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to human-made structures. Acid rain also causes reduced visibility. When acid rain falls on soil, it dissolves and washes away nutrients needed for plant growth. Ironically, depending on the composition of the soil, it can dissolve toxic substances forming compounds that pollute water and poison plants. But by removing nutrients from the soil, acid rain slows the growth of plants especially trees. More obviously, it attacks the coatings on leaves or needles, destroying their chlorophyll and thereby causing them to turn brown. (Chlorophyll is the green substance that allows plants to produce their food through a process called photosynthesis). Acid rain affects agriculture especially in the mountain regions of the US where the soil is thinner and its chemical composition cannot neutralize acids as the soils in Midwest can. Acid rain falls into lakes and streams and marshes and eventually drains into bigger bodies of water, turning their composition from neutral to acidic. The effect is that in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State and in the Appalachian Mountains, populations of the brook trout and other fish have either decreased dramatically or have completely disappeared. In Norway major rivers have been damaged by acid rain, severely reducing salmon and trout populations. Acid rain affects an entire ecosystem. If a population of one plant or animal is adversely affected by acid rain, the entire ecological chain suffers. As an example, fresh water clams and mayfly young begin to die off when the pH of their water reaches a value of 6.0. (pH is a measure of acidity/basicity. A pH value of 7.0 is neutral. The lower the number, the more acidic the medium; the higher the pH number, the more basic the material). Frogs that feed on mayflies can survive in an acidic medium having a pH 6.0; however, their food supply does not. Fish eggs of most species stop hatching when the pH value reaches 5.0. At 4.5 pH water is considered sterile. Acid rain also has deleterious effects on m anmade objects or structures. These range from automotive coatings to architectural treasures. A few such affected landmarks are the Parthenon (Athens, Greece), the Taj Mahal (Agra, India), St. Mark’s Cathedral (Venice, Italy), and the Mayan pyramids (on the Yucatan peninsula in southern Mexico). Another side effect of acid rain is global warming, a problem that will be discussed in detail in another Newsletter. Acid rain and its effects can be curtailed by reducing the amount of sulfur dioxide and/or nitrogen oxides that are being emitted into the atmosphere. One way to reduce the emission at the source is the use of cleaner burning fuels such as low sulfur oil or coal and by catalytically reducing sulfur and nitrogen in motor fuels. SO 2 and NOx emissions can be significantly reduced by using innovative technologies such as burners and boilers designed to produce less nitrogen oxides and thus, more free (harmless) nitrogen. Some coal types can be washed of sulfur before burning. Limestone and sandstone can be added to the combustion chambers that capture and neutralize the sulfur dioxide generated in the combustion process. Scrubbers are installed in smoke stacks to trap the pollutants. Catalytic converters are now required in the exhaust pipes of motor vehicles. They convert harmful car exhausts into less noxious ones. There are costs associated with each process and there is no single or simple or cheap universal solution. There are also alternative energy sources of electricity besides fossil fuels. They include nuclear power, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy and solar energy. Nuclear and hydropower are established technologies; the others are still under development and have not yet been used on a large scale. They all have their costs, benefits, and draw backs. Once acid rain has formed and started to cause damage, its reduction and the amelioration of its effects is a longer and more expensive process than when its formation is nipped or stopped at the beginning of the process. This fact has been recognized and addressed in the Clean Air Act of 1970. This act established emission standards for pollutants from cars and industry. The 1990 Amend ment of the Clean Air Act sets even stricter limits on pollutants causing acid rain. The purpose of these amendments is to establish a cap on how much S 0 2 can be emitted annually nation-wide. The Law also requires that these SO 2 caps are reduced year by year. While there is no national cap on the NO^ the Clean Air Amendments require that power companies, which emit about one-third of the NOx’s, reduce their emissions by specific numbers by 2010. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is enforcing and monitoring compliance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act and its amend ments. Under the aegis of Title IV, Acid Deposition Control, also known as the Acid Rain Program , the EPA is implementing the Act using both traditional and innovative market-based approaches for control ling air pollution. The Program also encourages energy efficiency and pollution prevention. (For legislative de tails refer to http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/aip/regs/.) Some salient points of the Acid Rain Program include such features as Phases and Reductions,
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