Pollution Pact to Sharpen View in U.S. Parks

On a typical summer day, America’s beloved canyon looks like a favorite shirt washed too many times. Its ribbons of color fade into dreary shades of gray, and its famed buttes vanish into a gauzy horizon.

Standing on the crowded south rim, one can almost hear the collective sigh of tourists peering into the haze: Spectacular--but where are the postcard views?

Now, in a historic pact wrapping up five years of work, Western states and Native American tribes, assisted by a broad coalition of advisors, have devised a strategy to improve the odds that visitors will be able to view the Grand Canyon and the Southwest’s other national treasures in all their natural splendor.

On Monday, eight governors and four tribal leaders are expected to endorse a far-reaching set of recommendations that would lift some of the man-made, milky-white shroud from 16 national parks and wilderness areas in the vast plateau of the Colorado River.

The regional commission, created by Congress and bestowed with the job of protecting some of America’s most precious natural resources, built its strategy piece by piece through consensus. The outcome is a cautious, gradual approach, which--if successful--would hold the line on urban gases and grit drifting into the rural parks and improve an average day’s visibility by 10% over the next three decades.

From Utah’s giant arches and spires, to the pre-Columbian cliff dwellings of Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park, most visitors see these extraordinary treasures as if they were gazing through a bridal veil. A new analysis by the commission shows that in prime tourist season, the haze leaves the Grand Canyon’s views less than half what they would be under natural conditions.

The most abundant foul air blows in from the Southwest, especially the Los Angeles region, but the commission metes out the blame to the everyday actions of everyday people--millions sprawled throughout 11 states and northwest Mexico, with their tailpipes, power plants, smelters, refineries, fires and road dust.

Faced with apportioning the blame in an equitable way, the commission’s advisors from industry, environmental groups and local government haggled for months. At times, parties on all sides nearly walked away defeated.

Finally, they hammered out a solution--admittedly not a cure--involving more than 70 recommended federal, state and local measures encompassing virtually every category of pollution.

The consensus manages to please everyone yet no one, and the fiercest debate focuses on what was left out: cleaning up fumes from a massive coal-fired Southern California Edison power plant in Laughlin, Nev., which provides cheap and abundant electricity but is one of the largest single polluters upwind of the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon’s chief caretaker, park superintendent Rob Arnberger, said he is “distressed and discouraged” that the commission sidestepped the power plant issue, calling it “one of the litmus tests of credibility” for the new strategy. But he worries most about complacency, saying now that the recommendations are complete, it is a lifetime job to ensure they succeed.

“Given the consensus process, we’re very lucky to have what we have in these recommendations right now,” Arnberger said. “What was remarkable was that people were willing to lay their daggers down and give a little bit. But we have to remember it’s all one big experiment.”

The most remarkable achievement, many of the participants agree, is that eight western governors--many anti-federalists who do not normally embrace environmental laws--signed a pact urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to enact strong, costly clean air rules for cars and other sources. Five are Republicans and three are Democrats.

“We hear a lot about state’s rights and local control over destiny, but here’s a perfect example of states and tribal interests coming together and making recommendations to EPA,” said Nadar Mansour, Southern California Edison’s environmental regulations manager and a commission advisor. “You have industries standing there saying it, too.”

By attacking sources of air pollution not just in the traditional urban cores but in rural areas unaccustomed to such concerns, the strategy is unprecedented. The Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission includes the states of California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and the Navajo, Hopi, Hualapai and Acoma Pueblo tribes.

Among the recommendations:

* Power plants and other industries voluntarily have agreed to cut sulfur emissions 13% by 2000 and 50% to 70% by 2040. If they fail to comply, mandatory pollution “caps” should be enforced in 2000, although the companies could buy and sell credits among themselves to comply.

* Low-emission vehicle standards should be adopted nationwide to reduce exhaust from new cars 70% by 2001 and 50% for new diesel trucks and buses by 2004. The EPA is planning to do both.

* States, tribes and private and federal landowners should set annual emission targets for prescribed burns. The burns would be timed to minimize haze and replaced with mechanical brush clearing whenever possible.

* States should seek replacements for fossil fuels, with a target of using solar, wind and other renewable energy sources to supply 10% of the region’s electricity by 2005 and 10% by 2015.

* The governors and federal government should assist Mexico in creating an inventory of sources. Money set aside by NAFTA and other international treaties would finance air pollution control projects in Mexico.

* Southern Utah, Oregon and most of Nevada should be dubbed a “clean air corridor,” meaning they will not have to impose additional rules unless their air degrades.

In California, the proposed measures are not particularly hard to swallow because many mirror steps the state already has taken.

California Air Resources Board Chairman John Dunlap, who will cast a vote Monday on behalf of Gov. Pete Wilson, said he was “favorably inclined” toward the recommendations and sees no unfair burden on the state’s businesses or consumers. One of the biggest pluses, he said, is that the pact would give California’s smog plan the much-welcomed endorsement of other governors.

