42 



Virginia. The Park Service prepared comments for the April 16, 

 1992 hearing on the Bear Island permit. However, NPS was not 

 allowed to release these comments due to direction from higher 

 officials in the Department of the Interior. In addition, NPS 

 stated in its March 11, 1992 comments on the Tennessee Eastman 

 permit, wherein it contended that the emissions from the plant 

 would adversely impact the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 

 that it would submit detailed technical comments under separate 

 cover. We understand that the NPS had prepared those technical 

 comments but the Secretary's office did not allow those comments 

 to be submitted for the record, nor was the permit challenged by 

 NPS. 



The Hadson-Buena Vista Case 



The most blatant example of the Secretary's office 

 forbidding action to protect the parks occurred in the case of 

 the Hadson-Buena Vista power plant proposal. This proposed coal- 

 fired plant near Lexington, Virginia would have been located only 

 15 kilometers from the Class I James River Face Wilderness on the 

 Blue Ridge Parkway and only 56 kilometers (35 miles) from 

 Shenandoah. Both the Park Service and U.S. Forest Service (which 

 administers the wilderness area) objected to the permit being 

 issued without full offsets of the plant's emissions. The Park 

 Service and the Forest Service spent several years collecting 

 information and documenting the potential impacts of this 

 proposed plants. Over their objections, the state issued the 

 permit on April 8, 1992. 



The Park Service and Forest Service both sought to appeal 

 the permit to EPA. The Park Service and the Assistant Secretary 

 of Interior for Parks even drafted an appeal document setting 

 forth the basis for an appeal. The Assistant Secretary stated in 

 a memo that "I believe that the VDAPC's decision to issue this 

 permit was based on an erroneous interpretation of Clean Air Act 

 requirements which, if allowed to stand, would have the effect of 

 making it very difficult for me to carry out my role and 

 responsibility as federal land manager (FLM) under the Act." See 

 Attachment 3 - Documents relating to political interference in 

 federal land managers' attempts to appeal Hadson-Buena Vista 

 permit: Document C, memo from Assistant Secretary of Fish, 

 Wildlife and Parks to Assistant Secretary of Policy, Management 

 and Budget. 



Both the Assistant Secretary for Parks and the park 

 superintendent requested approval to file an appeal of the Hadson 

 permit. See Attachment 3, Document D, memo from Superintendent 

 of Shenandoah to Regional Director, Mid-Atlantic Region, May 15, 

 1992. The approval to file the appeal was refused and both the 

 superintendent and Assistant Secretary for Parks were told by 

 their superiors not to file the petitions for review. See memo 

 from Superintendent to files dated May 19, 1992, Attachment 3, 



