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For more information:
John F. Sheehan
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Released, Monday, March 22, 2004

ALBANY, NY – The Adirondack Council, the NYS Conservation Council and US Rep. John Sweeney held a joint press conference here today to urge the public to write letters and emails to the US Environmental Protection Agency in support of a proposed air pollution regulation they say will stop acid rain’s damage in the Adirondack Park.

“If this proposed regulation is approved, there will be dramatic improvements in air quality and steep drops in acid rain in a very short period of time, in the 29 states ranging from the Mississippi River Valley to the Atlantic Coast,” said Adirondack Council staff Counsel Bernard C. Melewski. “By the end of this decade, the amount of acid rain falling on the Adirondacks would be low enough to end the damage and allow a full recovery to begin.

“EPA projects that by 2030, the number of Adirondack lakes that remain too acidic for their native life year-round would drop to zero,” Melewski explained. “From more than 500 today, down to zero, in twenty-five years. We urge all New Yorkers to support this rule and to encourage the EPA to finalize it as quickly as possible.”

The Interstate Air Quality Rule contains cuts nearly identical to those proposed by US Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, and US Rep. John McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, in the bill they introduced this year, called the Acid Rain Control Act. Melewski introduced Congressman Sweeney at the noon press conference, thanking him for his leadership. He said it would be hard to imagine EPA proposing such a regulation without pressure from Congress.

"The new Interstate Air Quality Rule shows the EPA is taking acid rain seriously," said US Rep. Sweeney. "We urge the public to let the EPA know how important this issue is to upstate New York and demand that the EPA follow through with the new rules. I'm also calling on members of Congress to pass legislation I have sponsored with Congressman McHugh so we can give the EPA's rules the force of law. By working together we can help make acid rain a thing of the past."

"The Administration's proposed regulations are a huge step in the right direction for Northern and Central New York -- one which will not only protect Americans from the serious health risks caused by these pollutants, but also begin reversing the damage caused by acid rain in the Adirondacks," US Rep. John M. McHugh said. "My commitment to seeing this issue fully addressed in Congress remains strong, and I will continue to push for legislation that includes such cuts. It is a realistic, achievable approach to solving the problem of acid rain, and I encourage all New Yorkers to use their voices and call on EPA to adopt these protections."

“The seriousness of health related risks created by acid rain stands alone,” said Howie Cushing, President of the New York State Conservation Council, Inc. “As for the damage created to our fisheries and wildlife, which will continue to cause a loss of cultural and historical events such as hunting and fishing, and an economic loss to an over $2 billion dollar business in New York, we must strive to reduce, and if possible stop, acid rain causing conditions.”

Sweeney and McHugh represent districts that encompass all of the six-million-acre Adirondack Park and other parts of Upstate New York that are being damaged by acid rain.

Aside from destroying forests, killing fish and poisoning water and soul, acid rain rapidly weathers buildings and monuments made from marble, limestone, copper and bronze. In a rainfall with a pH of 4.5 or less (the current average for upstate New York) buildings, statues and monuments deteriorate at three times the natural rate.

The EPA’s proposed Interstate Air Quality Rule was proposed in response to a health threat from the same smokestack pollution that causes acid rain (sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide). Nitrogen oxides create ground level ozone (smog). Tiny sulfur dioxide particles smaller then the diameter of a human hair lodge in human lungs. Both can cause and worsen lung diseases.

The cuts contained in the Interstate Air Quality Rule are also similar to those proposed by the Bush Administration in the Clear Skies Act. However, the regulation would achieve those cuts three years sooner. Unlike Clear Skies, the proposed regulation would not repeal other sections of the Clean Air Act.

Congress was due to take up the Clear Skies legislation at the end of 2003, but wrangling over the Energy Bill and other issues pushed it off the calendar. With a Presidential and Congressional Election in 2004 it became clear that the chances for quick passage of a regulatory bill were poor.

EPA Administrator Leavitt proposed the rule in December 2003. Public hearings were held in late February in Philadelphia, Chicago and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Hundreds of comments have been received by EPA on the regulations to date. Nearly all are either supportive or ask for even deeper or faster cuts.

The Interstate Air Quality Rule would require power plants in the 29 affected states to reduce their sulfur dioxide emissions by 71 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 65 percent, both by 2015. The companies would make the reductions using the same cap-and-trade program already in effect nationwide for sulfur dioxide.

“If all goes well, this regulation could be finalized by this fall,” Melewski said. “That would be the culmination of 30 years or persistent, hard work by the Adirondack Council since acid rain was first discovered here in the 1970s. For as long as this organization has existed, since May of 1975, we have been fighting acid rain.

“It will be an enormous relief to finally see the light at the end of this very long tunnel,” he said. “Acid rain is clearly the most destructive threat the Park has faced since the last ice age. So much of our time and attention has been tied up by fighting it. It will be a joy to redirect some of that energy into the other important threats to the Park’s ecology.”