West’s pollution worsens Grand Canyon visibility

Monday, March 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Air pollution drifting across the Grand Canyon keeps getting worse and may not be corrected because of a lack of political will, the Grand Canyon Trust charged in a review of proposed visibility recommendations.

In June, the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission will deliver final recommendations to the federal Environmental Protection Agency to improve Colorado Plateau vistas and prevent threats from future smog.

The trust, a regional organization dedicated to conserving cultural and natural resources in the plateau's national parks and wilderness areas, fears the commission's recommendations will fall short, Jim Bishop said.

"There is now impairment in the canyon and national parks 90 percent of the time," Bishop said.

The trouble with proposals under final review by the commission centers on assumptions that Western states will meet clean air goals and all coal-fired power plants will convert to clean fuels by the year 2040, he said.

"The spectacular 120-mile vistas of the Colorado Plateau are often less than 60 miles," said Geoffrey Barnard, president of the Grand Canyon Trust. "Seventy-five days a year visibility at Grand Canyon is seriously impaired. This is a national disgrace and it doesn't have to be this way."

The 16 federally protected areas of the Colorado Plateau are Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches and Mesa Verde national parks, Sycamore Canyon, Mount Baldy, San Pedro Parks, Weminuche, West Elk, Maroon Bells, and Flattops and Black Canyon of the Gunnison national wilderness areas.

Smog can be stopped

Barnard said the knowledge and resources exist to begin improving the Southwest's air.

The commission also has the chance to prove Western governors can take the lead in getting federal government off the states' backs, he said.

The commission has scheduled a public hearing on Grand Canyon visibility at 7 p.m. April 10 at the Desert Research Institute building at 755 E. Flamingo Road.

The trust questioned the commission's acceptance of continued operation of large, uncontrolled coal-fired power plants in the West. Centralia, located in Washington state, emits 69,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the air each year. The Mohave plant, 50 miles upwind of Grand Canyon, pumps 40,000 tons of sulfur dioxide annually.

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Robert Arnberger recently toured the Mohave power station owned by Southern California Edison.

"I could not believe it," he said. "I don't understand how that power plant can be doing what it is doing. The plume is enormous. It really shook me."

Political wars fierce

Arnberger, who has been around the Southwest for 20 years, said political battles waged over Four Corners, Navajo and other power plants have been brutal.

"Yet Mohave is still there, still in denial, enveloped in excuses, putting up walls, saying we can delay this for another 10 years," he said.

The Southwest's population boom doesn't sit well with the trust, either. Increasing fumes from gasoline and diesel engines could further erode any gains the commission might win under its proposal.

The outcome from the commission's recommendations is more complicated than that, said Marc Pitchford, a scientist working with NOAA and the EPA and a member of the commission.

"What would we have here in the Southwest if we didn't have our grand vistas?" he asked. "We might as well live in Ohio without them."

Five years ago, no one would talk about air pollution in the Grand Canyon, Pitchford said, except a handful of technicians like himself. "So I'm grateful for the commission's work."

Many sources contribute to the Southwest's pollution problems, including growth, power plants, traffic and dust, he said.

"Taking one thing away won't improve the air quality," he said. There's more than one reason and no single solution he said.

No stopping growth

For example, no one can stop growth in the Southwest.

"There's little doubt Las Vegas is having an impact," Pitchford said.

But even if growth stopped in Southern Nevada, it would not stop Grand Canyon air pollution, he said.

Nevada officials said at a hearing in November that the state contributes less than 2 percent of the air pollution, yet faces paying $100 million to $500 million a year to help clear the Grand Canyon's air.

While the impacts may be large, they will be shared by the many residents and visitors to the Southwest, explained William Auberle, chairman of the Public Advisory Committee.

"We are particularly pleased that such a diverse group is so close to agreement on a wide range and comprehensive set of recommendations," Auberle said. "The proposals may affect everyone in the West -- from the car you buy to the way your electricity is generated -- yet will not be very expensive for any of us."