The N.C. Clean Air Coalition was pushing for an 8o percent reduction. That percentage, according to statistics provided by the coalition, would effectively reduce the negative health effects from NOx and also significantly clear up our views. That was also the opinion of more than 97 percent of the citizens who attended public hearings on the issue this summer throughout North Carolina. For WNC, clean air is not just an aesthetic issue, although it would be nice to have our views back. Stories are beginning to mount of potential second-home buyers and others who come to this region for a weekend, see the murky air, read about it in the media, and then go back home and begin looking and visiting elsewhere.
Air quality is our number one economic development issue in the mountains.
The health effects of the pollution are also mounting. Old people and children are contracting asthma, flu and pneumonia at an alarming rate. Joseph's study released earlier this year showed that our region is suffering from these ailments at rates much higher than in the past. And then there's the question of what kind of example we will set. WNC's pollution, for the most part, drifts in from other states.