» Back in the early 1970s, prior to state and federal environmental laws, smog pollution from our paper mills, pulp plants, and coal fired power plants caused major problems with acid precipitation that decimated many of our rare Red Spruce and Frazer Fir populations on our highest mountains in the Smoky Mountains, Black Mountains, and on Roan and Grandfather mountains. The air quality was so bad that a rotten egg gas smell could be experienced tens of miles from their point sources in Canton, Sylva, Asheville and other towns.

» Remember when many of our streams were so polluted from paper plants and mining interests toxic waste? Lake James currently enjoys its clean waters due to river buffers and the Clean Water Act, but it was not always that way. The Pigeon River that flows through Canton was so polluted from dioxins and other harmful chemicals that almost all aquatic animals were killed and the water reeked from the pollutants. The Toe River that flows through Spruce Pine was so polluted by mining runoff or direct dumping of waste that it looked like a popular opaque milky-colored antacid. Today, due to the DEQ’s protections, these rivers currently support populations of rare freshwater mussels, hellbenders, and other aquatic life, including healthy populations of trout and small-mouth bass that anglers enjoy.