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Acid Rain

CCE has been working to fight the devastating impacts of acid rain in New York and Connecticut since 1997. Acid rain is created when fossil fuels are burned, primarily in electric power plants and automobiles, producing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. These air pollutants react with water vapor in clouds, oxygen and oxidants in air, forming sulfuric acid and nitric acid. The acids fall to earth in wet form, either as rain, snow or fog, or dry form, as gas or solid particles.

The Mechanics of Acid Rain

Art by Rani Stack

Photo courtesy of The Adirondack Council
Photo by Gary A. Randorf

Pollution from electric power plants that burn coal is a major source of acid rain in the Northeast. The prevailing winds blow pollutants for hundreds of miles from the Midwestern U.S., where the largest concentration of large coal-burning plants are located. When the pollutants reach the Northeast and Canada, they fall to earth in the form of acid rain. The acids change the pH of water and soil, ultimately killing aquatic life and altering soil chemistry, which plants and trees need to survive. Lakes and streams in high elevation areas such as the Adirondacks, Catskills and Berkshires are particularly hard hit. Acid rain also affects water quality in coastal estuaries such as the Long Island Sound, where nitric acids add to the problem of low dissolved oxygen, known as hypoxia. Acid rain also interferes with the growth of forests, negatively impacts agricultural productivity and damages monuments and buildings constructed with marble.

CCE advocates a national approach to solving the acid rain problem that is based on reducing the emissions of sulfur and nitrogen from major sources such as electric power plants. In 1997, at the urging of CCE members and citizens throughout New York, acid rain legislation was introduced into the United States Congress by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The Moynihan legislation focused on cutting power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides by 70% and sulfur dioxides by 50% from existing levels under the Federal Clean Air Act. Scientific monitoring and research has determined that these levels of emission reduction would halt and reverse the damage of acid rain, particularly in high elevation areas such as the Adirondack Mountains.

Shortly after the legislation was introduced, CCE began a grassroots campaign to build support from the public and from members of Congress. By 1998, CCE had obtained the signatures of over 100,000 New York and Connecticut residents supporting the bill, resulting in additional congressional support. CCE was able to get all of New York's members of Congress to have co-sponsored the bill known as the Acid Deposition and Ozone Control Act (H.R.25 /S. 172). In addition, both Connecticut Senators joined as co-sponsors of the bill. The strong support from New York and Connecticut members resulted in co-sponsorship for the bill from additional members of the Senate from other states including New Jersey, Vermont, Rhode Island, Oregon, California and Massachusetts

Photo courtesy of The Adirondack Council
Photo by Jenny Hager

CCE has continued working to move a solution to the acid rain problem forward in Congress. In recent years, a growing number of scientific studies have documented the damage that acid rain has caused and the need for additional cuts in sulfur and nitrogen emissions. Most recently, a report from the General Accounting Office on the future impacts of acid rain in the Adirondacks and a cost-benefit analysis of the Acid Deposition and Ozone Control Act by the US EPA have added further compelling evidence on the need for Congress to act quickly to solve the acid rain problem.

In the 2001 session of Congress, the legislation was reintroduced as The Acid Rain Control Act (S. 588/H.R. 25). The senate sponsors were New York Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton and the House sponsors were New York Representatives John E. Sweeney, John McHugh and Sherwood Boehlert. CCE has continued to push for the adoption of the Acid Rain Control Act in subsequent years and will continue to do so in until it is passed.

CCE Victory with new EPA Regulation
Meanwhile, CCE has had a major victory after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new regulation that will fix the acid rain problem in New York State, Connecticut and the rest of the Northeast. In December of 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a new regulation that would set achievable limits on Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions, the key pollutants that cause acid rain. The regulation entails a market-based cap-and-trade program for power plants in 29 states that will reduce NOx by 65% and SO2 by 70%, by the year 2015. After years of devastation, the forests and waterways of the Northeast will finally be protected from the devastating effects of acid rain on our natural environment and quality of life.

Even with the extraordinary progress that CCE has made on this issue, we will continue to fight for more. CCE will continue to advocate for the adoption of this regulation and for even deeper cuts in these harmful emissions in the future.

Click here to view comments submitted by CCE to the U.S. EPA on the Proposed Interstate Air Quality Rule, March 30, 2004

Fighting Acid Rain at the State Level
CCE has also been busy advocating that New York and Connecticut do all that they can on the state level to fight acid rain. In 2002, the Governors of both states announced that they would be implementing, on their own, deep cuts in sulfur and nitrogen emissions from power plants equal to the levels called for in the federal legislation. New York went even further and passed legislation discouraging utility companies that hold excess pollution allowances under a federal sulfur emission credits program from selling them for use up smokestacks in the Midwest that could create acid rain over the Adirondacks and throughout the Northeast.

Click here to read more about the updated status of New York State's acid rain regulations

Click here to view comments submitted by CCE to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation on New York State's Acid Rain Deposition Reduction NOx and SO2 Budget Trading Programs Memorandum, October 12, 2004

Click here to read CCE's comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Jamestown Coal Project, December 7, 2006 (PDF format)

For more information on acid rain, link to:

U.S. EPA, Acid Rain Program: www.epa.gov/airmarkets/acidrain/index.html

United States Geological Survey, Acid Rain: pubs.usgs.gov/gip/acidrain/2.html

N.Y.S. Department of Environmental Conservation, Adirondack Lakes Survey: www.adirondacklakessurvey.org

The Adirondack Council:
www.adirondackcouncil.org