In a press release Exide CEO Sparky Watt said It is going to save us many millions of dollars we now spend every year to purchase sulfuric acid for our batteries. That s why we re moving our assembly plant here. And we re also banking on the hope that lead, the other major component of our batteries, is being leached by acid rain from the soil around here in enough volume so that we can sharply curtail our lead purchases as well. We re also interested in becoming an extractor of other heavy metals, such as mercury, cobalt, nickel, copper, cadmium, and of course silver and gold. Acid rain makes the recovery of all of these precious elements from Adirondack soils commercially possible.
Acid rain is a blessing.
We used to think that acids and heavy metals would never just bubble up out of the ground, he said. But we were wrong. Acids and heavy metals are important feedstocks for many American industries, so it stands to reason that we will now be able to attract a lot of really exciting kinds of manufacturing to the Park. The problem I see now is that much of the acid rainfall on the Adirondacks hits the western side of the Park. We ve got to find some way of getting more to fall on the eastern side, so the folks over there will also have the opportunity to benefit from this economic bonanza.