Yellowstone masks its snowmobile pollution problem

By Christopher Thorne

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — At the western gate into Yellowstone National Park, snowmobiles back up sometimes by the hundreds to zoom around the park.

The gasoline-fired engines belch so much exhaust into the mountain air that on still, windless days a blue haze settles over the gate.

For years, park workers have complained of sore throats, runny noses and burning eyes. To help, fresh air is pumped into their enclosed kiosks.

Now the National Park Service is providing respirators for workers. The first six sets arrived Thursday.

Jon Catton, a spokesman for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a nonprofit group that favors restricting snowmobile access to the park, said he is horrified by the image of park workers wearing respirators.

"It’s sad. Rangers forced to stay indoors, behind glass? Or to wear respirators, because the air in our first national park is not healthy to breathe? That’s just profoundly sad," Catton said.

Yellowstone is one of the nation’s signature parks, featuring abundant wildlife, geysers, lakes and streams. Its 2.2 million acres stretch from the rocky northwest corner of Wyoming into southern Montana and eastern Idaho.

Concerns about pollution prompted the National Park Service to issue a rule in 2000 banning snowmobiles from the park, phasing them out over several years. But last year, the Bush administration put a hold on the ban to settle a lawsuit brought by snowmobile manufacturers and the state of Wyoming, which wants to protect tourism dollars.

The Bush administration agreed to conduct a second environmental study of the impact snowmobiles have on wildlife, air quality and noise.

Options in a draft proposal range from banning snowmobiles altogether to capping the number that could enter the park each day, and instituting tighter emission controls for them. The final version of the plan is expected next week.

The Park Service has tried to reduce air pollution at the western gate this season by selling snowmobile passes in West Yellowstone, Mont., the closest town to a park entrance. The idea is that if riders already have passes they won’t have to line up at the gate, idling their engines.

It has helped — a little.

"Machines are moving through the gates more smoothly than in the past, but even with that employees are experiencing these symptoms," said Marsha Karle, a National Park Service spokeswoman in Yellowstone.