Testimony Before the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee
October 2, 2002
By Ben Rose
Executive Director
The Green Mountain Club, Inc.
Senator
Jeffords, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to
testify. My name is Ben Rose. I am the Executive Director of the Green
Mountain Club, a 93-year-old member-supported not-for-profit hiking club
headquartered in Waterbury Center, Vermont. The mission of the Green Mountain
Club is to make the Vermont mountains play a larger part in the life of the
people, by protecting and maintaining the Long Trail (a hiking trail which runs
the length of Vermont from Massachusetts to Quebec) and by fostering, through
education, the stewardship of Vermont's hiking trails and mountains. The southern 100 miles of the Long Trail are
part of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (AT) from Georgia to Maine, and
the Green Mountain Club is one of 31 local clubs, which maintain specific
sections of the AT. The Appalachian Trail is the longest linear
national park in the
world.
Although
most people do not associate scenic mountain ranges with smog, some of the
dirtiest air in the United States is in our mountains. (1) Mountain air is
thick with fine particulate matter—largely sulfates derived from burning
coal--as well as nitrates and ozone, byproducts of power plant nitrogen oxides
emissions. Unfortunately, we know that the air is often at its worst
in the higher elevations. This is of
concern to the Green Mountain Club and sister organizations, as the Long Trail,
Appalachian Trail and thousands of miles of other trails beckon hikers up into
the poor quality air.
We
also are concerned because we hire dozens of young people each summer as
ridgeline caretakers, to work on the trails and to protect the unique alpine
plants that exist only on our highest summits.
These folks spend months at high elevations. They see lots of sulfate haze, and breathe it, too.
In
August 2002, during a stretch of severe haze, particulate matter and ozone smog
in New England, three hikers were treated with oxygen near the summit of Mt.
Washington, New Hampshire’s highest peak, only tens of miles from the border
with Vermont. Staff and hikers there
reported nausea and shortness of breath.
(2) During the same period, vistas from New England mountaintops were
shrouded in a thick white sulfur laden haze. These are the same pollutants that
cause acid rain, forming sulfuric and nitric acids responsible for the high
mortality rates in our high elevation spruce and fir forests. (3)
While
countless studies—many referred to by the medical researchers on this
panel—have linked particulate matter to asthma attacks, heart attacks and
premature death, little attention has been paid to the health affects of fine
particulate matter on healthy people exercising outdoors, such as hikers. (4)
The
most important study to date on the subject was conducted during the summers of
1990 to 1992, when scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health and the
Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) studied the lung responses of hikers climbing
Mount Washington in New Hampshire to fine particulate matter and ozone
pollution. (5)
Hikers'
lung functions were measured using spirometers before and after their hikes. At
the same time, ozone and PM2.5 concentrations were measured in the
air at the top and bottom of the mountain.
Data was also collected regarding past respiratory history and fitness
levels, and current smokers were excluded.
(6)
In
a nutshell, the results showed that healthy hikers experienced measurable
declines in short-term lung function. (7) related to ozone and as well as PM2.5.
Note
that, although the PM 2.5 – correlation did not technically meet the
95th percentile confidence level, the study provides credible
evidence that both ozone and particulate matter independently impact hiker’s
lungs. It is important to note that the air quality during the study was only
moderate, with 1-hour and 8-hour ozone levels and PM2.5 well below the federal standards. This means that even moderate levels of
these pollutants reduce the lung function of healthy people exercising
outdoors.
The
study recommended (quote):
“Physicians,
public health officials and the general public should be made aware of the
potentially serious health affects of low-level air pollutants, not just in
urban and industrial regions but specifically on those who engage in outdoor
recreation in various wilderness areas. “ (8)
Currently
a similar study is being conducted in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
in cooperation with the National Park Service and Emory University. Air quality
in the Great Smoky Mountains is significantly worse than the air quality
observed during the Mount Washington study.
The Great Smokies have experienced 140 days of unsafe air quality over
the past four summers. (9)
Old dirty power plants are the largest source of fine particulate air pollution in the
region, accounting for half or more of the fine particulate matter and most of
the sulfate deposition in the Appalachians. (10) This means that these same plants
are responsible for most of the haze and acid rain as well. (11)
Many
coal burning plants in the region and upwind were exempted under the Clean Air
Act (CAA) and have not yet installed sulfur dioxide scrubbers or NOx catalysts,
(12) even though the technology has been available for many years.
Sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxides from power plants form sulfates and nitrate
particles that can be suspended in the air for weeks and can be transported
hundreds of miles downwind into our wilderness areas, forests and parks.
Grandfathered
coal plants are endangering public health not only to those living in cities
and industrial areas but also to those of us who exercise in and enjoy the
outdoors.
As
a hiking club, we promote the benefits of outdoor exercise and fresh mountain
air and yet we know that those who recreate in the mountains are being exposed
to unhealthy air.
Current
air quality and national energy policy allow unsafe levels of fine particulate
matter pollution in the air of Vermont, of Northern New England, and of the
entire Appalachian Mountain chain that is harmful to our lungs and those of our
children. People throughout the eastern
United States look to the mountains for clean fresh air. If they can't find it in Vermont, where can
they go? We respectfully ask the Senate
of the United States to act in support of aggressive measures to clean up power
plants as embodied in S.556 and reject measures that would weaken the Clean Air
Act.
Thank
you.
NOTES
1.
“Out of Sight: Haze in our National
Parks: How Power Plants Cost Billions in Visitor enjoyment Clean Air Task Force for Clear the Air,
September 2000. Available at: http://www.clnatf.org/publications/reports/out_of_sight.html. See also American Hiker, March/April
2002).
2. Georgia Murray, Staff Scientist, Appalachian
Mountain Club. Personal
communication. September 2002.
3. Dr. L. Bruce Hill, Senior Scientist, Clean
Air Task Force. Personal communication.
September 2002.
4. “Coal blamed for haze", Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. Friday, August 30, 2002
5. “Effects of Ozone and Other Pollutants on the Pulmonary Function of Adult Hikers” by Korrick, Neas, Dockery, Gold, Allen, Hill, Kimball, Rosner, Speizer. Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 106 Number 2, Feb. 1998. Conducted 1990-92, Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire, White Mountain National Forest by Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Appalachian Mountain Club. http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1998/106p93-99korrick/korrick-full.html
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9.
Source: Jim Renfro, Air Quality
Specialist, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, National Park Service.
10.
According to the National Park Service's "Air Quality in National
Parks" 2nd edition, sulfate particles formed from sulfur dioxide emissions
associated with fossil fuel combustion (mostly from electric generating
facilities) accounts for up to 60%-80% of visibility impairment in eastern
parks compared to only 30-40% visibility impairment in western states.
11. Abt Associates (2000). Out of Sight: The
Science and Economics of Visibility Impairment, Bethesda, MD. Available at: http://www.clnatf.org/publications.
12.National
Park and Conservation Assoc. (NPCA) Fact Sheet.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Assistance provided by Neil
Woodworth, Counsel, Adirondack Mountain Club on behalf of Hikers for Clean Air
Coalition