Acid rain, control

Acid rain control will produce significant benefits in terms of lowered surface water acidity. If acidic deposition levels were to remain constant over the next 50 years (tlie time frame used for projection models), the acidification rate of lakes in the Adirondacks that are larger than 10 acres would rise by 50 percent or more. Scientists predict, however, that the decrease in SO emissions required by the Acid Rain Program will significantly reduce acidification due to atmospheric sulfui Without the reductions in SO2 emissions, the proportions of aquatic systems in sensitive ecosystems that are acidic would remain high or dramatically worsen. 

In attempting to come to grips with acid rain control, EPA, industry, states and environmentalists have had to seek out creative (or at least novel) approaches for overcoming the limitations of the CAA to address the unique characteristics of the problem. In doing so, they have constructed something of a track record for those concerned with regulating air pollutants associated with materials damages and other welfare effects. 

Excess Emission Reduction Targets — Most of the serious proposals for acid rain control (in fact, both the House and Senate bills of 1984) involve some formula for allocating reductions excess emissions of SO2 over a defined population of emitters (in almost all cases, electric utilities). The principal focus of these efforts is to reduce total regional emissions, thus avoiding the nationally uniform, ambient requirements of the NAAQS. While the proposals differ as to who must come into compliance with what, when, and how, they share the common feature of requiring proportional reductions, in emissions above some threshold level (7). The political and economic implications of this approach have been discussed extensively elsewhere (8). 

The discussion of Section 169A is drawn in large part from Trisko, E.M., Alternative Approaches to Acid Rain Control, The Environmental Forum, April 1985, Vol. 3, No. 12. 

The range of the Acid Rain Control Areas and the SO2 Pollution Control Areas, as shown in Figure 10, is about 1.09 million km, and comprises 11.4% of the area of China. 

The Acid Rain Control Area involves 14 provinces/autonomous regions/munici-palities south to the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, with an area of 0.806 million km, while the SO2 Pollution Control Area includes 63 cities north to the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, with a total area of 0.29 million km. The Acid Rain Control Area and the SO2 Pollution Control Area comprise 8.4% and 3% of the Chinese land respectively. 

Acid rain controls in the United States proved to be not only a success but a bargain, replete with surprises. All the electrical power plants targeted by the 1990 CAAA met the Phase I deadlines for SO2 and NO, reductions in 1995. Indeed, there was initially substantial over-compliance. Affected emission sources also met the tighter Phase II standards in 2000. The utility... 

The impact of the emission cuts is beginning to be noticed, although more with respect to deposition than ecosystem recovery. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency soon reported declines in wet sulphate deposition in the order of 10 to 25% across the eastern United States. There are also possible improvements with respect to dry deposition of sulphates, fine particulate matter concentrations, and visibility. Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems respond slowly, and it is not surprising that evidence of ecosystem improvements would trail behind trends in reduced atmospheric transport and deposition. The EPA, while modest in its assessment of the environmental benefits to be accrued from reduced acidification, has been rather bullish about the investment in human health benefits represented by acid rain controls. It expects SO emission cuts to reduce American health costs by 10 billion annually, through reduced morbidity and mortality, and these savings are projected to rise to 40 billion annually by 2010 (EPA 1995). 

States in particular, acid rain controls have been cheap, quick and administratively clean but not entirely successful. Phase I of the Clean Air Act saw utilities complying early, complying often and complying more than fully. That early momentum has not been maintained, and emission levels in the United States have actually increased relative to 1995. 

Feibus, H., VoeUcer, G., and Spadone, S. 1986. In Acid Rain Control II The Promise of New Technology. D.S. Gilleland (Ed.). Southern Illinois University Press, Carhondale, IL, Chapter 3. 

Non-point sources are pollution sources that are rather diffuse in nature. Good examples of this type of pollution are water contamination caused by agricultural runoff or acid rain. Controlling and regulating this type of pollution is much more difficult because you can t identify a particular company or individual as the polluter. In recent years, federal and state agencies have attempted to address non-point source pollution. The Clean Water Action Plan of 1998 was one such attempt that focused on watersheds and runoffs. 

Title 4, which covers specifications for acid rain control... 

Establish an acid rain control program, with a marketable allowance scheme to provide flexibility in implementation. 

Frank and Hirano (1990) survey the potential for the production and consumption of alternative, usable, commercial byproducts in conjunction with a major reduction in national emissions of SO2 and NO,. Hiey conclude that the potential byproduct yields from the U.S. acid rain control program greatly exceed available markets for the chemical products. Byproducts evaluated in the study include gypsum, sulfuric acid, ammonium sulfate, ammonium sulfate/nitrate, and nitrogen/phosphorous fertilizer. Henzel and Ellison (1990) present a review of past, present, and potential future disposal practices and commercial FGD byproduct utilization. Hiey indicate that the only discemable trend is the production of usable gypsum by wet FGD systems. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments may create a need for disposal sites, which tend to be expensive and scarce and which could in themselves be environmental problems. Systems that produce usable byproducts are expected to become more important in the future as the disposal option becomes less viable. 

Princotta, F. T., 1990, SO, Technologies for Acid Rain Control, paper presented at the EPRI/EPA 1990 SO2 Control Symposium, New Orleans, LA, May 8-11. 

At a time when science and policy ought to be converging on solutions to acid rain, they have diverged. Every major science advisory panel studying the problem has recommended substantial reductions in SO2 and NOx emissions in order to reduce the acidity of rain. Yet the opponents of acid rain controls — the midwestem utilities, the coal industry, and their supporters in the Reagan Administration and Congress — have called only for "more research."... 

It should be emphasized that many aspects of acid rain are worthy of further research. Furthermore, reasonable people will disagree on the most equitable response to the problem. However, the basic facts about acid rain have been in hand for some time. At issue in this chapter is that the opponents of acid rain controls misrepresented or suppressed the basic facts of the problem — facts that were either clearly known to the parties involved or that reasonably should have been. 

The principal objections raised by opponents of acid rain controls fall into the following categories ... 

The opponents of acid rain controls have argued that the acidity of rain is not getting worse — in fact may even be getting better — and that there is therefore no need to take action on acid rain soon. "Is acid rain increasing We are not certain," wrote Ralph Perhac, the Director of Environmental Affairs for the Electric Power Research Institute. "Those who claim it is admit the changes are subtle on a yearly basis. . . We do not claim that the acidity of rain is not increasing. We claim only that the data are conflicting and do not allow one to draw firm conclusions." ... 

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