Smog

18 Tennessee Counties have flunked a smog test. A couple of counties caught my eye.

My current home, Rutherford County, is on the list. I got a few thoughts as to why, and and how we can get rid of the biggest cause.

1.) We get a lot of the traffic into and out of Nashville, and we house a great number of the Davidson County workforce: Murfreesboro is town built for 50,000 with about 80,000 stuffed into it. So we have a lot automobile traffic and a lot of the pollutant output from all the extra homes in the area. Lawnmowers and such. But this is not the largest cause.

2.) And while we have emission standards for our vehicles, there are a lot of exemptions for diesel-powered vehicles. But this is not the largest cause, either.

3.) Murfreesboro (the county seat) is also a college town, so during the school year, we have anywhere from 8 to 10 thousand folks from other counties within Tennessee and from outside the state coming to MTSU study, and their vehicles don't have to meet the same emissions standards. Neither is this the largest cause.

4.) Plus, we have a Nissan Plant in Smyrna. But they give so many people jobs that it's not possible that they pollute. There's a ratio. For every seven jobs created, harmful emissions are reduced 3.1%.
So that's definitely not the largest cause.

But I'm not blaming cars. Or lawnmowers. Or even industry, necessarily. I leave that to SKBubba.

Here is our biggest pollution problem in Rutherford County:

I blame Bill Bacon. For his flatulence. He needs to eat healthier. Have you ever smelled it when he goes to the bathroom? He's half to blame for all the global warming we've had here on Earth. "I think I'm gonna eat nothing but chicken, beans and sugar!" Talk about environmental irresponsibility.

Also: on the list in the article, Meigs County. Which borders my birthplace McMinn County to the west. And I had to think about what's in Meigs County. Three things came to mind.

1.) It's got more than its share of junk cars on the road. And I don't say that as an insult. It's a strange county for incomes. A lot of high income families; a lot of low income families. And a lot of good ol' boys who just don't give a shit. But they got a good football team at Meigs County H.S.

2.) We got a Nookuelar plant over at Watts Bar. You know, it didn't open for like a hundred years because they couldn't meet safety standards. But I won't mention that.

3.) But personally...I wonder about all those boats out near Watts Bar every weekend. I mean, they're building a four-lane highway from Athens to Decatur just so the weekend warriors can get their boats out there more quickly. How much carbon monoxide does a boat engine put out?

What I recommend is this: Changing the values of everyone in McMinn County (and Meigs and even parts of Bradley and Monroe Counties, now that I think about it) so that that end-all/be-all of human existance isn't owning a boat and going to the lake on the weekend.

And if I get behind a guy at a red-light who's pulling a boat on a trailer who won't turn right on red when I have to go the bathroom one more time.....