Jun. 16--CLINTON, Tenn. -- When he was a teenager, a layer of fine ash from TVA's Bull Run Fossil Plant would regularly coat his parents' cars, Anderson County Mayor Rex Lynch recalled Wednesday.

Those days are long past, and the region's air will continue to get cleaner with the addition of a $300 million sulfur dioxide scrubber at "The Bull," TVA officials said

"TVA is keeping its word. TVA is walking the walk," TVA Director Bill Baxter said during Wednesday's ceremony at the coal-burning plant, which produces enough electricity to power Knoxville and Chattanooga.

"We care deeply about the quality of air in the Tennessee Valley and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park," Baxter said. "The air in East Tennessee is cleaner today than it has been in our lifetime, and it will be cleaner in the future."

The scrubber will trim sulfur dioxide emissions from Bull Run by more than 90 percent, Baxter said. That, in turn, will reduce acid rain and the formation of fine particles that cause hazy air.

The Bull Run project is part of a $5.6 billion effort to clean up operations at TVA's 59 coal-burning power plants, Baxter said.

Already, TVA has trimmed sulfur dioxide emissions by nearly 80 percent across the Tennessee Valley, he said.

A TVA rate hike two years ago is funding the cleanup effort, Baxter said.

Up to 300 jobs will be created during the scrubber construction project.

When the Bull Run scrubber to clean flue gas goes on line in 2009, a huge white plume will belch from a second, smaller stack at Bull Run.

But instead of pollution, that plume will be harmless water vapor, according to officials.

TVA's cleanup efforts "will yield significant public health benefits for the residents of Tennessee and beyond," said Jim Fyke, Tennessee Commissioner of the Department of Environment and Conservation.

"The cost of this project is money well spent," Smoky Mountains National Park air quality specialist Jim Renfro said. The Smokies suffer from the worst pollution of any national park, he said.

About 75 percent of that pollution comes from the Southeast, Renfro said. "We know it's a homegrown problem."

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