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Nearly all of the pollution that harms parks comes from power plants, motor vehicles, and industries located outside of park boundaries. This same pollution travels across the farmyards, backyards, and schoolyards of a broader region before reaching the parks.
In 2001, power plants produced 69 percent of the sulfur dioxide and 22 percent of the nitrogen oxides emitted in the United States. Both of these pollutants create hazy skies and acid precipitation in parks. In addition to power plant pollution, motor vehicles emitted 56 percent of the nitrogen oxides that contribute to the creation of unhealthy ozone pollution, placing the health of park visitors and staff at risk.6
In the East, Acadia, Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Mammoth Cave are downwind of aging power plants. Many are coal-fired plants that lack modern controls required at new facilities and can emit six to 12 times more sulfur dioxide than new plants.7 Sulfur dioxide from power plants creates sulfate particles that are responsible for 60 to 85 percent of the poor visibility in eastern parks.8 Motor vehicle emissions from large urban areas also affect air quality in these eastern parks.
Surrounded by mountain ranges on three sides, the San Joaquin Valley, a 25,000 square mile area from Stockton to Bakersfield, is the fastest growing area in California and geographically situated to trap pollution. The mountains eventually block coastal air coming from the north, pushing the polluted mass into Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks. Air pollution comes from a variety of mobile sources including motor vehicles and diesel tractor-trailers traveling on two major highways, power plants, refineries, and agricultural equipment and activities.
The pollution not only affects the air quality in Sequoia-Kings Canyon, but also damages plants and costs farmers an estimated $200 million annually.9
Of the Valley's more than 3.5 million residents, up to
13 percent suffer from a breathing disorder. In Fresno County, at the heart of the Valley, more than 16 percent of all children suffer from asthma, which is twice the national average.10
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