In an important conclusion, the commission advisors agreed that pollution controls on cars and other sources anticipated to meet health standards in U.S. cities will not be enough to protect the rural parks from worsening views. Without added steps in 2000, such as dramatic sulfur cutbacks by coal power plants, visibility would decline slightly, the panel reported.

Tiny particles called aerosols--such as sulfates and nitrates--scatter and absorb sunlight, forming the shroud. It’s as if everyone gazing upon them is nearsighted.

Under purely natural conditions, a visitor could stand at Hopi Point on the Grand Canyon’s south rim and see a large black object, such as a ridge, 157 miles away, the commission’s data show. But because of pollution, on an average day, visibility is 99 miles, and on two out of every 10 days, it’s 74 miles or less--and only half of the view retains vivid texture and brilliant hues.

The rest, including the sacred Native American site, Mount Trumbull, is a blurry, gray lump on the horizon. Even the famed “Alligator” slab of rock a mere mile from the rim loses some of its vibrant red.

“It’s not like a curtain in the distance,” said Carl Bowman, a National Parks Service air quality scientist, as he pointed out the landmarks. “It’s pervading the entire view.”

Visibility in the 16 parks and wilderness areas diminished from the 1940s through ‘70s with the West’s swelling population, and stabilized in the ‘80s and ‘90s as cities began cleaning up car and industry exhaust, according to the commission’s data.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest contributor of sulfates. But even if all 89 units in the region shut down, the Grand Canyon’s visibility would improve by about seven miles, or 9%, which experts say would be barely perceptible on most days.

“There are no magic bullets,” said Tony VanCuren, a California state air quality scientist who helped gather the emissions data. “If you look at each source on a case-by-case basis, none would be big enough to justify taking action against it. That’s why you look at them all in categories.”

But some of the advisors representing business and government say the recommendations may fail to reduce the haze because they emphasize power plants, while major sources such as prescribed burns and Mexican smelters are left comparatively untouched.

“The recommendations as they stand, we probably could live with them,” said Paul Scheidig of the Nevada Mining Assn., appointed to the advisory panel by Nevada Gov. Bob Miller. “But does it do anything for visibility? The answer is probably not, and you spend a lot of money.”

Mexico’s high-polluting smelters, coal power plants and vehicles cause about one-quarter of the man-made haze on the Grand Canyon’s worst days, but the commission has no authority to stop emissions crossing the border. Road dust is another big source, contributing one-fifth of the problem.

Also, smoke from prescribed burns is expected to increase 400%, more than any other source of haze. But without the burns, the region risks bigger and more catastrophic wildfires.

Bob Hadfield, executive director of the Nevada Assn. of Counties, called the new strategy “an important and significant effort. But my concern is that people will go to the Grand Canyon and it will still be full of smoke from the fires.”

Environmentalists perceive too much wiggle room in the plan for the power plants. They were pleased that the utilities--in the final, fiery days of the talks--agreed to guarantee overall pollution cuts, but disappointed that they could not win controls at the Southern California Edison plant in Laughlin.

“This isn’t enough. This is what we could agree on,” said Sierra Club lobbyist John White. “If we add anything more, it would not be adopted by the governors.”

For years, fingers have pointed at Edison’s Mohave power plant in Laughlin, 150 miles upwind of the Grand Canyon, with its towering, 500-foot stack emitting billowing white fumes. The coal-burning plant, which has no air pollution control equipment, emits 40,000 tons of sulfur dioxide a year--more than any other uncontrolled source within reach of the canyon.

Yet that amounts to just 4% of the plateau’s sulfur, and when the plant shut down for six months recently, visibility measurements in the park showed no discernible change.

Southern California Edison fought strenuously to keep the plant out of the report. Pollution-scrubbing equipment--which would cost about $300 million and would entail rebuilding the massive plant--could raise the cost of the electricity 20% to 30%, Mansour said. That could force it to shut down, putting 800 electricians, miners and others with high-paying jobs out of work, he said.

After heated talks, the commission’s advisors agreed to stay out of the fray and recommend instead that the EPA and Edison work out a solution in the next two years. Two other coal-burning plants recently agreed to install pollution scrubbers after similar negotiations.

“I believe Southern California Edison should buckle down and do it,” said park superintendent Arnberger. “The task here is to gather every little increment we can to improve the worst days and save the best for future generations.”

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The West’s Clouded Skies

Haze from a multitude of sources is a blight at eight national parks and other wilderness areas on the Colorado Plateau. Under purely natural conditions, visibility at the Grand Canyon’s Hopi Point would be 157 miles, scientists estimate. But the view on the worst days is just 74 miles, only half of that seen with color and texture.

Sources of haze on worst days:

Arizona: 34%

Mexico/offshore: 23%

California: 21%

New Mexico: 6%

Nevada: 4%

Utah: 2%

Other states: 11%

Source: Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission