Hazy Skies, Spoiled Views. Air pollution from power plants, cars and factories travels hundreds or thousands of miles to some of our countrys most remote lands, creating serious air pollution problems in many national parks and federal wilderness areas. During much of the year, a veil of white or brown haze hangs over many parks, obscuring some of our most famous scenic vistas. This haze is caused primarily by tiny particles in the air that absorb and scatter sunlight, reducing the clarity and color of what we see.

In the Grand Canyon, haze on some days reduces visibility from 128 miles to 68 miles, a loss of nearly 50 percent. Other examples: Acadia (from 74 to 19 miles), Glacier (from 84 to 35 miles), Great Smoky Mountains (from 55 to 15 miles), Mount Rainier (from 103 to 21 miles), and Yosemite (from 132 to 41 miles).

Restoring Pristine Skies. One goal of the federal Clean Air Act is to eliminate impairments to visibility in national parks and wilderness areas resulting from manmade pollution. The new Environmental Protection Agency "regional haze" rule announced today represents a long-range national strategy for achieving that goal. The rule:

• Establishes the year 2064 as the timeframe for restoring visibility to natural conditions in 156 "Class 1" areas 37 national parks and 119 federal wilderness areas encompassing 17,076 square miles.

• Requires states to submit successive 10-year plans describing efforts to achieve "reasonable progress" toward the goal of restoring visibility to natural conditions. The first plans are due from 2003 to 2008, depending on the region.