The Adirondack Council

News Release

For more information:
John F. Sheehan -518-432-1770
518-441-1340 (Cell)

Released, Tuesday July 9, 2003

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Adirondack Council today called on the US House of Representatives to approve legislation that would curb acid rain, citing a recent USEPA report showing that any of the proposed bills before Congress would eliminate acidic lakes in the Adirondacks in 25 years or less.

One of those bills, the Clear Skies Act of 2003, will be the subject of a US House of Representatives hearing today at 2 p.m., before the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued a report on new analyses showing that the Clear Skies Act would eliminate chronic acidity in Adirondack lakes by 2030. It would require 70 percent cuts in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and would require deep cuts in mercury, all from electric power plants. All of the clean air bills under consideration by Congress would make cuts at least as deep.

"This is welcome news," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "It shows that the Clear Skies Act -- as well as the bills proposed by House members Sweeney and McHugh from New York, Waxman of California and those of Senators Carper of Delaware and Jeffords of Vermont - would stop the damage acid rain causes by the end of this decade. By 2030, none of our lakes would be toxic to their fish and aquatic wildlife anymore. That's faster than anyone had predicted just a few years ago."

Houseal added that EPA's estimates of Adirondack lake recovery time might be too conservative, given recent actions by New York Gov. George Pataki. In March, Pataki 's Conservation Commissioner Erin Crotty finalized regulations requiring New York power plants to make 50-percent cuts in sulfur dioxide and 70 percent cuts in nitrogen oxides, within 5 years.

"EPA's calculations were made before New York's power plants were ordered to clean up their emissions," Houseal explained. "As a result, the damage could stop here even sooner than EPA is predicting. After decades of abuse from power plant pollution, our lakes and forests need a break, and soon.

"In the course of our work in Washington this week, the Council's staff will encourage our Congressional delegation to support the passage of a bill as soon as possible," he said. "Our message to Congress is simple: 'Don't come home empty-handed on acid rain.' The price of another year's inaction is too high."

"We lost another sport fishery to mercury contamination this year, when the vast and remote central Adirondack gem, Tupper Lake, was found to contain contaminated walleye," he said. "Our economy will continue to suffer alongside our environment for as long as acid rain falls.

"We have already lost more than 500 lakes and ponds to chronic acidity. Our buildings and monuments are crumbling from acidic precipitation and the same pollutants, sulfur and nitrogen, cause and worsen lung ailments up and down the East Coast," he explained. "No one disputes any of this.

"Congress needs to stop quibbling over which bill is more perfect and pass something," he said. "Until that happens, we can't save a single life, a single lake or a single tree from smokestack pollution."

The Adirondack Council is a privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the natural character and ecological integrity of New York's six-million-acre Adirondack Park. The Council was founded in 1975 and has been a national leader in the fight against acid rain.