Acid rain threatens Adirondacks

Laura

Grace Thomas, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: June 25. 2008 9:06PM UAE / June 25. 2008 5:06PM GMT

OLD FORGE, NEW YORK // Walking the shoreline of Big Moose Lake in Adirondack State Park is like stepping back in time. Wooden row boats are tethered loosely to grassy knolls or log cabins and traditional American dime stores are aplenty. White-tailed deer dart into shadowy pine clearings and long-necked turkeys strut through mud flats. Time has barely left a feather on the ground. It is easy to imagine life here through the 1880s, when Robert Louis Stevenson was as hip as JK Rowling is now; the 1950s, when paper aeroplanes landed more often than jumbo jets; and the 1980s, when the topic of acid rain was on the menu at dinner parties.

The rest of the world may have forgotten about acid rain – turning our heads towards such modern green concerns as biofuels and carbon footprints – but the folks of the Adirondacks in far northern New York have not. It was here that the phenomenon began in the 1970s, when scientists noticed freshwater fish dying in remote lakes and streams. As the term gained gravitas, it was splashed across front pages and activists’ T-shirts from Dubai to Denver . There was even Acid Rain the band.

When George HW Bush as president signed the Clean Air Act of 1990, designed to significantly reduce the precursors of acid rain – sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide – Adirondack State Park became the symbol of the fight against rising acidity levels in the United States . By the time the act was passed, it was already too late for 352 of the Adirondacks ’ 1,460 lakes – they had been pronounced dead.

The Clean Air Act served as an effective umbrella for acid rain, reducing sulphur dioxide emissions by as much as 10 tonnes. But levels of nitrates have not decreased. This month, scientists published data that suggests soils in the Adirondacks are steadily increasing in acidity, thrusting the park back into the limelight and acid rain back into everyday conversation.

“The story of acid rain was thought to be quite simple,” said David Gibson, executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks . “It’s not. The issue is not solved and continues to be a serious problem in areas that have shallow soils and small watersheds, which characterise the Adirondacks .”

Acid rain in the Adirondacks is caused primarily by emissions from coal power plants in the Midwest (that is, from Ohio to Illinois ) blowing east. At least 23 species of fish, including salmon and trout, are threatened by the resulting low pH levels in the park’s lakes and soils alongside rare bobcats, crayfish, turtles and species of “adironduck” such as the speckled loon.

“Soils were once believed not sensitive to acid rain,” said Charles Driscoll, author of Acid Rain in the Adirondacks . “New studies show they are continuing to acidify. There is evidence that soil acidity, which strips calcium and magnesium, is jeopardising tree species like red spruce and sugar maple. Acid rain may have gone off the radar but the problem persists.”

Adirondack State Park , the largest state park in the United States , was dubbed “forever wild” when it first opened to the public in 1882. It spans 2.5 million hectares of lakes, forest and mountains and was once the playground of prominent New Yorkers and literary figures. Teddy Roosevelt, the Vanderbilts, W Somerset Maugham and even Albert Einstein holidayed here.

“The Adirondacks cover 85 per cent of all the wild, truly wild land east of the Mississippi ,” said Dan Plumley, director of park protection. “It’s a magnificent thing and one of the most compact and functioning ecosystems in the Americas . The United States fought long and hard to drop acid rain in 1990. We still have much further to go.”

Big Moose Lake , one of the largest in Adirondack State Park , is one of the lakes under threat. It spans 10,100 hectares, stitched together with wooden jetties and winding lanes. Many of its waters have a pH lower than 5.0. At the last monthly check, there was no sign of any reduction in nitrates.

And the coal-power plants are posing another, more modern threat to the area.

A few kilometres down the road is the Hard Times Cafe – a franchise that dates to the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is not too far from busy gift stores scented with fir and balsam, a tiny post office and 1950’s hardware stores stocking everything from pine lumber to checked tablecloths and teapots.

“The sign says ‘Hard Times’ but I’m not too worried,” said Pete Whitish, president of the nearby Inlet fire department. “The tourists are still coming. But I think everybody’s concerned about climate change because in the winter we depend on the snow.”

Snowfall charts for the neighbourly village of Old Forge (population 800) indicate the life expectancy of snowmen is falling. In the winters of the 1960s and 1970s it was common to experience 1.5 metres to two metres of snowfall a month in the park, which has hosted the Winter Olympics twice. But last winter, the highest monthly total did not even reach one metre. Unpredictable winter weather increases the risk of avalanches and threatens tourist draws, such as snowmobile rallies and the famous Adirondack “snodeo”, a wordplay on the traditional American rodeo.

“We used to be able to depend upon good winters and skiing – it’s all part of that Adirondack mystique,” Mr Plumley said. “In a mountain territory, the weather is always a topic of conversation. It used to be talked about in spring and autumn, now across the year people are noticing the weather is becoming far more unpredictable.”

“Acid rain is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg,” said Mr Gibson, who is leading an initiative to engage local government and communities in the fight against ongoing climate change.

“In a rural area that is so isolated … people are literally at the end of the pipeline, not only for acid rain but for gas and oil delivery. Getting to work, school, hospital, getting anywhere in $5 a gallon gasoline is a crisis. The conversation has only just begun.”

This month, the United States senate turned down the first bill on climate change. Although the bill had support from many Democrats and some Republicans, locals in Adirondack State Park said they expected a negative outcome. The stage is now set for new global warming legislation from either Barack Obama or John McCain in 2009, both of whom have pledged to implement a cap-and-trade system to curb future carbon emissions. It may be easy to think back to the past in the quiet of the Adirondacks , but tackling the future may prove a challenge.

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