EDF Applauds Initiative to Clean Up Haze in National Parks and Wilderness

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today praised the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan to clean up the haze in national parks and wilderness areas. Air pollution from large industrial sources, cars and trucks, and burning activities mix together to create a haze that clouds the scenic vistas in parks and wilderness areas. Today, Vice President Gore announced regulations that are designed to restore clear vistas to these areas. The regulations would clean up the air in places such as the Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone, Mount Rainier, Glacier, Zion, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite, Acadia, and Shenandoah National Parks.

“This is an historic occasion in the long-standing American commitment to national parks and wilderness areas,” said Vickie Patton, EDF attorney. “Earlier generations set aside these spectacular areas, now this legacy will be protected from the onslaught of air pollution so our children and grandchildren can enjoy them.”

The 1977 Clean Air Act established the national goal of preserving scenic vistas and restoring them to their natural state. The regulations announced today, which have been twenty years in the making, would call on states to improve visibility by 15% each decade and return pristine conditions to these areas by 2064. States would be required to submit plans every ten years evaluating their progress toward the 2064 benchmark, and to conduct mid-course assessments of those plans every five years.

The regulations specifically require clean up of old, large industrial sources such as power plants, refineries and smelters that were excluded or “grandfathered” from air quality review when originally constructed. States would be allowed to use innovative, market-based strategies to reduce air pollution from these sources. Further, the rules specifically incorporate comments from western states on clean up strategies for western national parks and wilderness areas.

“This ground-breaking initiative will protect scenic vistas in the places that inspire and awe millions of Americans,” said Patton. “We are delighted that EPA has broken the twenty year logjam on this issue and that the nation is now on track to begin cleaning up the pollution in these revered areas. Our only disappointment is that Congress delayed by as much as eight years implementation of this program through anti-environmental riders enacted last year.”