`Scientific uncertainty` scuttles new acid rain standard
An EPA report to Congress due this month will report on the controversial question of whether the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) adequately protect sensitive areas of the United States from acid rain, and recommends against establishing a new `acid deposition standard` to protect sensitive areas of the United States from acid rain. Rebecca Renner reports on the scientific issues underlying that decision and the efforts of one state to overturn it. The report to Congress, required by the CAAA, asked the Agency to report on the feasibility of setting an acid deposition standard to protect sensitive areas. EPA missed the original 1993 deadline and is under court order to issue the final report by October 15. The draft report identifies the lakes and streams of the Appalachian mountains as sensitive resources that receive damaging concentrations of acidic deposition. Three areas where sensitive water resources have been well studied were selected as providing the best available data for modeling case studies: the Adirondacks; the mid-Appalachian region, including parts of Pennsylvania. West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia; and the Southern Blue Ridge in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. Results are discussed. 6 refs.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 121609
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 29, Issue 10; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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