Please
Note: Comment Period is Over
Dramatic New Development on Acid Rain
EPA’s
New Interstate Air Quality Rule Will End Acid Rain Damage in
the Park
The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a new regulation for electric
power plants that would require massive cuts in the emissions
of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx). The time frame
and the deep level of cuts proposed will be enough to end acid
rain damage in the Adirondacks.
As you know,
acid rain has destroyed thousands of acres of high elevation
red spruce and more than 500 of the Park’s 2,800 lakes and
ponds are too acidic to support life. This chronic damage is
continuing to occur. With this new rule, we will see the end
of the damage caused by acid rain in our lifetime.
The
Proposed Rule
The new Interstate
Air Quality Rule is intended to help urban areas on the east
coast, like Manhattan, that are having trouble meeting existing
clean air standards on ozone and particulates. Pollution drifting
in from upwind states is a substantial contributor to poor air
quality in these areas. To help these cities meet the clean air
standards, the rule requires power plants in 29 eastern and midwest
states and the District of Columbia to substantially cut their
SO2 and NOx emissions. By targeting coal-fired power plants primarily
in the midwest, the proposed reductions in sulfur and nitrogen
will also address the acid rain problem in the Adirondacks.
Under the
new rule, utilities in 29 eastern and midwest states and the
District of Columbia would be required to cut region wide SO2
and NOx emissions 50% by 2010 and cut SO2 and NOx emissions by
about 70% by 2015.
The EPA predicts
that the number of lakes in the Adirondack Park that are chronically
acidic would be reduced to zero within 25 years. These monumental
cuts in emissions will not only end the damage caused by acid
rain but will allow the Park’s lakes and forests to start
to recover.
The target levels
in this proposed rule meet and then exceed the cuts in power
plant emissions in legislation proposed in Congress by late Senator
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Senator Charles Schumer and Senator
Hillary Clinton. The rule is also nearly identical to the legislation
currently proposed by two Adirondack Congressmen, John Sweeney
and John McHugh.
You
Can Help - Please Contact EPA Today
For years, we’ve
been fighting together to put an end to acid rain
damage in the Adirondacks. Let’s make it happen. We need
your help now, because the owners of these power plants will
try to slow down or weaken the proposed rule. We cannot let that
happen. We need you to contact the EPA today and urge them not
to back down on their new regulation.
In your letter
to the EPA, urge them:
• To
keep the time table proposed in the regulation. The polluters
will want to slow down the time frame, but tell the EPA, the
sooner we start making these cuts, the sooner the Park’s
lakes and forests will recover from decades of acid rain damage.
• Not
to weaken the proposed cuts, but to consider even deeper cuts
in SO2 and NOx emissions to improve air quality even more.
You
can submit your comments to EPA in several ways.
See below or visit EPA’s website at: http://www.epa.gov/interstateairquality/comment.html
EDockets
Go
to http://www.epa.gov/docket and follow on-line instructions
for submitting comments.
Attention Docket ID No. OAR-2003-0053
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E-Mail
A-and-R-Docket@epa.gov
Attention
Docket ID No. OAR-2003-0053
|
Courier
or Hand Delivery
Public
Reading Room, Room B102
EPA West Building
1301 Constitution Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Attention Docket ID No. OAR-2003-0053
|
Mail
Environmental
Protection Agency
EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC)
Air and Radiation Docket and Information Center, 6102T
1200 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20460
Attention Docket ID No. OAR-2003-0053
(Please send two copies)
|
Fax
(202) 566-1741
Attention Docket ID No.OAR-2003-0053
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Disk or CD Rom
Mail CD to the mailing
address shown above. These submissions will only be accepted
in WordPerfect or ASCII file format.
|
Comments will be
accepted until Tuesday, March 30, 2004.
Please send your comments to
the EPA today. If you can, please send or e-mail us a copy of
your comments too. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Thank you for your help.
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