No one argues that the Tennessee Valley Authority hasn't done noble work in bringing badly-needed, cheap and dependable electric power to much of Appalachia.

But such good intentions aren't enough when the emissions spewing from 11 TVA power plants are making North Carolinians sick and causing environmental damage to the mountain regions of this state.

That's why North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is right to pursue a lawsuit against the TVA to force it to clean up its power plant operations in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.

Cooper is not being unreasonable when he asks the TVA to reduce emission levels at its plants to a level comparable with North Carolina's 14 coal-fired power plants. The state's Clean Smokestacks Act requires in-state plants to make a 77 percent cut in nitrogen oxide and a 73 percent cut in sulfur dioxide by 2013.

U.S. District Court Judge Lacy Thornburg in July turned down the TVA's arguments that it was legally immune from such pollution-related lawsuits. Cooper is now gathering a battery of experts and potential witnesses to testify when the issue finally reaches court.

It is unfortunate the TVA has taken such a hard-nosed attitude. Studies by the Environmental Protection Agency have shown that the utility's plants contribute significantly to air pollution in North Carolina. The prevailing winds and weather patterns tend to bring the bad air from the entire Midwest, including the TVA's areas of operation.

The result of such ill winds are felt most strongly in the mountain regions of this state. Dr. Clay Ballentine, an Asheville physician who treats hospital patients for asthma, heart attacks, strokes and other diseases said in an interview with the Asheville Citizen-Times, "We know from studies in North Carolina that air pollution causes about one-third to one-half of the asthma attacks in any given year."

Cooper's witnesses are expected to support the doctor's alarming conclusions. Other studies have already documented that the mountain regions have the highest rate of asthma in the state. In 2005, 9.2 percent of mountain folks suffered from asthma, compared to 6.5 percent statewide.

"We're going to have experts to show how visibility in the mountains will significantly improve, how many deaths will be prevented and how many hospital admissions will be reduced when TVA takes steps to cut down on pollution," Cooper said.

The TVA has taken some steps to reduce emissions at its plants. The utility has installed six sulfur dioxide scrubbers and expects to add five more. And they are working. Sulfur emissions, the TVA says, have been reduced by 80 to 85 percent from historically high 1977 levels.

That is good news, but the North Carolina mountains and the people who live on them need more. Statistics are fine, but the air quality tells the real story. And it is a story of sick people, a hurting environment and even the loss of tourism dollars so vital to folks in the high country.

The North Carolina mountains were once a healing mecca for people from pollution-choked cities. Doctors prescribed high country living as a way to regain healthy lungs. Now, sadly, its is the mountains themselves that need healing.

The TVA may claim it does not have a legal requirement to do more, but the moral imperative is inescapable.

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