THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 13, 1994 TAG: 9408130322
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The National Park Service plans to monitor the effect of the Disney's America theme park on the air quality of the Shenandoah National Park with an ozone and meteorological monitoring station.
Monitoring stations are already in place in the park, in part to examine whether the goals of the 1990 Clean Air Act are being met. The act set a cap on sulfur dioxide emissions and reduced by 3 million tons the limit on nitrogen oxide emissions.
Critics of the Disney development, to be built near Haymarket, say it will increase pollution by attracting millions of visitors each year.
During a meeting Thursday that focused on operations at the park, officials discussed recent recommendations on the stations' future operations from the Park Service's Air Quality Division.
``Every year they want to remove both the Dickey Ridge and Saw Mill Run stations, and every year they decide to leave them,'' said Julie Thomas, a Park Service environmental specialist.
``Because Dickey Ridge is so close to where they want to put Disney, we will probably keep that one. But Saw Mill is so predictable, the latest proposal has us shutting that down.''
Thomas also said the Dickey Ridge station had the advantage of being the least predictable of the stations and was a good mid-elevation station.
``It's not entirely to monitor Disney,'' Thomas said. ``But with Disney coming in, we're concerned with car emissions and how that will affect the regionwide ozone levels.''
Jane Adams, a Disney spokeswoman, said, ``I am not aware of any air quality problems whatsoever in Orlando. I don't know of any special monitoring they've had to do because of us.''
KEYWORDS: DISNEY'S AMERICA by CNB