Trends in the deposition of nitrogen oxides appear to be increasing in some parts of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. And while the Clean Air Act would reduce and even reverse that through the year 2000, increased growth in the region would begin offsetting those reductions in the first decade of the next century. According to the Bay Program analysis, about 385 million pounds of nitrogen are being deposited on the Bay watershed each year, and another 35 million pounds land directly on the Bay. Full implementation of the Clean Air Act includes new controls on power plants to sharply reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, new controls on automobile pollution, vehicle emission inspections in smog-prone areas and other controls. The commission is made up of environmental officials from 12 states from Virginia through Maine.
Nitrogen oxides are a major precursor to ozone creation.
Whether those reductions will ever be realized is uncertain, though. The costs and benefits of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act are increasingly being questioned in Congress. The 700-page law with its thousands of pages of implementing regulations is considered to be one of the costliest environmental laws ever enacted. Critics say full implementation could cost the economy tens of billions of dollars. As of August, there were 19 bills in the House and nine in the Senate targeting portions of the act.