The Serious Problem Of Acid Rain

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that are near
the Great Lakes, have substances such as limestone or other known antacids
that can neutralize acids entering the body of water thereby protecting it.
However, large areas of Ontario that are near the Pre-Cambrian Shield, with
quartzite or granite based geology and little top soil, do not posses
enough buffering capacity to neutralize even small amounts of acid falling
on the soil and the lakes. Therefore over time, the basic environment
shifts from an alkaline to a acidic one. This is why many lakes in the
Muskoka, Haliburton, Algonquin, Parry Sound and Manitoulin districts could
lose their fisheries if sulfur emissions are not reduced substantially.

ACIDITY

The mean average of pH rainfall in Ontario's Muskoka-Haliburton
lake country ranges between 3.95 and 4.38 about 40 times more acidic than
normal rainfall, while storms in Pennsylvania have rainfall pH at 2.8 it
almost has the same rating for vinegar.
Already 140 Ontario lakes are completely dead ...

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of $2 billion to 4.5 billion worth of wheat, corn, soy beans,
and peanuts.
In Ontario, Canada alone the fish in an estimated 4000 lakes have
been lost and provincial authorities calculate that Ontario stands to lose
the fish in 48,500 more lakes within the next twenty years if acid rain
continues at the present rate. Ontario is not alone, on Nova Scotia's
eastern most shores, almost every river flowing to the Atlantic Ocean is
poisoned with acid. Further threatening a $2 million a year fishing
industry.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEATH

Acid rain is killing more than lakes. It can scar the leaves of
hardwood forests, wither ferns and lichens, accelerate the death of
coniferous needles, ...

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