The N.C. Environmental Management Commission has proposed a plan that would reduce nitrogen oxide emission by about 50 percent between 2000 and 2007. The utility proposal, meanwhile, would reduce the emissions by about 35 percent.
Jim Renfro, physical scientist and air quality program manager for the National Park Service, told the EMC that the NPS's mission is to "preserve and protect the most biologically diverse ecosystems... unimpaired for future generations." Research has shown that 30 species of plants show visible damage from ozone pollution and some species show reduced growth like black cherry and yellow poplar, he said.
"The Smokies are the most polluted national park in the country," Renfro told the packed crowd of more than 150 citizens.
Summer ozone exposures are increasing, Renfro noted, with "most of the nitrogen oxide emissions in the southeast coming from coal-power power plants. Ozone exposures measured at the park are among the highest in the eastern U.S. and exceed the public health standard. Last year, the park recorded a record 52 unhealthy ozone days.
"At a minimum," he said, "the park encourages North Carolina to approve your own recommendation of 50 percent reduction of nitrogen oxides from power plants, but urges you to support and work toward the more protective proposal of an 80 percent reduction."
Sylva Mayor Brenda Oliver said her main concern was "for a healthy environment." Jackson County is working on a greenway project, she told the EMC, "but how can we promote heritage tourism when the air is so thick you can't see anything? If we destroy our environment, we've lost the war before we begin the battle."
The state should take an aggressive role in controlling emissions, she told the EMC.
Clarke Lipkin of Tuckasegee said he supports the 80 percent reduction called for by the Clean Air Coalition. "As an electricity user, I am willing to pay whatever it takes for clean air," he said.
No one should have the right to pollute our air, he told the board, stressing, "If there's any doubt about how much we should reduce nitrogen oxides, we should reduce them as much as possible - the quality of our lives depends on it.
"Children, the elderly, people with respiratory ailments and weakened immune systems - even healthy adults - suffer when ozone levels are excessive. When you get down to it, that's all of us," Lipkin said.
Several parents spoke, asking the board to consider "clean air especially for our children."
Avram Friedman, a parent and a Sylva businessman, asked for an end to "coal canaries."
"Canaries were used in the coal mines, and we, the people of Western North Carolina, are no longer willing to be the canaries for substandard coal-fired power plants," he said. "There is no excuse, in this year of 2000, for any coal-fired power plant to be operating at a substandard emission control level. We are completely aware of the health effects high ozone levels are having on people, particularly the very young, and the very old."
Friedman pointed to existing technology to reduce nitrogen-oxide emissions by as much as 80 percent.
"There is no excuse for doing anything else," he said. "And, if the DENR does not act accordingly, you're going to find that many more people than are attending this hearing today are going to want to know why. And you're going to see lobbying, campaigning, citizen's investigations and, if necessary, demonstrating in the streets, until the right thing is done and the state begins to seriously join in the effort to bring back clean air."
Along those same lines, N.C. Senator Dan Robinson of Cullowhee, who attended the hearing, told the Herald, "Something of this magnitude can't be done until there is a movement of the people. We've known for some time that we have a real problem with the air. Since the visibility is decreasing at such an alarming rate, people are actually able to see the problem right before them."
Robinson said solving the problem may bring some sacrifices. "We're all electricity users and sure, the cost of electricity might increase, but we have no choice but to make those sacrifices."
The EMC will accept comments through Aug. 31. Mail them to Thomas Allen, Division of Air Quality, 1641 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1641.
"On Sept. 1 the hearing record will be closed," Tom Mather, DENR public information officer said. "Then it is up to the staff to provide a hearing record. The EMC is expected to making a ruling at its October meeting."
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Herald photo by Rose Hooper