessary to accomplish the goal Congress set (in the Clean Air Act)," he said.

The EPA in recent months has proposed tighter emissions standards for power plants, vehicles and other sources, including the so-called transport smog carried from mostly Midwest and Southern states to Northeast locations.

The national parks, including stalwarts like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, have continued to suffer in a variety of ways from pollution.

The Interior statement said adverse effects included the acidification of streams, surface waters and soils at Shenandoah, Sequoia and the Smoky parks; contamination of coastal waters in Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge, and visibility impairment in all parks and wilderness areas, including Yosemite National Park.

Saunders said the problems at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and Virginia's Shenandoah were especially troubling, and needed immediate attention to stem the flow of pollution into the region.

"Pollution levels continue to increase and are harming our natural environment and could be putting at risk the health of some park visitors," Saunders said.

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