Most Of Big Bend NP's Pollution From American, Not Mexican Power Plants

[hatrack]

AUSTIN - "A long-awaited study debunks the conventional wisdom that Mexican power plants are mostly to blame for hazy air in Big Bend National Park, finding U.S. power plants are a larger source of pollution.

The study, to be formally released by the Environmental Protection Agency today, shows that the largest percentage of sulfate particles clouding the park's legendary West Texas vistas comes from coal-burning plants east of Interstate 35, stretching all the way to the eastern seaboard.

While U.S. sources contributed 55 percent of a four-month measurement of sulfate particles in 1999, Mexico contributed 38 percent, the study shows. The pollution source data, gathered five years ago, is only now being released.

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Smoke from Mexican agricultural fires and dust contribute to the hazy air as well, particularly in the spring, the report notes. But Big Bend is one of the few national parks where both sulfates and haze are increasing, researchers noted. Sulfate contributes nearly half of all haze on average and on the haziest days, according to the analysis by the National Park Service and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, affiliated with Colorado State University."

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2799935