Environmental Advocates of New York

New York Public Interest Research Group

Natural Resources Defense Council

Kids Against Pollution

American Lung Association of New York State

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                        CONTACT:

Tuesday, October 23, 2001                        Jeff Jones, EA-NY (518) 462-5526

                        Jason K. Babbie, NYPIRG (518) 436-0876

 

 

New Science Shows Tough Standard Needed for Adirondack Ecosystems to Recover Within in Our Lifetime:

Cuts announced by Governor Pataki two years ago need to be deeper

 

Albany, NY – A new report released today by the New York Clean Smokestacks Campaign shows some of the most compelling evidence yet that the Clean Air Act’s much-lauded Acid Rain program will not deliver recovery of damaged forests, lakes and streams in our lifetimes.  The Campaign is urging Governor Pataki to modernize his now two-year old pledge to “be a national leader” in the effort to control acid rain because those cuts are not stringent enough.

 

The Clear the Air report, Unfinished Business: Why the Acid Rain Problem is Not Solved, shows that a decade after the program went into effect highly acidic rain continues to fall on New York’s rivers, lakes, and forests.  In addition, Unfinished Business shows that only newer, tougher reductions of dangerous power plant emissions will reverse the devastation to sensitive ecosystems, such as the Adirondacks and Catskills, in our lifetime.

 

“The most recent science shows that the acid rain program has helped to mitigate the problem, but that an 80% reduction in emissions is needed for biological recovery in New York,” said Anne Reynolds, Air and Energy Program Director for Environmental Advocates of New York.  “It makes sense that significant additional cuts are needed to reverse 150 years of acid rain damage,” continued Reynolds.

 

Here in New York, the report finds that under the current Acid Rain program:

§         Acid rain seems to be responsible for the poor health of sugar maples, and the death of over half of the large canopy red spruce in the Adirondacks.

§         Some of the country’s most advanced modeling has been conducted on Adirondack water bodies, and it shows that 80% reductions in power plant emissions beyond the current program would allow substantial ecosystem recovery to begin.

 

On October 14, 1999, Governor Pataki directed the state Department of Environmental Conservation to issue regulations to clean up power plants’ emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide by 75% and 50% respectively because of their contribution to acid rain. DEC sent a draft proposal to the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reform in June where they currently sit.

 

-MORE-MORE-MORE-

Acid Rain Report Release / Urge Governor for Deep Cuts Cont.

 

 

“By two years old many children are learning to walk and talk, but the Governor’s air pollution regulations have remained in their infancy stage despite mounting scientific evidence which tells us New York needs comprehensive pollution reductions,” said Jason K. Babbie, Environmental Policy Analyst for NYPIRG.  “Clearly New York needs to update its proposal, as others states have already done, if its emissions reductions are to remain ‘a symbol of our national leadership and resolve to this issue,’ as Governor Pataki said they would over two years ago,” continued Babbie.

 

The Campaign pointed to the evolution of Massachusetts’s regulation from a two-pollutant strategy, to a comprehensive four-pollutant approach, with deeper cuts in sulfur dioxide, to address the main environmental and public health impacts from power plants. The Clean Smokestack Campaign asked the Governor for a 75% cut in nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions, a 90% reduction in mercury emissions and a cap of 7% below 1990 levels for carbon dioxide from power plants. Seventy-two groups from throughout New York, and over 1,000 nationwide, affirmed their commitment to cleaning up power plant emissions at these levels.

 

The Campaign also called on the Governor to endorse a federal bill with the same emissions reductions that is sponsored by Senator Jeffords (I-VT) and cosponsored by Sen. Schumer and Sen. Clinton. The U.S. Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, which Jeffords chairs and Clinton is a member of, is scheduled to hold a hearing on the bill this Thursday. The group separately encouraged Clinton to ensure the bill is not weakened.

 

While the current study addressed the ecological benefits of cutting acid rain precursors even deeper than Governor Pataki has ordered, gains in public health can be expected as well.  Deeper cuts in these same pollutants will lead to lower levels of airborne fine particles and summertime smog—each of which pose a serious threat to lung health.

 

“In addition to the obvious need to update the proposal for ecological reasons, deeper cuts will also mean improved lung health for New Yorkers,” said Peter M. Iwanowicz, Director of Environmental Health for the American Lung Association of New York State. “The difference between what the governor proposed and what we are proposing is 30 premature death a year and $115 million in additional health care costs.”

 

For more information about the science behind the report, please contact:

Charles T. Driscoll, Syracuse University, 315.443.3434

Doug Burns, United States Geological Survey, 518.285.5662

 

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