Forests and lakes in the Northeast are still being hurt by acid rain despite cuts in power plant emissions mandated by Congress in 1990, according to a study appearing today in the journal BioScience. In fact, the study’s authors recommend an additional 80 percent drop in emissions to help the ecosystems bounce back. (We’ll see how that one flies in the Bush administration!) The scientists found 41 percent of lakes in the Adirondack Mountains in New York and 15 percent of lakes in New England have become acidic. The chief culprits are coal-burning power plants in the Midwest that produce the nitrogen and sulfur pollution that falls as acid rain in the Northeast.
