BOOKS
Controversy over Acid Rain Reviewed by Thomas G. Brydges
Acid rain has grown markedly in importance as an environmental issue since it was first described more than 20 years ago by the Swedish scientist Svante Oden. Consistent with scientific understanding and international agreements on mutual protection of the environment against acid rain, most industrialized countries have established limitations on their sulfur dioxide emissions. More than 20 European countries and Canada have signed an international convention to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions 30% by 1993 from their early 1980s' levels. Under regulations designed to improve local air quality and to require emission controls on new sources, U.S. sulfur dioxide emissions have decreased from a high of about 27 million metric tons a year to a current level of about 22 million metric tons, and Canadian emissions have declined from 5.6 million tons to about 2.9 million tons. But the U.S. government is now only in the initial stages of adopting a domestic program to limit sulfur dioxide emissions sufficiently to reduce acid rain. Today, nearly half the sulfur deposited in Canada comes from the U.S., whereas only about a tenth of the sulfur deposited in the U.S. originates in Canada. Since the U.S. is a leader in many environmental issues, it is logical that its failure to act in a timely and responsible way to control acid rain has become a subject for discussion. In their book "The Acid Rain Controversy/' James L. Regens, associate director of the Institute of Natural Resources at the University of Georgia, and Robert W. Rycroft, director of the Graduate Program in Science, Technology & Public Policy at George Washington University, attempt to analyze U.S. acid rain policy and explain the reasons for it. As a background for their discussion, Regens and Rycroft try to provide a balanced view of conflicting 36
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Transboundary damage is an essential element of the conflict between the U.S, and Canada regarding acid rain "The Acid Rain Controversy" by James L. Regens and Robert W. Rycroft, University of Pittsburgh Press, 127 North Bellefield Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260, 1988, 228 pages, $24.95 hardback, $12.95 paperback
scientific opinion. But they focus almost exclusively on information pertaining to the U.S. For example, they refer to work of Edward C. Krug and Charles R. Frink at the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station in New Haven that in essence postulates that lake acidification can be explained by the reactions of natural organic acids. However, they do not mention Canadian studies by Bruce D. Lazerte and Peter J. Dillon of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment that demonstrate that surface water acidification is caused by sulfates and not by natural organic acids. It is here, I believe, that they begin to lose the essential elements of the acid rain controversy.
Furthermore, they do not discuss the extensive acidification of lakes in eastern Canada, probably the best scientifically documented example in North America of damage caused by acid rain. Although aquatic damage in eastern Canada and the U.S. was extensively reviewed by a work group established under the Memorandum of Intent (MOI), use of field information to develop acceptable deposition targets for sulfates has been at the root of the CanadaU.S. controversy since the MOI program began. (The MOI, signed in July 1980 by Canada and the U.S., committed the two countries promptly to assess the emission reductions that would be required to reduce substantially the acid rain damage in each country that results from emissions from the other country and to work cooperatively toward achieving interim emission reductions.) In essence "the acid rain controversy" was in large part a disagreement between the Canadian and U.S. governments over how to interpret available surface water data. It is surprising that this element of the controversy has been excluded from this book because Regens participated directly in an MOI work group as a representative of the Reagan Administration. The book contains frequent references to MOI reports dealing with sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions and controls. Therefore, it is quite disappointing that the authors have excluded the MOI report on the effects of these pollutants, such as the loss of fish life in acidified lakes. That disputed MOI document, describing the establishment of a target loading (a maximum yearly deposition of sulfates that will not degrade all but the most sensitive lakes), has been the basis of much of the Canada-U.S. controversy for more than a decade. The authors make even less of an effort to present a balanced view of control technologies and the economic aspects of acid rain than they
