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11 Environs 1 (1987)

handle is hein.journals/environs11 and id is 1 raw text is: UCD School of Law Vol. 11 No. 1/2 Environmental Law School June 1987 Protecting the Canary -- Acid Rain in California By Kathy A. Tonnessen In the early days of the industry, coal miners would bring canaries with them when working underground. The birds served to warn the men of the build-up of colorless and odorless toxic gases that could cause sudden death. An analogy can be made between coal mines and acid rain (and other forms of acid deposition: snow, mist, fog and dry gases and particles). The lakes, forests and soils of the Sierra Nevada and other mountainous regions in Cali- fornia are the sensitive canaries that will show the first signs of Continued on Page Two ACID DEPOSIT[ON: BACK TO SQUARE ONE ANDBEYOND By Stephen P. Winslow Early air pollution con- trol efforts resulted in an inad- vertant backward step which aggrevated the acid deposition problem. In the 1960s and early 1970s local governments and Congress mainly viewed air pollution as an urban health hazard. Local ordinances and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 (the 1970 Act) focussed on reducing ambient concen- trations of air pollutants in ur- ban areas. Local efforts to re- duce ambient concentrations resulted in schemes to disperse pollutants rather than reduce emissions. Industry and utili- ties constructed tall emission stacks to disperse pollutants in lieu of bona-fide pollution re- duction devices. Tall stacks increased the ability acid depo- sition to carry into mountain areas and across the long dis- tances of North America. In the early 1970s scien- tific studies from throughout the world revealed the effects of acid deposition on forests and lakes. In West Germany, fir trees began to yellow and lose their needles. Today, over one- third of West German forests show some sign of damage. The term waldersteben, literally translated as forest death, is now a household word. Czechoslovakia, the Nether- lands, France, Italy, Romania, Sweden and the Soviet Union have also reported forest dam- age. Continued on Page Six

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