Editor’s note: The following letter was hand delivered by N.C. Senate President Pro tem Marc Basnight of Dare County to President George Bush last week when he visited the state. Basnight has said he was received warmly by the president. The letter was signed by all 50 North Carolina senators.

My fellow members of the North Carolina Senate and I are writing to register our very strong concerns and very earnest pleas for help with our deteriorating air quality in the western part of North Carolina. In fact, the visibility in the mountain areas of our state has decreased from an average of 65 miles in 1980 to an average of 15 miles today. The time to correct this problem is now and the primary culprit is the TVA system of power plants owned and operated by the federal government.

In 2000, I established the Senate Select Committee on Mountain Air Quality to examine the acute problems of air quality in the mountains of our state. I was very troubled by the concerns of our western delegation when they advised me of the very serious concerns in their region. The committee was made up of members from across the state and held several meetings where it heard testimony from various scientists from our universities, officials from EPA, and local physicians. I want to share with you some of the findings of our committee:

Dr. J. Spencer Atwater, past chair of the North Carolina Asthma Board, reported that Western North Carolina has among the state’s highest age-adjusted mortality rates for pneumonia, influenza and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as increased rates of asthma and acute respiratory disease for children and adults. Dr. Atwater further reported recommending that summer residents with respiratory illnesses return home due to the adverse impact of the mountain air on their health - a dramatic change from 50 years ago when our mountain air quality provided the reason for numerous, local sanatoriums where folks with breathing illnesses were sent from other parts of the country to recuperate.

The National Parks Service reported that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most polluted National Park of all parks in the National Parks System.

Dr. Robert Bruck, professor of plant pathology and forestry in the Department of Plant Pathology with North Carolina State University reported that more than 80 percent of the air pollution problem in Western North Carolina is caused by out-of-state sources, primarily the TVA.

In addition, Dr. Bruck relayed that TVA power rates are less than half of those rates charged by North Carolina power producers and that if TVA spent the funds necessary to clean up their air pollution, the costs to the TVA rate paying customers would only be about 14 percent.

In a University of Virginia soil study, it is reported that our soils are so saturated with air born pollutants that if we stopped polluting completely today, it would take more than 200 years for our soils to return to its natural state.

North Carolina has approximately 6.9 million vehicles. If you aggregate all of the pollution of the vehicles in the state, you will still not generate as much pollution as that which TVA emits.

It is very clear from the work of the Senate Select Committee on Mountain Air Quality that the substantial problems impacting our western areas of the state are caused in large part by TVA. TVA is a federally owned and operated facility and it ought to be the model of environmental excellence.

The manners of correction are simple and available. The additions of SCRs (selective catalytic reduction devices) and scrubbers to these facilities on a year round basis will go far in addressing the emission of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide into our North Carolina air. A corollary benefit of these reductions will be the further reduction in mercury emissions that are already damaging our fish populations.

Please do not think that this request goes without some work on the part of North Carolina. We have already adopted an 8-hour ozone standard. We have also established a very aggressive program for inspection and maintenance of mobile source polluters (automobiles). Pending legislation would require nearly 80 percent reductions for both nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide on all coal-fired power plants. But even with these aggressive efforts, the air quality in the western part of our state will not be improved. Until we address TVA, we cannot begin to recover.

We need your help. We need for you to put in place strong measures to fix TVA immediately. Please let us know what you will do to help protect clean air in Western North Carolina. We look forward to working with you on this matter.

Sincerely,
The Members of the North Carolina Senate

 

Back to Top
The Smoky Mountain News