Let's not reverse progress we've made on acid rain

There's been encouraging progress over the past few decades in reversing the effects of acid rain in the Adirondacks. Just this week, state conservationists announced that brook trout have been found in a High Peaks lake once declared dead and unable to sustain them.

A champion in the acid rain fight is former congressman Sherry Boehlert, who in the 1980s and 90s, as chairman of the House Science Committee, helped pass landmark clean-air legislation to battle what he called "a cancer in the sky." 

Sadly, the cancer is recurring - and it must be stopped now.

Last week, the Adirondack Council reported that Trump administration policies to re-establish coal as a major fuel source are causing air pollution increases of 200 percent to 323 percent from coal-fired power plants that cause acid rain and contribute to climate change. This is harming the Adirondacks and public health.

Many Adirondack lakes - and the fish and plant life they support - have been devastated over the years by acid rain, created when coal-burning power plants in the Midwest spew sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the air. The toxins are carried east by prevailing winds and fall to earth as acid rain, making many lakes and streams too acidic to support fish and virtually wiping out other aquatic life. In the 1960s, scientists determined it also was causing tree die-offs in higher elevations of the Catskills and Adirondacks.

The Adirondack Council, a privately funded not-for-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the ecological integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park, has been a national leader on acid rain. In recent years, the news has been good.

“We had seen significant reductions in sulfur dioxide air pollution from power plants since 1995,” said William C. Janeway, the council's executive director.  “Now, as we seek the reductions to secure a complete recovery from acid rain and prevent catastrophic impacts of climate change the numbers are going in the wrong direction.”

He noted that cloud water measurements above the Adirondack Park are showing a reversal of the gains made over the past 30 years.

This is especially disturbing considering the good things happening. The state Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany reported Tuesday that brook trout have been discovered in a high-elevation Adirondack Mountain lake for the first time since the lake was declared fishless due to acid rain 32 years ago. The DEC said the breeding population of trout in Lake Colden in the High Peaks Wilderness demonstrates the effectiveness of clean air regulations. Lake Colden, surrounded by some of the state's tallest peaks, is one of 52 Adirondack waterways where samples have been collected and analyzed several times a year since 1992. Monitoring has shown improving water quality in recent years, according to DEC.

Now it's in jeopardy again.

Janeway said that comes as no surprise given Trump administration policies that fly in the face of all the hard work done in past years by Boehlert and other enviromentally conscious leaders. Nature can take a long time to heal itself, and gains were being made after years of damage. Now, instead of further strengthening emissions controls, particularly from coal-fired power plants in the Midwest, we're going backwards. It's a tough issue to address because the cause is so far away from the effect. And that effect is, at first glance, invisible.

A major problem now is that the Environmental Protection Agency has refused to enforce the Good Neighbor rule in the Clean Air Act. It's also weakening the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, has repealed the Clean Power Plan and it is eroding the effectiveness of several other areas of the nation’s clean air regulations, according to Janeway.

"All of these rollbacks and the Trump administration move to withdraw from the Paris Climate accord mean more, not less, air pollution falling on the Adirondacks from the coal-fired power plants of the Midwest," Janeway said.

A review of national emissions data shows that between 2017 and 2018, emissions of sulfur dioxide increased by more than 1,000 tons at each of 16 coal-fired power plants in nine states whose emissions create acid rain and smog in New York.  The largest increases affecting New York came from West Virginia, where the Harrison Power Station increased its emissions by 4,437 tons, or 56 percent; while the Fort Martin Power Station increased it emissions by 3,381 tons, or 220 percent. The figures were provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency and compiled by the Adirondack Council.

New York state, on the other hand, has acted responsibly. Most power plants here registered zero-percent increases.  At 14 of New York’s power plants, emissions of sulfur dioxide decreased. By the end of 2020, it will be illegal to burn coal to make electricity in New York.

Rightfully, the Adirondack Council, the Environmental Defense Fund and other partners are suing in federal court to compel EPA to enforce the Good Neighbor rule of the Clean Air Act.

We must stay the course in the battle to fight acid rain. It's been a scourge for too many years, especially in our precious Adirondacks, and gains made through the hard work of many people cannot be compromised. Our New York state delegation in Washington, including Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-Utica, must remain vigilant in efforts to keep the air free of these poisons that are not only harming our state, but our world.