The EPA has developed a package of clean air measures that will have a dramatic impact on the health and vitality of the Adirondack Park in upstate New York. The measures, titled The Clean Air Transport Rule, require power plants in 31 states to reduce their sulfur dioxide emission levels by 71% and their nitrogen oxide levels by 52% (below 2005 levels) by 2013. With more than half of such particulates from Midwest power plants carried to the Adirondacks by prevailing winds, the reductions have the potential to make the chronic acidulation of Adirondack Lakes a thing of the past.
For Adirondackers, The Clean Air Transport Rule brings a sigh of relief. Acid rain and smog carried to the Adirondacks from the Midwestern United States has decimated wildlife populations, reduced tree populations due to soil calcification and have made fish unfit for consumption by natural predators.
For more information on the Clean Air Transport Rule visit
http://www.epa.gov/airquality/transport/basic.html.
