National program for assessing the problem of atmospheric deposition (acid rain). A report to the Council on Environmental Quality
Acid rain is a dominant feature of man-induced change in the chemical climate of the earth. This change is particularly evident in rural and urban areas throughout eastern North America and in many urban areas in the western United States. It has already been recognized as a major environmental problem in northern Europe and Japan. Current values represent as much as a fifty-fold increase in precipitation acidity on an annual basis. Increasing numbers of individual storms produce rain with pH ranging between 3.0 and 3.6. This observed increase over the natural system is due primarily to combustion of fossil fuels. Specifically, the gases SO/sub 2/ and NO/sub x/ are emitted during fossil-fuel combustion and are oxidized in the atmosphere to sulphuric and nitric acids that, in turn, are scavenged by precipita. Some other substances are toxic metal ions, including lead and mercury, and injurious organic substances of many sorts. They too are deposited in rain and snow and in the particulate matter--aerosol and larger particles--that are dispersed over the land when it is not raining or snowing. Atmospheric processes lead to extensive mixing and to chemical and physical interactions and transformations of atmospheric particles, aerosols, and gases. The increasing use of tall stacks at power plants results in emitted materials and their reaction products being dispersed further afield by meteorological processes and being introduced into the biosphere by deposition at distances of hundreds or even thousands of kilometers from the original emission sources. The effects of strong acids and many other substances on fish and other aquatic organisms are becoming much better understood. The effects are generally catastrophic for fish--particularly in southern Sweden and Norway, eastern Canada, and in the northeastern United States. By contrast, effects on commercial and urban forests, agricultural crops, wetlands, and our system of national parks are largely unknown.
- OSTI ID:
- 5443485
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ACID RAIN
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
TOXICITY
LEAD
MERCURY
NITRIC ACID
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFURIC ACID
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
CANADA
CLIMATES
DEPOSITION
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EUROPE
FISHES
JAPAN
NITROGEN OXIDES
NORWAY
PARTICULATES
PH VALUE
PRECIPITATION SCAVENGING
RAIN
SNOW
SWEDEN
USA
ANIMALS
ASIA
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CHALCOGENIDES
ELEMENTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
MASS TRANSFER
METALS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NORTH AMERICA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PARTICLES
SCANDINAVIA
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR OXIDES
VERTEBRATES
WESTERN EUROPE
500200* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
560305 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology- Vertebrates- (-1987)