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Our comfortable, complacent existence is threatened

by Barry Henderson

It was the week of living precariously out here on the environmental precipice that our region has become.

Knoxville was cited again in a big and unforgiving way for its dirty air; the city’s sewage treatment problems were blamed by a group of conservation organizations for starting the Tennessee River on its way to the top of the endangerment list; and a national conservationists’ association came out with the assessment that our beloved Great Smoky Mountains National Park is “beginning to die.”

All that came down on us in a three-day period, April 14-16, and the cumulative effect was to challenge—as never in recent memory—our smugly held notion that Knoxville is among the nation’s most livable cities.

A lot has been said in the past about the city’s air, the river’s contamination, and the park’s problems, but last week’s revelations amounted to piling it on in ways that put this whole area’s appeal and its future growth in real doubt.

Worst among the reports was the Environmental Protection Agency’s designation of Knox and six surrounding counties as a “non-attainment area,” out of compliance with air quality standards. What that means, in part, is that recruiting new industry is going to be extremely difficult. Any new emissions into the air of any form of pollutant will have to be offset by a reduction of pollutants elsewhere in the affected counties. That’s not only hard to accomplish, it turns off the officials of any company that might be considering relocation or expansion here. Even the most benign-seeming industries often release some pollutants into the air.

At the same time as it rejected the counties’ proposals to advocate a statewide vehicle emissions inspection requirement, the EPA said the non-attainment counties were not far enough out of compliance for it to order such inspections locally.

That seems silly. Inspections are needed now. There is no other quick way to reduce air pollution, and the state Legislature is not about to mandate them statewide. If the federal agency won’t require vehicle inspections, the counties themselves should use their local legislative powers to institute vehicle emission controls. Otherwise, we’re in for a period of stagnation in terms of economic and job growth that we should not stand still for.

In the question of the river, the American Rivers organization, which monitors other groups who conduct studies of water pollution nationwide, put the Tennessee at No. 4 on its list of endangered rivers, based mostly on sewage released into the river at Chattanooga and Knoxville, with Knoxville being the worst offender.

That’s ironic, in that the Knoxville Utilities Board boasts of a fairly recent drinking water taste study that ranked our municipal water among the best tasting across the country. I don’t know what the seemingly competing claims say, exactly, but KUB’s problems with sanitary sewers and sewage disposal are well documented, even though its officials say they are spending money hand over fist ($130 million in the past six years and $1 million a month on a continuing basis) to rectify the situation. It’s not working well enough to clean up the river’s problems, though, and the onus still falls squarely on KUB.

So, we can’t breathe decent air, and we can’t be sure our water is free of contaminating agents, and our pride and joy—this country’s most visited national park—is on the way to becoming a wasteland, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, which says that high acid rain and ozone levels, plus diseases, damaging insects and other pests, combined with federal underfunding of the park, have left it vulnerable to virtual destruction.

All of these searing developments have left the region in shock. What to do and how to correct the ravages of our most essential elements has to be on the minds of the leadership in all of the affected communities. The time to consider the possibilities should be at hand this weekend, when Earth Fest is celebrated here. Today is Earth Day around the world. Never has the symbolic dedication of a festival and a special day for the environment seemed so important and timely. Get involved. Start becoming a part of the solution to our critical environmental problems. Now.

April 22, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 17 © 2004 Metro Pulse