Cleaning the Air in Our National Parks
Parks provide our families and friends with unique opportunities to explore America's stunning natural heritage and participate in healthy outdoor activities together. Unfortunately, many park visitors may find that the air in the parks is just as dirty as the air in the cities they left behind. Haze can often reduce scenic vistas to only a few miles, where 100-mile-plus views were once the norm.
And if you can see it, you’re breathing it!
Air pollution in parks and communities discourages outdoor adventures like hiking, biking, and other recreational activities because they could spur respiratory problems on bad air days. This dirty air is also bad for businesses in park communities that depend on scenic beauty and outdoor recreation to attract customers.
So where is this pollution coming from? Emissions from coal-burning power plants, factories, and cars mix together in the atmosphere and become trapped in the peaks and valleys of our national parks. Of special concern are hundreds of older coal-fired power plants and other large factories that continue to operate today without modern emissions control technology. These facilities account for the vast majority of air pollution that threatens our parks.
Nearly 30 years ago, Congress promised to restore America’s national parks and wilderness areas to clean, clear air, and enacted new laws to get the job done. But those laws have not been fully enforced, and now some proposals from the administration and congress could weaken or even eliminate the laws that protect our national parks.
America’s national parks deserve better, and current law requires better. Fully enforcing the existing Clean Air Act against polluters would do more to clean up our national parks than would most of the changes now being promoted by the administration and Congress. Find out what you can do to help restore America’s national treasures to clean, clear air, for our families and for future generations.
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