New maps chart areas vulnerable to acid rain

Abstract

In their continued thrust for acid rain control legislation, environmental groups have released maps developed by the Environmental Protection Agency that depict broad reaches of midwestern and northeastern lake areas susceptible the scourge of acid rain. Even as the National Clean Air Fund, education and research wing of the National Clean Air Coalition, was making the maps EPA was distributing the same maps scientists for comment. The environmentalists, however, felt that the Fourth of July holiday week, when many Americans were swimming and fishing their nation's lakes and streams, was an excellent time to make this alarming new information about the scope and magnitude of the problem available the public, says Deborah A. Sheiman, a resource specialist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a member of the clean air fund coalition. The Reagan Administration has been notably reluctant legislate controls on industries that generate acid rain precursors—mainly sulfur and nitroge...