From The Archives: Chattanooga Air Pollution

Look back at the 1982 story on an air pollution milestone for the city

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Chattanooga leaders like to talk about how far we’ve come as a green city.

The main evidence comes from our history with air pollution.

When the city was known for heavy manufacturing in the 1950s and 60s, we paid a price with extremely poor air quality.

It was so bad, it even became national news, when Walter Cronkite announced an air pollution emergency in Chattaooga in the late 1960s.

By the 1980’s, the city faced a national moratorium on allowing any more manufacturing plants in the city limits until we met certain air quality thresholds.

In 1981, to many people’s surprise, we did it.

This is the story from January of 1982 about how the city had just gone a full year without exceeding the national air pollution standards for the first time.

See how far we’ve come since then.