Poison from Above

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And then there's the problem of the relationship of acid rains to the quality of our surface- and ground-water supplies. What, for example, will be the long-term effects of pouring diluted acid into the soils of Long Island and other eastern regions? Much will depend on the capacity of the rocks to buffer the acid (see the map below) . . . and this, in turn, will depend on both the chemical characteristics of the soil and the duration of the rains. Other effects will be determined by what materials, especially trace toxic metals, are mobilized by the acids from the soils and rocks of the aquifers.

Consider, for instance, what may happen in Colorado, where acid rain is now falling on the bare rocks of high alpine areas. Toxic metals are likely to be leached from the rocks. These, in turn, may concentrate in high alpine lakes and then in the beaver ponds of montane meadows. From there, trace metals can flow into three of the major rivers of the nation — the Colorado, the Rio Grande, and the Mississippi — where they'll join toxic metals seeping from Colorado's uranium, molybdenum, and other mining operations. As Colorado environmentalist Bob Lewis put it, we're the first nation to poison its water supply at the source.

WHAT'S THE ANSWER?

The only solution to the acid rain problem is to reduce the emission of pollutants from burning fossil fuels. Pollution control efforts will have to be made much more efficient . . . solar energy and other renewables (or, if it can ever be made acceptably safe, nuclear energy) will have to be substituted for fossil fuels . . . and the size of the human population will have to be controlled.

Acid rains are already causing international problems . . . as pollution from the United States drifts over Canada and that generated by Great Britain falls in Scandinavia. Like so many other environmental problems, this one cannot be solved by local measures alone . . . although such measures can be enormously helpful.

Before we can expect to make much progress, though, we'll have to seek wider recognition of the seriousness of the problem. Ronald Reagan's budget director, on hearing of the destruction of the Adirondack fish populations, reputedly commented that the power plants and industries of the Ohio Valley that were causing the acid rains were much more valuable than the trout. He obviously didn't know that the rains constitute a broad-spectrum assault on ecosystems that are essential to the persistence of industrial society. (See "The Snail Darter and Us", page 128, MOTHER NO. 57.) Furthermore, even considering the damage only from the director's narrow viewpoint, the economic losses in wildlife, crops, and forests are far greater than the costs of cleaning up Ohio's power plants would be. The Reagan administration in general has shown a similar lack of concern about the threat of acid rain.

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