Waiting to Inhale By Scott Kirkwood
NPCA's Turning Point documents the threats that air pollution poses to our national parks.
Imagine you've cashed in several vacation days, packed up the kids, and traveled hundreds of miles to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks only to be greeted by a sign indicating it’s not safe to hike because of air pollution. Last year, ozone levels in the California park exceeded federal health standards so many times that park rangers posted signs to that effect on more than 50 days, primarily during the summer months.
"Some visitors are taken aback when they walk in and see the advisory in effect," says Annie Esperanza, the park's air specialist. "If there’s anything positive to be found, it’s that it prompts plenty of questions from visitors, so they’re learning more about air pollution. And as the park’s air quality becomes common knowledge, the people who come to the park are asking what they can do to help."
Unfortunately, conditions in our national parks are providing the biggest "teachable moment" imaginable. NPCA's new report, Turning Point, reveals that air pollution remains a system-wide problem. More than 150 of the 390 national park units in the National Park System are located in areas where air pollution exceeds federal standards. The national parks are now at a crossroads: Just as pollution reduction programs implemented over the past two decades are starting to show modest improvements at some parks, new energy sources threaten to undo years of work. Among the most troubling developments are dozens of coal-fired powerplants that could cloud park skies for generations to come.
Air quality in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, now among the best in the nation, is threatened by thousands of new oil and gas wells and several coal-fired power plants proposed for the surrounding area. Joshua Tree National Park has recorded the highest ozone levels of any park, and global warming could eliminate more than 90 percent of the trees that give the park its name. Glacier National Park is virtually melting away for the same reasons—scientists predict its glaciers will vanish within 25 years. Parks and preserves in northern Alaska are collecting dangerous levels of airborne pollutants, which show up in the food chain and jeopardize the native Alaskan way of life.
In the East, the stunning vistas in the Appalachian parks—Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, Blue Ridge Parkway—are marred by haze. Meanwhile, air pollution in the form of acid rain is literally eating away at our nation’s heritage: On the National Mall, statues made of bronze and monuments carved from limestone and marble must be cleaned and repaired each year to keep from crumbling.
"Air pollution threatens the very essence of what Americans value most about our national parks, destroying habitat for plants and animals, endangering the health of park visitors and staff, damaging the symbols of our nation’s heritage, and clouding once-majestic horizons in our national parks," says NPCA’s Clean Air Director Mark Wenzler.
NPCA's report offers several recommendations for cleaning the air in the national parks, including:
- Requiring all power plants to use the most effective technology to limit harmful pollution including mercury;
- Expanding programs to monitor and reduce air pollution in the parks;
- Enforcing existing laws that limit the amount of air pollution deposited in the parks;
- Addressing climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions; and
- Promoting clean, renewable domestic energy supplies and encouraging citizens to limit their contribution to air pollution.
The Park Service can only do so much to change conditions that arise outside its borders, but establishing how much external pollution makes its way into the parks and measuring the effect on visitors and wildlife will help inform policy decisions that get at the source.
The Park Service can also provide a good example for sustainable energy and environmental responsibility. Sequoia and Kings Canyon has plans to introduce a transit system to the Giant Forest, one of the park’s most popular areas. Esperanza says the park staff would love to obtain vehicles that run on alternative fuels, but the purchasing arm of the federal government doesn’t yet allow for that option. For now, the Park Service is sticking to the tried and true conservation message that begins with a single person.
"We tell people to do everything they can in terms of reducing pollution—to carpool, bicycle, save energy, the litany of things we can all do without any major hardship," says Esperanza. "Beyond that, we hope they’ll go out and spread the news to their friends and neighbors, to help them understand that the things they do hundreds, even thousands of miles away have consequences in our national parks."
Of course, much of the work falls to legislators on the local, state, and federal level. This summer, Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced the Clean Air Planning Act, which would place new controls on power plant emissions of mercury, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide, a significant improvement over the President’s "Clear Skies" legislation. "The way NPCA’s report describes [the situation as] a turning point is really accurate," says Esperanza. "We can’t afford to let conditions get any worse because some of the damage we’re seeing could be irreversible. The time to act is now."
To read the full report and learn even more, visit www.npca.org/turningpoint.
Scott Kirkwood is senior editor for National Parks magazine.
