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New York affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation
ACID RAIN
Acid rain forms when nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxides (SO2)
pollution resulting from burning fossil fuel in power plants, cars,
and industry, combine to form nitric acid and sulfuric acid. When
the air containing the acids cools, precipitation forms and the
acidic pollution falls to the earth as rain, snow and fog. The
pollutants responsible for acid rain can travel hundreds of miles in
prevailing winds, creating problems far from the pollution source.
Typical acid rain in the northeast U.S is about 10 times more acidic
than regular rainwater. While normal rainwater has a pH between 5.0
and 5.6, rain in the northeast usually has a pH around 4.3. This
acidity changes forest chemistry, compromising the health and
integrity of the forest ecosystem. For example, acid rain weakens
trees, making them more susceptible to damage from cold, diseases,
insects, drought, and fungi. Acid rain can over-stimulate the growth
of certain plants and limit the growth of others. The acidity of
lakes and streams kills fish and other aquatic wildlife. It can also
facilitate a chemical reaction in which inorganic mercury compounds
in lake-bottom sediment change into highly toxic methylmercury.
Methylmercury is stored in the fatty tissues of fish making them
poisonous to humans and other animals that feed on them. For more
information on mercury in the environment.
New York and
New
England are hit particularly hard by acid rain. Airborne pollutants
from coal burning power plants in the Ohio Valley and the Midwest
cause extensive acid rain damage in the
Adirondacks and the Catskills. Of the 2,800 lakes
and ponds in the
Adirondack
Park, over 500 are too acidic to support plants and animals.1 Once
teeming with life and home to many species of plants and animals,
these “dead lakes” remain a grim reminder of the damage caused by
acid rain. Each spring, an entire winter’s acidic snowfall melts
into the
Adirondack
Park’s waters, jolting them with a jump in acidity known as acid
shock. Each year, a few more lakes and ponds do not recover from
this shock and become too acidic to support life.
While the problem of acid rain persists, recent evidence suggests
that it is beginning to slow. The Federal acid rain program, which
requires electric power plants to reduce their emissions of SO2 and
NOx is beginning to work. At a 2001
Washington,
D.C.,
Conference on Acid Rain, Dr. Charles Driscoll of Syracuse University
reported that in most places except for the most sensitive areas
such as the Adirondacks the degradation has slowed to the point
where recovery can begin. Continuing at the current rates of
pollution, however, it will be many decades before soil nutrients
will be restored to levels where biological recovery in forests and
plant life can be sustained.
Unfinished Business
In 1990, Congress amended the
Federal Clean Air Act, creating a program to reduce emissions of SO2
and NOx. The amendment established a “cap and trade” emissions
program for SO2. The program sets a limit, or cap, on the total
allowable nationwide amount of SO2 emissions from power plants. Each
power plant then receives a permit allowing it to emit a certain
amount of SO2. A plant’s emissions must not exceed the permits they
hold. Permits can be sold to other companies, or saved to use in the
future. This gives companies an economic incentive to reduce
emissions.
The NOx portion of the federal acid rain program regulates
coal-fired electric utility boilers. The program establishes an
annual limit on the amount of NOx a coal-fired electric utility
boiler can emit. While the federal acid rain program for NOx does
not establish a cap and trade program, it does allow utilities
flexibility in meeting the limits. The program establishes an annual
limit on the amount of NOx a coal-fired electric utility boiler can
emit. A utility can comply by meeting the limit, or by having two or
more boilers’ average emissions meet the limit. This allows
companies to implement large emissions reductions in some boilers to
make up for small or no reductions in boilers where reductions are
expensive.
In 1999, Governor Pataki pledged to create new emissions reductions
of SO2 and NOx for the state. The regulations would require power
plants in
New
York to reduce SO2 emissions an additional 50 percent below levels
allowed under the federal Clean Air Act's Acid Rain Program
requirements. The reductions would be phased in over a three-year
period beginning in January 2005. The regulations would also
implement 75percent reductions in NOx emissions, beginning
October 1, 2004. The regulations were published in draft form
for public comment on
February 20, 2002.
The Human Health Connection
Reducing acid rain pollution helps alleviate other forms of air
pollution that are detrimental to human health. The NOx that causes
acid rain is also a major component in smog,
which can aggravate respiratory aliments. Bringing old power plants
up to modern standards to reduce acid rain will also help reduce
fine particulate matter and mercury pollution. The same old,
coal-burning power plants responsible for acid rain are large
sources of fine particulate matter, which lodges itself deep in the
lungs triggering asthma, and causing pneumonia and cardiovascular
disease. Researchers estimate that as many as 60,000 people die
prematurely each year because of exposure to fine particles.
Bringing these old power plants up to modern pollution standards
will also reduce emissions of mercury that poison fish, endangering
public health and the health of regional ecosystems.
As with virtually every environmental problem, preventing acid rain
in the first place is far less expensive and much easier than trying
to reverse the damage. To prevent acid rain, emissions of SO2 and
NOx must be reduced. Power plants are one of the largest sources
and, as such, offer good opportunities for reductions. The nation’s
oldest power plants (most of which are coal plants) are exempt from
today’s air pollution laws because of a loophole in the Clean Air
Act. When the Clean Air Act was amended in 1970 and 1977, lawmakers
assumed that many of the oldest power plants would soon be retired
and replaced with new plants and should therefore be exempt from the
new air quality standards. Unfortunately, many of these old plants
continue to operate today, emitting far more pollution than modern
plants. The technology exists to clean-up these plants, but until
they are required to meet modern emission standards, there is little
chance that the plants will reduce their emissions. The federal
government needs to close this loophole in the Clean Air Act and
bring all power plants up to modern emissions standards.
The Bush Administration is currently working to appease the power
and coal industries at the expense of the nation’s health and air
quality. On Earth Day, 2002, President Bush traveled to the
Adirondacks touting his “Clear Skies” plan, which calls for new
pollution reductions. The thrust of the Administration’s proposal,
however, is a scheme to end New Source Review, a program long
opposed by industry.
New Source Review was built into the Clean Air Act as a safeguard.
The law exempted the oldest power plants from new pollution
standards because it was assumed that newer power plants would soon
replace them. In New Source Review, Congress requires old plants to
install modern pollution controls if they are renovated in a way
that leads to increased pollution. If not for New Source Review,
power companies could simply keep expanding their old plants to
avoid modern standards. That is exactly what many power companies
have tried to do. The EPA is currently investigating 278 power
plants for violating New Source Review, although these cases have
likely been compromised by the Administration’s announced intentions
to weaken the program.
New Source Review provides an enforcement mechanism, giving states
the right to sue power companies for violations. New York State
Attorney General Elliot Spitzer has brought lawsuits against plants
in New York and other states for making significant renovations that
increase pollution without installing modern pollution controls.
(Read the
text of the lawsuit and the
Attorney General's Press Release.)
Bush’s proposal to end New Source Review would mean that the
nation’s oldest, most polluting power plants could continue to
operate without meeting modern pollution standards. Far from helping
to close the loophole in the Clean Air Act, ending New Source Review
could to expand it. This would let power companies that are
currently facing charges of violating New Source Review off the hook
and ensure that old plants could continue polluting even more in the
future. Ironically, most of those plants are located in Appalachia
and the Ohio Valley and are the source for much of the acid rain
that impacts New York’s Adirondacks and Catskill regions.