ADIRONDACK COUNCIL
PRAISES US EPA DECISION TO FINALIZE
CLEAN AIR INTERSTATE RULE
New Air Pollution Regulations Sufficient to Stop Acid Rain
Damage in Adirondacks Via 70-Percent Cut in Sulfur Dioxide &
Nitrogen Oxides in 29 Eastern States
For more information:
John F. Sheehan, Communications Director
518-432-1770 (w)
518-441-1340 (cell)
Released, Thursday, March 10,
2005
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Adirondack
Council today praised a decision by new US Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson to require 70-percent reductions
in sulfur- and nitrogen-based air pollution from 29 Eastern,
Midwestern and Western states.
"Everyone who loves the Adirondacks should be cheering today,"
said Brian L. Houseal, Executive Director of the Adirondack Council,
a regional environmental organization that has been a national
leader on acid rain since 1975. The Council has been a strong
supporter of the newly finalized Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR)
since it was first proposed in 2003. "This is the largest
reduction in power plant emissions in American history.
"This rule will reduce the number of chronically acidified
lakes in the Adirondack Park from 25 percent to zero. The chemical
destruction of our natural ecosystems will come to and end. More
than 500 dead lakes and ponds will have their first real chance
for recovery," he explained. "For the first time since
we can remember, it's going to get easier to see, breathe, grow
trees and catch a healthy fish in the Adirondacks.
"We have been dreaming of the day we could say that with
confidence. It has been a 30-year struggle and a preoccupation
of this organization for its entire lifetime," he said.
"Many of the people who helped us achieve this milestone
have moved on to other careers or have passed away. We could
not have reached this goal without their help. We can all rejoice
in the knowledge that our work, and theirs, will have a positive
impact on the nation for generations to come.
"Just yesterday, we called on the Bush Administration to
finalize the CAIR regulations, in the wake of the defeat of the
Clear Skies Act," Houseal explained. "We would rather
have had legislation spelling out the new pollution cuts, since
that is more lawsuit-proof than EPA regulations. But we believe
EPA has ample justification for the new rules within the current
Clean Air Act. We expect EPA to prevail if the rules are challenged
by a power company seeking to avoid cleanup."
The cuts will be carried out in two phases over the next 10 years
- three years sooner than the original Clear Skies Initiative.
The new rules make no changes to the current Clean Air Act's
New Source Review program, nor do they affect the rights of states
to file petitions against out-of-state polluters. They do not
impact states' rights to impose tougher rules on their own power
plants.
"The new rules are specifically designed to protect human
health," Houseal said. "Sulfur pollution forms soot
and fine particles, while nitrogen forms smog, all of which harm
people's lungs. But the same pollutants that give us asthma and
other respiratory ailments also cause the acid rain, acid snow
and acid fog that have been killing our lakes and forests."
Houseal noted that the cuts ordered by EPA are even deeper than
cuts proposed in 1998 by the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan, who was the driving force behind the 1990 Clean Air
Act Amendments and EPA's current acid rain program. CAIR is also
the regulatory equivalent of the sulfur and nitrogen cuts in
the Acid Rain Control Act, sponsored by Adirondack Congressional
delegation members John M. McHugh of Pierrepont Manor, John Sweeney
of Clifton Park and Sherwood Boehlert of Utica, also known as
the Adirondack Acid Rain Team.
In late 2003, NY Sen. Charles Schumer issued a statement praising
the Clean Air Interstate Rule, as "a good first step [to]
protect our forests and lakes."
"We are very pleased that Administrator Johnson has fulfilled
the promise made by his predecessor Michael Leavitt last summer
at Paul Smith's College, near Saranac Lake," Houseal said.
"This rule is vital to the survival of the Adirondack Park."
The Adirondack Council's mission is to ensure the ecological
integrity and wild character of New York's six-million-acre Adirondack
Park - the largest American park of any kind outside of Alaska.
Founded in 1975, the Adirondack Council is an 18,000-member,
privately funded, not-for-profit organization with offices in
Elizabethtown and Albany, NY, and members in all 50 states.
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