do with science. For example, they refer to a report predicting that a 10 million ton sulfur dioxide reduction program could result in job losses from 23,000 to 60,000 in areas mining high-sulfur coal. However, they do not mention other analyses that predict the number of jobs such emission reductions would create. One such study estimates that a control program of this magnitude would result in a net creation of 195,000 jobs. These new jobs would come from many sectors, including the mining of low-sulfur coal, transporting coal, and constructing and operating emission control a n d monitoring devices. The crux of the matter is not the loss of jobs, as stated in the text, but the inevitable shift of jobs from one geographical area to another and between industrial sectors. Indeed, job shifting causes socioeconomic problems that warrant further analysis in the book. Regens and Rycroft indicate that emission control programs might increase utility rates 1.4 to 8%. They point out that individual utility costs may be substantially greater than the average without mentioning the equally obvious fact that, for some utilities, the costs would be much less than the average. Although a 12 million ton sulfur dioxide reduction might result in an 8% increase in utility rates, the authors do not note that rates for individual utilities in the U.S. vary more than 300% because of factors other than pollution control. Thus, the predicted rate changes resulting from control programs are comparatively small. In this book, the acid rain controversy apparently comes down to the fact that industry, particularly in the central midwestern U.S., simply does not want to spend any money on pollution controls. This is not a unique stand for industry to take on environmental matters. By focusing on this component of the socioeconomic factors, the discussion has been truncated. It would have been helpful to have included a description of emission control programs in Canada and in other countries in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) that are being implemented under the requirements of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary
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Books Air Pollution. (That convention, drawn up under the aegis of ECE, aims to reduce transboundary air pollution.) For example, under the Canadian control program developed in 1985, federal and provincial agencies have established provincial and industrial emission targets, timetables, and socioeconomic mechanisms to resolve the industrial difficulties associated with controls. Although "The Acid Rain Controversy" loses much value in its discussion of science, control, and economics by neglecting to adequately address t h e total North American situation, it is in dealing with prospects for policy-making and the international considerations that I believe Regens and Rycroft have woefully failed to develop a meaningful discussion of these issues. Only one line refers to the 1978 Congressional resolution "calling for bilateral discussion to preserve and protect the two nations mutual air resources." It is interesting to
look at what that resolution actually says. Public Law 95-426, passed by Congress in 1978, states, 'The U.S. and Canada are both becoming increasingly concerned about the effects of pollution, particularly that from power generating facilities since the facilities of each country affect the environment of the other It is the sense of the Congress that the President should make every effort to negotiate a cooperative agreement with the Government of Canada aimed at preserving the mutual air shed of the U.S. and Canada It is further the sense of the Congress that the President, through the Secretary of State working in concert with interested federal agencies and affected states, should take whatever diplomatic action appeared necessary to reduce or eliminate any undesirable effect upon the U.S. and Canada resulting from air pollution from any source." This was a very strong position taken by the U.S. Congress. To a
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large extent, it was a response to its concern over the Atikokan power plant that was to be built in northwestern Ontario and was projected to have an adverse effect on the fragile environment of the Boundary Waters Wilderness area in northern Minnesota. In other words, when the U.S. believed that its territory was going to be adversely affected, Congress was quick to act and to give the President specific instructions on what was to be done. This same act of Congress led to the MOI between Canada and the U.S. But the negotiation process set up by the memorandum broke down completely in 1982 when the Reagan Administration refused to even consider Canadian proposals for bilateral controls of emissions. Such proposals were surely consistent with the "sense of the Congress" enacted in 1978. Acid rain by now is well established as a transboundary problem in Europe that requires international action. But the U.S. during the Reagan Administration, by refusing to acknowledge the international aspects of its air pollution, allowed domestic disagreements to dominate and distort its political discussions on how to respond to the problem. Although they refer to international activities, Regens and Rycroft focus on the U.S. domestic aspects of the problem. Their almost complete omission of transboundary damage seriously weakens their scientific discussion and adds even more distortion to their incomplete treatment of control costs and benefits. Thus, although they have provided some useful information on the issue within the U.S., I believe they have perpetuated the misguided practices of the Reagan Administration by failing to discuss the acid rain controversy adequately in its proper context—the international arena. Thomas G. Brydges, who has been managing research projects on acidification since 1972, cochaired the Memorandum of Intent Subcommittee on Aquatic Effects and has continued to be involved in Canada-U.S. negotiations on acid rain. He is currently a science adviser with Environment Canada with responsibilities in the field of long-range transport of air pollutants. •
