U.S. EPA ADMINISTRATOR
STEPHEN JOHNSON HELPS LAUNCH ADIRONDACK COUNCIL PARKWIDE WATER
QUALITY INITIATIVE
Johnson and Governor
Pataki Attend Council's Annual Summer Gathering at Essex Lighthouse,
Johnson Accepts Thanks for Clean Air Interstate Rule Pollution
Cuts
For more information:
Scott M. Lorey
518-810-5766 (cell)
Released, Friday, August 5, 2005
ESSEX, N.Y. - U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson and Governor
George E. Pataki attended a gathering of Adirondack Council supporters
at the Split Rock Lighthouse here on August 4 to help launch
the Council's new water quality program and accept the organization's
thanks for Johnson's decision in March to impose tough new air
quality standards intended to curb acid rain.
"We are very pleased that Administrator Johnson accepted
our invitation to join us on the shore of Lake Champlain to kick-off
the Council's 30th Anniversary Water Initiative," said Adirondack
Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "The EPA's
new Clean Air Interstate Rule will reduce the amount of air pollution
falling on the Adirondacks from upwind states and combat the
Park's most serious water quality problem - acid rain. We are
also delighted that the Governor joined with us to celebrate
this victory for the Adirondacks and the rest of the northeast.
"We in New York cannot fight acid rain on our own, since
most of our problem drifts to us from smokestacks in the Midwest
and southern states," Houseal said. "But the Clean
Air Interstate Rule requires deep, mandatory reductions in the
air pollution that causes acid rain in 28 states from New England
to Texas - the area where all our acid rain begins.
"But there is much more that must be done to reverse the
trends of water pollution throughout the Park," Houseal
explained.
Houseal noted that the Environmental Protection Agency would
play a key role in protecting the Park's water quality in the
future. EPA enforces interstate air pollution regulations and
provides research grants to state agencies (such as the Adirondack
Park Invasive Plant Program, Adirondack Park Agency and Department
of Environmental Conservation) that monitor the health of the
Park's waters and wetlands.
"From the 134-mile-long Lake Champlain, down here near sea
level, to tiny Lake Tear of the Clouds, nearly a mile high on
the shoulder of Mount Marcy, the Adirondack Park has an abundant
supply of fresh water," Houseal said. "Most of the
state's major rivers start here, sending their waters out in
every direction, fed by 2,800 lakes and ponds, and more than
30,000 miles of brooks and streams.
"People who visit the Park go home with a renewed sense
of peace and the lasting memory of a sunlit lake, a quiet stretch
of river, a softly babbling brook or a gushing waterfall that
made them stop and forget everything else, if only for a few
moments," Houseal explained. "Western states have higher
mountains than the Adirondacks and Alaska has larger stretches
of protected Wilderness. But nowhere else do the mountains and
forests combine with such abundant sparkling waters to create
such a breathtaking landscape. This is a priceless natural resource.
"But more than 70 million people live within a day's drive
of the Adirondack Park and our population is growing faster than
any other part of rural New York," Houseal said. "Our
real estate market is red hot right now and new construction
is everywhere. Haphazard development can cause enormous damage
to local water quality, as storm runoff carries soil, nutrients,
septic waste, fertilizer, inadequately treated sewage, automobile
fluids, road salt and a host of other contaminants into the water.
"We will work to strengthen land-use controls in the Park
and urge the State Legislature to increase spending on programs
that safeguard water quality," Houseal explained. "We
will ask the EPA to provide additional funding and programs to
protect water purity. We will assist in the use of non-toxic
control methods for ecosystem-damaging, non-native plants and
animals. We will work to reduce highway runoff that degrades
water supplies with sodium."
Houseal noted that the Adirondack Council's 30th Anniversary
Water Initiative will be described in detail in the Council's
upcoming summer newsletter (to be released later this month)
and can be viewed on our website. Click
here.
The Adirondack Council's mission is to ensure the ecological
integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. Founded
in 1975, the Council is a privately funded not-for-profit organization
with 18,000 members. The Council carries out its missions through
research, education, advocacy and legal action.
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