Haze in central Grand Canyon © by Michael Collier

• Reduce pollution from large stationary sources located on or near the Colorado Plateau by retrofitting existing sources with modern pollution controls, minimizing pollution from new sources, and opposing the construction of new large pollution sources.

• Promote renewable energy projects on the Colorado Plateau, particularly on tribal lands.

• Curb greenhouse gas emissions through policy and advocacy work at the local, state, and national level.

Air pollution is obscuring the spectacular vistas of the Colorado Plateau, damaging ecosystems, depositing mercury on the land and water, and potentially impairing people’s health.  In addition, the Colorado Plateau is particularly vulnerable to global warming caused by burning fossil fuels. Many species survive under marginal conditions across the region’s harsh deserts, canyons, and mountaintops. Consequently, radical swings in temperature and precipitation have the potential to decimate entire communities of life, as we are experiencing with an extended drought and the sudden death of piñon and ponderosa pine stands throughout northern Arizona.

Haze obscuring visibility comes from many sources. There are 18 coal-fired power plants on or near the Colorado Plateau that annually dump 142 million tons of carbon dioxide into the earth's atmosphere each year. They also produce more than 200,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, a major contributor to visibility-reducing haze, and 270,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, equivalent to the tailpipe emissions of more than 14 million cars in one year. Large urban areas including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City also contribute to the regional haze that diminishes the spectacular views of the Colorado Plateau. The National Park Service estimates that pollution sources in California contribute about 33% of measured sulfur at Grand Canyon, while southern Arizona accounts for 14%. Wildfires and prescribed burning also contribute to the region's haze, although they tend to do so episodically rather than continually, as is the case with urban areas and large industrial sources.

The Grand Canyon Trust’s Air and Energy Program works closely with its Native America Program because energy development in the region has often come at the expense of indigenous people. For example, Mohave Generating Station has returned billions of dollars in subsidized electricity and shareholder profits for more than three decades. Those gains, however, have taken a severe toll on indigenous people and the environment. The cost of electricity from Mohave has been kept artificially low by, among other things, dumping millions of tons of pollution into the atmosphere in violation of the Clean Air Act, purchasing coal from tribes at prices well below market rates, and mining groundwater for a coal slurry line that has depleted springs, streams, and wells on the Hopi and Navajo reservations. As a former tribal chairman concluded, “they have taken our coal and water and given us polluted air in return.”

To view an essay titled From Plateau to Planet please click here.

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