$
rain
(Continued from Page C 32)
I
| fishermen are now fishless,
f apparently because of much
1 greater than normal acidity
The dead lakes are at high
? elevations, where soil lacks
s buffering agents that
; neutralize acid as it pours
• into the streams.
| Scientists there think the
fish probably died out
I because, in the acid-laden
I water, they lost capacity to
I reproduce. Some have been
I killed more directly, in
f sudden surges of acid
J resulting from quick snow
t thaws.
The sterile lakes don’t
appear murky or polluted
Instead, they are blue and
clear, the “ideal of a pristine
lake,” observed Thomas J
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Butler of Cornell University,
who is studying acid
precipitation’s effects on
aquatic life.
“I’ve been diving in some
of these lakes and there’s
nothing left except a few
water bugs,” he said.
“People who used to fish
there in the 50’s just don’t go
there anymore.”
The high acidity already
has taken an economic toll.
The Adirondack Park
Agency estimates the
decline of game fish has
meant an annual loss of at
least $1 million in
recreational revenue.
Exactly what acid
precipitation does to plants
and crops is not as clear, but
preliminary data show
reduced seed germination,
damage to seedlings, in
terference with photosyn-
;L
o ,
GOOD EQUIPMENT AT LOW, REASONABLE RATES
fi^ENTALS
thesis, lowered resistance to
disease, and lesions on
leaves And there is direct
evidence that a f, in
precipitation leaches
minerals from soil and can
even release soil’s metals,
sometimes sending them
into streams or water
•supplies
Some of the world’s most
majestic man-made
structures the Parthenon,
the Colosseum, Taj Mahal
also are feeling acid
precipitation’s effects. The
progressive disfiguring of
the sculptures on the
Acropolis, for example, has
been the work of acid rain
“We can even see
streaking on the Washington
Monument possibly the
result of acid rain’s grooving
and pitting effects,” Hood
said. “Rock that might last
hundreds of years is lasting
only decades.” Wood, metal,
and other minerals are not
immune either.
In this country acid
precipitation first was
detected in the Northeast,
but it appears to have spread
south and west in the last 20
years despite the prevailing
west-to-east winds. All states
east of the Mississippi now
are regularly stung by ab
normally acidic rain or
snow, and acid precipitation
has found its way to urban
areas of the West such as Los
Angeles, San Francisco, and
Seattle.
What perplexes scientists
is how acid precipitation
moves. Often shoved high
into the atmosphere by tall
smokestacks, the pollutants
can be picked up and carried
for weeks and miles before
being dropped in rain or
snow The spring shower
that drenches New England
might be loaded with
pollution from an Ohio
Valley power plant
Some of our pollutants
even wind up in storms over
Canada, and the amount is
expected to increase under a
plan to convert dozens of
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or a truck, or any kind
of equipment.
American utilities to coal
use. Officials on both sides of
the border are negotiating to
try to limit the fallout.
In Scandinavia, where
acid rain first was detected,
the industrial areas of
Britain and northern Europe
are blamed And some ex
perts think an acidic haze
over the Arctic was made in
Japan.
“Not being able to tell
whose pollution is whose
makes it difficult to do
something about the
problem,” Hood pointed out
Because its sources are so
hard to pin down, acid
precipitation passes over
most of the country’s clean
air regulations Bruce
Jordan of the Environmental
Protection Agency’s Office
of Air Quality, Planning and
Standards, says the EPA
probably will recommend to
Congress that the clean air
act be amended to address
acid precipitation
One way to dry up acid
rain sources is to cleanse
coal of some of its chemicals
before it is ever burned,
Jordan said. Another
possible remedy for fac
tories and plants is the
scrubber, which removes the
byproducts of combustion
before they are released into
the atmosphere.
But some people are not
convinced that acid
precipitation is really
hurting anything.
“We recognize the
potential for harm, but we’re
not convinced that acid rain
actually is doing damage in
the real world,” said Ralph
Perhac, acting director of
the Electric Power Research
Institute, an organization set
up to do research for power
companies
“We also know that coal
fired plants contribute to
acid rain, but do they con
tribute 5 percent or 100 9 ”
The institute is funding
studies of acid precipitation
in the Adirondacks as well as
in Britain
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 29,1980—€
Most scientists agree that
the effects of acid
precipitation are still in
question, but they’d rather
not wait around for a more
precise picture to be drawn
Soybean group
to study grain
transportation
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The
American Soybean
Association has appointed a
four-member task force to
study and recommend ac
tions to modernize and
improve the U.S tran
sportation system.
“The transportation
system is vital to our efforts
to expand soybean and gram
exports in competition with
other producing countries,”
says ASA President Allan
Aves
“U.S farmers are
dependent upon the tran
sportation system. As the
nation’s leading export crop,
soybeans must be able to
move efficiently and freely
to our ports. At the direction
of the ASA voting delegates
and Board of Directors, I
have appointed this task
force to develop recom
mendations which our
farmer-delegates will
consider in New Orleans in
August ”
ASA Board Chairman
Merlyn Groot of Manson,
lowa, will chair the task
force. Other members in
clude. James M. Ferguson,
Fertilizer cutback
may be profitable
UNIVERSITY PARK -
For the first tune in many
years fanners need to take a
serious look at the amount of
fertilizer they are applying
to their crops, says
Frederick A. Hughes, exten
sion farm management
specialist, at Penn State.
Fertilizer prices for many
years did not change
Farmers were able to fer
tilize for maximum yield and
not worry about the most
economic level of fertiliza
tion.
With fertilizer prices tripl
ing m the last several years,
farmers need to consider
whether that last increment
of fertilizer is returning
enough production to pay for
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As a plant physiologist
studying the phenomenon
said “By the tune we
determine the full effects of
acid rain, it will be too late to
reverse them ”
Calhoun City, Mississippi,
vice president of the
Mississippi Soybean
Association; Roger Asen
dorf, St. James, Minnesota,
president of the Minnesota
Soybean Growers
Association; and Andrew
Winslow, Hertford, North
Carolina, a member of the
North Carolina Soybean
Producers Association.
“In order to avoid rein
venting the wheel, we plan to
meet with other groups who
are currently studying the
transportation problems,”
Groot said
“We will study all three
major transportation
systems: rail, barge and
truck. We hope to develop
recommendations that will
consider cost efficiency and
utility of the systems, as well
as ways in which the three
modes can work together. ”
Groot said the ASA
committee will be working
closely with transportation
committees already at work
for the lowa Soybean
Association and the Min
nesota Soybean Growers
Association
the cost of the fertilizer.
On many crops such as
com, that require a sizable
amount of nitrogen for max
lumum production, it would
be well for a farmer to try to
determine what response he
gest from incremental ap
plications of nitrogen fer
tilizer
It is questionable whether
the last 10 to 30 pounds of
nitrogen will be profitable in
trying to obtain an extra 10
or 15 bushels of com.
In many cases, that extra
10 to 30 pounds of nitrogen
will only yield one or two
bushels of com and this will
hardly pay for the price of
the additional nitrogen,
Hughes points out.
121