The Adirondack Council

News Release

For more information:
John F. Sheehan, Adirondack Council
518-432-1770 (ofc)
518-441-1340 (cell)

Released, Tuesday, April 15, 2003

WASHINGTON, DC -- A new report released today by a major research foundation reinforces the need for federal legislation to curb power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides.

"This report is another solid block in a huge wall of evidence showing that Congress must take immediate action to curb power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides," Melewski said. "The report comes at a crucial moment in the Congressional debate on acid rain. Both houses of Congress are currently considering clean air legislation. Every bill that has been introduced so far would solve this problem by amending the Clean Air Act to require significant year-round nitrogen emissions cuts."

The report by the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation of Hanover, NH, was unveiled at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 15, at a press conference at the National Press Club here.

"The report shows that nitrogen pollution from electric power plants is causing environmental damage across the Northeast all year long, not just in the summertime when it causes smog," said Adirondack Council Deputy Director Bernard C. Melewski. "Even when the weather is not hot enough for smog to form, nitrogen pollution is killing forests, poisoning lakes, depleting the ozone layer, worsening climate change and choking off life in coastal bays."

On April 8, Melewski testified before a panel from the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee here. He told the committee that year-round nitrogen cuts were the only way to prevent "spring acid shock" to the lakes and rivers of the Adirondack Park.

Every spring, an entire winter season's snows, tainted by high levels of nitrogen pollution, melts into the waters of the Adirondack Park, killing emerging life and choking off reproduction in native plants and wildlife. During most of the year, fewer than 30 percent of the Park's rivers and streams are too acidic for their native life. In the spring, the proportion doubles, climbing to nearly 60 percent for weeks at a time.

Melewski noted that such cuts would also provide a substantial benefit to coastal bays and estuaries (places where fresh water and salt waters meet). In places such as Long Island Sound and Chesapeake Bay, airborne nitrogen pollution over-fertilizes the water and causes rampant bacterial growth (algae blooms). Dissolved oxygen levels in the water are severely depleted, suffocating fish and other aquatic wildlife, the report confirms.

Founded in 1975, the Adirondack Council is an 18,000-member, privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural character and human communities of the Adirondack Park through research, education, advocacy and legal action.