ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996 TAG: 9610010027
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HARVARD AYERS
RECENT hazy days in the Roanoke region reflect a condition all too common
in the summer over the Southern Appalachians from Georgia to Northern
Virginia.
Before 1950, our mountains were blessed with clear, beautiful views of the
surrounding countryside. Around that time, two technologies known and loved by
most or all of us became more widely used: cars and air conditioners.
Both automobiles and electrical generation require the burning of vast amounts of fossil fuels. The gasoline for our vehicles and the coal to make our electricity provide us with these things that most of us would be loath to give up. But we have not yet faced the consequences of these modern wonders.
The result of fossil-fuel burning has brought to us many unanticipated problems. Our air is filled with view-ruining sulfates, acid that acidifies our streams and harms the health of our forests, and small pollution particles and noxious ozone, which threaten human health.
Before air pollution became a problem, we could see close to 100 miles on an average day in Western Virginia. Even with summer's haze caused by tree emissions and stagnant air, the average view was about 60 miles.
Many of us can remember seeing the Washington Monument from the Skyline Drive. But if you took a ride this past summer on the Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive, your view most likely was about 10 to 12 miles. On particularly hazy days, your view might have been limited to 1 to 2 miles.
The main cause of haze in Western Virginia comes from sulfate emissions from electric generators in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys. Motor vehicles foul the air, especially near cities, but sulfates from the combustion of coal cause about 75 percent of the haze.
Studies by University of Virginia scientists indicate that acidification of our mountain streams threatens our most beloved game fish, the native brook trout. If the current levels continue of pollution coming from coal-burning industry and from automobiles, up to 400 of our 450 mountain streams will no longer support this species.
Air pollution also stresses our forests. Mountain tops such as Whitetop and Mount Rogers are especially affected. Spruce and fir trees at Virginia's highest elevations are especially hard hit, but oaks, hickories and other important species also suffer increased death from acid rain and ozone. Indeed, a recent walk on the Appalachian Trail where it approaches Mount Rogers from the west revealed the almost complete collapse of the sugar-maple forest. Yellow birch and buckeye were dying as well.
While other causes such as drought, very cold temperatures and pests may be involved in the increased forest mortality, in almost all cases air pollution has weakend the trees' defenses, leading to a condition not unlike AIDS in humans.
Finally, recent medical studies reported by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the American Lung Association indicate that ozone and small particles of air pollution are greatly harming human health.
The small pollution particles are especially harmful to children and older people. More pepole die prematurely each year from these particles than are killed in motor vehicle and plane crashes combined. Women in the most polluted areas of the country are 57 percent more likely to have heart attacks than women living in relatively clean areas.
The most effective solution to all these threats is to cut back greatly on burning fossil fuels. We must learn to use energy of all kinds more efficiently and find new, less polluting energy sources. Conservation of electricity and less driving are two ways we all can help.
In the Roanoke area, however, we are seeing just the reverse trend. New roads such as the proposed ``smart road'' threaten to produce more automobile pollution - history has shown that if you build new roads, ``they will come.'' And American Electric Power's proposed 765-kilovolt Wyoming/Cloverdale transmission line would cause more electricity to be generated to our west, further clouding our skies with sulfates.
A number of different approaches are being taken to help reduce the threat of air pollution. The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the American Lung Association are educating the public about this issue. While not adequate to solve the entire problem, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 are a good start. And the eight Southern Appalachian states, including Virginia, are working together in an organization known as SAMI, the Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative.
But all these efforts combined will not be enough to protect our views, trout streams, forest and human health. The public must become more aware of the threats, and must express these concerns to decison makers. The most immediate opportunity for action on this issue is to urge establishment by the Environmental Protection Agency of ozone and small particle standards that will protect human health.
Harvard Ayers, a professor of anthropology at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., chairs the Sierra Club Southern Appalachian Highlands Ecoregion Taskforce.
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