air quality

[grampaTom]

I grew up in NE Oklahoma (around Grand Lake) and I cannot tell that the pollen is worse here in eastern Tennessee.
I think the Maryville air quality is pretty good.

[creeksitter]

Your million hours of research is likely going to provide you with better answers than a sliver of Tennessee residents on an electronic bulletin board

Well this sliver of a TN resident can tell bubble exactly why Knoxville air quality improved.

Seems TN is taking action, for example I read that Knoxville improved its air by 43% over the last 15 years. True overall?

Nothing Knoxville or TN did but federal regulators made TVA put scrubbers on the watts bar and bull run power plants. I can clearly see the improvement, there are no longer plumes of smoke coming out of the smoke stacks like before the scrubbers.

Probably helped a bit that federal regulators require cleaner engines over the years but nothing like the effect of the scrubbers.

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by creeksitter

Nothing Knoxville or TN did but federal regulators made TVA put scrubbers on the watts bar and bull run power plants. I can clearly see the improvement, there are no longer plumes of smoke coming out of the smoke stacks like before the scrubbers.

The Watt's Bar Steam (Coal) Plant was retired in the 1980's (nuclear and hydro at the same site are still going). Did you mean Kingston Fossil Plant? It's west of Knoxville, and scrubbers were installed in 2007.

The reason you aren't seeing plumes of smoke from the tall stacks is those were abandoned when they built the scrubbers and diverted everything through a new shorter stack. Kington has 11 abandoned stacks still standing; 9 original plus the 2 tall ones.

Scrubbers, especially wet scrubbers used at Kingston, actually cause a bigger/more obvious plume of white "smoke". But you're seeing steam/moisture instead of dirty-looking SO2.