Word: acidizing
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...northern U.S., it has long been known, entire tracts of wilderness are dotted with lakes and streams that are essentially devoid of aquatic life. Most scientists believe the havoc is caused by airborne pollutants that are chemically transformed in the atmosphere and fall to earth in unusually acidic precipitation. Called acid rain, the phenomenon now stands accused of laying waste marine life along the Atlantic Coast as well. In a report issued last week, the Manhattan-based Environmental Defense Fund charges that nitrogen oxides spewed from U.S. power plants, factories and automobiles have played a major role in destroying fish...
...deadly marine impact of nitrogen, mainly from fertilizer runoff, sewage and animal wastes, has been recognized for years. But the E.D.F. study is the first to pinpoint acid rain as an important source of coastal pollution. Any overload of nitrogen feeds marine algae, which bloom into vast growths that block sunlight and deplete the oxygen supply, smothering fish and crustaceans. The E.D.F. reports that 25% of the nitrogen contaminating Chesapeake Bay is the result of acid rain; investigators found similar nitrogen levels in a preliminary study of the coastal waters of New York and North Carolina. The proposed solution: tighter...
Although no one disputes that Chesapeake Bay and other coastal ecosystems are becoming dangerously polluted by excess nitrogen, not all experts agree that acid rain plays a key role. David Cohen, a spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, believes the contribution of nitrogen oxides "is much lower than 25%." EPA scientists suspect that agricultural runoff and the dumping of industrial sewage are far worse culprits...
Whatever its failings, the report was well timed. Foot dragging by the Reagan Administration on acid rain was attacked on several fronts last week in Washington. Testifying before a House subcommittee, James Mahoney, the new director of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, a group formed by Congress in 1980 to examine policy options on acid rain, distanced himself from a report by his predecessors that downplayed the problem...
Under strong domestic pressure to extract a commitment from the U.S. to / decrease acid rain, Mulroney lashed out at the Reagan Administration's wait- and-study attitude. "Friendship has inescapable costs," said he. "One of them is bearing whatever burdens are required to avoid polluting your neighbor's property." Although the two leaders will hold another summit later this month, Mulroney acknowledged that he must wait for Reagan's successor to see any results...