Cleaning Up The Haze

With sweeping bipartisan support, Congress adopted the visibility protection program in the 1977 amendments to the Clean Air Act.1 The program mandates the elimination of visible air pollution at lands owned by the American people: national parks and wilderness areas. Through this mandate Congress sought to protect the “intrinsic beauty and historical and archeological treasures” of what should be the nation’s most pristine public lands.

The same pollution that brings hazy air to the nation’s iconic treasured areas is also dangerous to breathe. Haze pollution contributes to heart attacks, asthma attacks, chronic bronchitis and respiratory illness, and even premature death. That is why it is essential that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) honor the Clean Air Act’s mandate to swiftly clean up the oldest and dirtiest sources of air pollution impairing our country’s gems.