To promote the use of clean-burning fuels, such as ethanol and methanol, to reduce hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and toxic air emissions from cars, buses, trucks, and motor fuels.
Require factories and plants emitting toxic compounds into the air to employ the best technology currently available in order to achieve in the near term a significant reduction in pollutants suspected of causing cancer. Taken together with efforts to reduce cancer-causing emissions from cars and trucks, it is estimated that the plan will eliminate by 1995 over three-fourths of the annual cancer deaths that air toxins are expected to cause.
The following chronology traces EPA, U.S. Government, and international achievements through the years in the fight against acid rain. A discussion of current acid rain-related activities follows.
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1970: The Clean Air Act passed by Congress establishes a process for EPA to set national ambient air standards for S02, NOx and other pollutants, requires State implementation Plans for meeting the standards, and requires New Source Performance Standards for coal-fired utility plants.
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1972: Two Canadian scientists, R.J. Beamish and H. H. Harvey, report declines in fish populations due to acidification of Canadian lake waters.
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1975: Scientists gather at Ohio State University for the First International Symposium on Acid Precipitation and the Forest Ecosystem.
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1977: The U.N. Economic Commission for Europe sets up a Cooperative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluating the Long-Range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe.
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August 1980: The United States signs a Memorandum of Intent with Canada to begin negotiations toward an agreement on transboundary air pollution.
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December 1980: The National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP) is authorized by Congress under the Acid Precipitation Act of 1980 to establish a 10-year federal research effort on the causes and effects of acid rain.
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1981-1983: U.S./Canadian working group reports and peer reviews are completed in accordance with the Memorandum of Intent.
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1983: Under NAPAP, EPA begins the National Surface Water Survey to study the chemical status of lakes and streams in the United States.
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August 1983: Canada and the United States sign a scientific agreement for the Cross-Appalachian Tracer Experiment to demonstrate the predictability of the long-distance airborne transport of acid rain pollutants over eastern North America.
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January 1984: President Ronald Reagan, in his State of the Union address, calls for accelerated research into the causes and effects of acid rain, as well as into new control technologies.
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June 1984: EPA Administrator Ruckelshaus and Canadian Minister of Environment Caccia confer at the Munich Conference on the Causes and Prevention of Damage to Forests and Water through Air Pollution.
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Fall 1984: The Eastern Lake Survey, including samples from the Northeast, Upper Midwest and the Southeast, is conducted as part of the National Surface Water Survey.
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1985: The NAPAP forest research program is expanded. Largely a joint effort of EPA and the Forest Service, the program is conducted regionally through four regional forest research cooperatives (eastern spruce-fir, southern commercial, eastern hardwood, and western conifer).
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March 1985: President Reagan and Prime Minister Mulroney meet in Quebec City and agree to appoint h-level Special Envoys to examine acid rain issues. EPA announces the first in a series of grants to states for exploring solutions to problems they expect to face should a national acid rain control program be adopted. Known as the newly formed STAR—State Acid Rain—program, these grants are funded by a S3 million Congressional appropriation.
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August 1985: A report on the preliminary results of Phase I of the Eastern Lake Survey describes lakes that are, or are likely to become, susceptible to acid precipitation in the eastern United States.
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Fall 1985: EPA conducts Phase I of the Western Lake Survey.
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November 1985: The first national State Acid Rain (STAR) workshop is held in Pittsburgh.
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January 1986: The Special U.S./Canadian Envoys’ Report on Acid Rain is submitted to President Reagan and Prime Minister Mulroney. The report’s major recommendation calls for a five-year, $5 billion joint government/industry program to demonstrate commercial acid rain control technologies.
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March 1986: Following a second meeting in Washington, Reagan and Mulroney officially endorse the Special Envoy’s Report concluding that acid rain is a serious environmental and transboundary problem.
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March 1986: EPA begins sampling streams in the mid-Atlantic and South, following a pilot survey in the Blue Ridge.
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August 1986: The Department of Energy awards its first grants under the Clean Coal Technology Program.
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September 1986: The final report on Phase I of Eastern Lake Survey is released.
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October 1986: The second national STAR workshop is held in Asheville, NC.
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January 1987: The final report on Phase I of Western Lake Survey is issued.
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April 1987: President Reagan and Prime Minister Mulroney meet for a third time. Reagan announces that he would consider a bilateral accord with Canada to control sources of acid rain.
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September 1987: NAPAP’s Interim Assessment of the Causes and Effects of Acid Deposition is made public.
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December 1987: Congress appropriates $575 million for government/industry programs that will accelerate demonstrations of the retrofit and emission-reduction technologies recommended by the Special Envoys.
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June 1988: EPA’s Report on the National Stream Survey is released.
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October 1988: The plan and schedule for the 1990 NAPAP Assessment is published.
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February l989: President Bush, in an address to Congress, announces that he will submit legislation for a more effective Clean Air Act. The legislation will include a plan to reduce, by date certain, the emissions which cause acid rain.
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July 1989: President Bush announces his legislative proposal for Clean Air Act revisions to reduce acid rain, toxic air pollutants, and ozone.
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August 1989: EPA proposes a new national program that will help reduce acid rain by requiring refiners to lower the sulfur content of diesel fuel.
EPA releases the final report of the four-year State Acid Rain Program which finds that existing federal and state air-pollution-control programs do not appear appropriate for carrying out the solutions being proposed to control acid rain.
EPA, (1989), “Environmental Backgrounder Acid Rain.”
Canada/US SO2 Emission Estimates (10
6
6 tonnes/tons/year)
(figure available in print form)
How the Greenhouse Effect Works
(figure available in print form)
Reprinted from the World Resources Institute from “The Teacher’s Guide to World Resources,” Copyright 1990-1991.
The Greenhouse Index: 25 Countries with the Highest Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 1989
(figure available in print form)
Reprinted from the World Resources Institute, “Teacher’s Guide to World Resources,” copyright 1990-1991.
Contributions to Global Warming.
(figure available in print form)
Reprinted from the World Resources Institute, “Teacher’s Guide to World Resources,” copyright 1990-1991.
Acid Rain Crossword Puzzle
(figure available in print form)