Foul air chokes the Great Smokies

KNOXVILLE, TENN. -- The haze over the Great Smoky Mountains has nothing to do with the natural mist for which the Cherokees named the region "place of blue smoke."

The most visited national park in the country, on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, is under attack from smokestack soot and smog, invaded by non-native pests and challenged by its own popularity.

National Park Service managers can do only so much with a staff of about 300, a backlog of $180 million in needed repairs and limited jurisdiction.

But millions of dollars in support over the past decade from nonprofit groups like Friends of the Smokies and the Great Smoky Mountains Association and the contributions of thousands of volunteers to clear trails and build buildings gives them reason for hope.

"There are things we can't necessarily cure," Smokies Superintendent Dale Ditmanson acknowledged, "but in many cases there are things we can influence by educating others, working with other organizations and in monitoring [environmental conditions]."

Coal and cars

Air pollution may be the Smokies' biggest challenge. Emissions from coal-fired power plants, industry and motorists hundreds of miles away or just over the next ridge is fouling the Smokies' skies, reducing 113-mile vistas to 25 miles, creating ground-level ozone that makes breathing difficult and drawing air quality comparisons to Los Angeles.

The region's biggest polluter, the Tennessee Valley Authority, has stepped up a multibillion-dollar program to clean up its coal-fired power plants. In 2005, park and TVA officials announced emissions were going down.

"We reversed the trend, which I think is a huge success story. Since the late '90s, air quality is improving, and it is expected to continue to improve over the next 10 years," said Jim Renfro, the Smokies' air quality specialist.

"Is it enough to attain standards and protect the resources? We hope so."

The National Parks Conservation Association still lists the Smokies as "endangered."

"If we are going to improve the air quality in Great Smoky Mountains National Park we have to improve the air quality in the Eastern United States. It is just that simple," said Don Barger, the association's regional representative.

Loving it to death?

Meanwhile, visitors keep coming -- more than 9 million a year.

And the six counties surrounding the park have grown exponentially -- populations rose 23 percent from 1990 to 2000. Since then, Sevier County, Tenn., home to the main gateway city of Gatlinburg, has grown another 11.4 percent, nearly three times the state average.

The Foothills Land Conservancy in Maryville, Tenn., acquired 15,000 acres since 1993 for buffer zones bordering the Smokies. But with rising real estate prices, the group now focuses on winning conservation easements from land owners to keep development to a minimum.

"Do we wish that another property would never be developed? Of course you wish that," said Bill Claybough, the conservancy's director. "But that is not reality, is it?"