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AQCP Case Studies
Visibility Case Study: Grand Canyon Visibility
You are a tribal environmental air quality professional. On your last visit to the Grand Canyon, one
of your tribe's most sacred sites, you were horrified to discover that it was so hazy you could not
even see the river from the rim! You have been asked to join a team of scientists to investigate
this problem.
The Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau have long been
famous for clean air and extraordinary vistas. Early in the twentieth century, Willa Cather wrote
in Death Comes For The Archbishop of the inspiring feelings created by the Southwest's
wide-open spaces and clear air:
"This peculiar quality in the air. One could breathe that only on the bright edges of the world…
Something that lightened the heart, softly, softly, picked the lock, slid the bolts and released the
prisoned spirit of man, into the wind the blue and gold, into the morning."
Sadly, the "bright edges" of which Willa Cather wrote so
eloquently are fading. Curt Walters, who has painted hundreds of paintings of the Grand Canyon
during the past 25 years, laments, "Every year I have seen growing deterioration. I see less and
less pollution-free days, and nowadays the Canyon's violets and blues are turning greenish in
the yellow haze."
The Grand Canyon panorama is a visual experience, and air quality is the key to full enjoyment.
On hazy days, when visibility is reduced, the human eye perceives a loss of color, contrast
and detail in the landscape. Visual air quality on the Colorado Plateau is quite sensitive to
relatively small increases in pollutants.
Park managers, environmentalists, power industry representatives,
and city officials have proposed many possible sources of these pollutants. As a member of a team of
scientists gathered to investigate the problem, you need to determine the sources and make
recommendations on what can be done to reduce or eliminate the haze.
Last updated: May 26, 2005
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