Rep. Charles Taylor wants the Tennessee Valley Authority to speed proposed emission reductions that should improve the health of citizens in the Great Smoky Mountains region and help clear the air.

Taylor hopes the findings of a General Accounting Office report released last week will help convince officials in charge of the federal utility to voluntarily move up their timetable for proposed reductions.

“I hope to be able to sit down with the new director, and I know other representatives in North Carolina and Tennessee will want to also, to get this done without legislation,” Taylor (R-Brevard) said during a press conference at the Diana Wortham Theater. “This report provides a baseline on what is happening on air pollution at this time. And it came from a third party, credible organization.”

The “baseline” report Taylor referred to was done by the General Accounting Office, an arm of Congress generally regarded as an unbiased, non-partisan research organization. Comptroller General David Walker, head of GAO, said the GAO’s job was to “make government more efficient.” The report, “Air Quality and Respiratory Problems in and Near the Great Smoky Mountains,” pulled together existing data from various sources, including some that had never been published.

“Air quality is a concern in this region,” Walker said, explaining that the GAO worked six months on the study and focused on three areas: visibility impairments, ground-level ozone and respiratory illnesses. In addition, Walker said the study focused on the TVA’s planned emission reductions and how that might affect the region.

Health
The report said that deaths due to respiratory illnesses in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee were slightly higher than state averages despite the fact that these two regions had slightly lower overall death rates.

For chronic lung disease (asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema) and influenza/pneumonia, the report found that in North Carolina between 1991 and 1998 the rate of death in the 19 counties closest to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park increased slightly more than the rate for the rest of the state. In Eastern Tennessee, the death rate from pneumonia/influenza increased “somewhat” more rapidly than the rate for the rest of that state.

According to the report, these findings came from previously unpublished data. The authors were also careful to point out that no causal link has been established between pollution from TVA plants and other sources and chronic respiratory problems.

In a TVA response to the report, officials with the federal utility expressed worries that the health data would be unfairly linked to emissions from their power plants.

“... we are concerned that readers will assume an association between identified health problems and emissions from TVA’s coal-fired power plants merely because TVA is one of the primary focuses of the report. For example, the report finds slightly higher mortality from pneumonia and influenza in counties near the park. We are aware of no health studies that have found air pollution causes the flu, much less that emissions from TVA’s plants result in flu- and pneumonia-related deaths,” wrote Kathryn J. Jackson, an executive vice president of TVA in a May 21 response to the report.

Visibility
The report noted that sulfur dioxides are primarily responsible for reduced visibility and that two thirds of the sulfates are produced by power plants. Dozens of coal-burning plants are located near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, according to the report.

Despite modest reductions in these emissions during the 1990s by TVA, visibility on the worst days in the park remained at from 12 to 15 miles. That’s the same as it was in 1989.

Taylor is proposing a bill, the Great Smoky Mountains Clean Air Act, that would require TVA to meet more stringent sulfur dioxide emission reductions than it is currently projecting. TVA is projecting a reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions of an additional 36 percent by 2005. Taylor’s bill seeks a 75 percent reduction from 1997 levels by 2005.

“We really would like to see them speed up the cuts,” Taylor said last week.

He said he would wok with TVA to supplement funding that rate payers will have to pay if clean air technology is installed faster than projected.

However, Taylor’s focus on the TVA seems unfair to some. Ulla-Britt Reeves is the clean air program director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

“There is a definite bias by Charles Taylor to cleaning up the TVA specifically,” Reeves said after last week’s press conference. “Lots of the pollution in the Smokies is coming from the Midwest and North Carolina plants.”

Reeves’ contention is backed up by the data. Studies conducted by Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials and cited in the report show that more than half of the air masses containing the heaviest pollutants on the worst ozone days in the park comes from the north and northwest, specifically from the industrial Midwest. The second-highest number of polluting air masses come from the west, which is where most of the TVA plants are located in relation to the national park.

Reeves and the Southern Alliance say reducing TVA pollution from old, coal-fired plants is “part of the solution.” She also urged support for comprehensive national legislation like the Waxman-Boehlert Clean Smokestacks Act. That bill has dozens of congressional supporters and also seeks to close what is known as the “lethal loophole,” the section of the Clean Air Act with has allowed older, polluting plans to remain exempt from modern standards.

Brownie Newman, who heads the Western North Carolina Alliance, called the GAO report credible, but he also pointed to the need for comprehensive legislation.

“The TVA is certainly a big part of the problem, but the report indicates the Ohio Valley is also a big part. There is a need for more comprehensive legislation for cleaning up all the power plants in the U.S.,” Newman said.

Taylor, however, said it will be easier to get TVA to agree to major reductions than to try and get national, comprehensive legislation passed.

“TVA, by its own admission, is making a negative contribution to our air quality. We are trying to do something within our ability and make changes as quickly as we can,” Taylor said. “If we consider nationwide legislation, we have to manipulate 435 lawmakers. My bill is something we can do now.”

Ozone
Ground-level ozone, produced when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds react in the presence of sunlight, is considered a major public health risk by the EPA. In the Smokies, the ozone standard was exceeded on 37 days n 1999.

The report concluded that most of the air masses in the park during high ozone days came from the north and northwest, generally from the industrial Midwest. It also showed that 55 percent of the nitrogen oxides that are necessary to form ground-level ozone are produced by the transportation industry, with 22 percent coming from power plants.

The study also pointed out another little-reported fact: trees and large forests contribute to the production of ground-level ozone.

Naturally emitted volatile organic compounds are abundant in the South because of its forests. Naturally produced organic compounds are most abundant in eight southern states. When these naturally occurring organic compounds are abundant, they will more readily react with the nitrogen oxides to form ozone.

Reaction
Hugh Morton is one of the fathers of North Carolina environmentalism. He owns Grandfather Mountain and has been instrumental in getting several pieces of environmental legislation approved.

“This report is certainly a step in the right direction,” Morton said after last week’s meeting. “I am really pleasantly surprised. We are getting authoritative information, and that is what we need.”
Harvard Ayers is an Appalachian State University professor who has become active in several environmental causes.

“I think this study gives us a good indication of the states we need to lean on,” Ayers said.

Avram Friedman is head of the Canary Coalition, a Jackson County-based clean air advocacy group.

“I guess the report has credibility and is accurate. But I would point out the incongruency of Rep. Taylor attacking TVA when there is a pending bill (Waxman-Boehlert) for national legislation. Why is he not supporting that?” Friedman asked.

Newman said he was pleased that Taylor was taking on the problem.

“It sounds like Charles Taylor is in favor of cleaning up the air if he can do it politically,” Newman said.

 

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