STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING ACID RAIN

Lakes and streams can be temporarily protected from acid rain by adding alkaline materials such as limestone (calcium carbonate) or lime (calcium oxide). Liming has been successful on a small scale over the past twenty years on Cape Cod, where fish have been maintained in otherwise acid lakes and ponds it has also been used experimentally in the Adirondacks, and in Sweden, which is spending 13 million dollars annually on its liming program. 

The long-term solution to acid rain is to reduce the SO2 and NOx emissions that are the source of the problem. 

Several science advisory panels have recommended reducing 

The Swedish Ministry of Agriculture concluded that sulfate deposition of 1.5 grams acid sulfate per square meter per year could be tolerated without entailing any risk of large-scale acidification damage. If we wish to prevent the acidification of even the most susceptible lakes and watercourses, the sulfate deposition will have to be reduced to not more than 0.9 g sulfate/sq. meter/year. 

A few scientists have suggested that reducing SO2 emissions by 50% might not reduce airborne acid sulfate by 50% — in fact, might not reduce acid sulfate at all. However, a variety of 

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