Date: 1981-06-23
Speaker: PHILLIP BURTON (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. the acid rain issue may prove to be the acid test for two selfproclaimed goals of the Reagan administration: to be good stewards of our national parks and to be good neighbors of our Canadian allies. Acid rain is not only one of the most serious environmental threats to national parks and wildernesses but also a major threat to our diplomatic relations with our chief ally. It is a top economic issue that the Canadian Government has identified as its highest priority in current negotiations toward a bilateral air quality agreement. If the administration proposes revisions to the Clean Air Act along the lines of the drafts now circulating. however. it cannot be serious about either stewardship or diplomacy. Our national parks could be turned into national sacrifice areas and Canada into a dumping ground for our acid wastes. Mr. Speaker. further evidence of the widespread threat to park ecosystems posed by acid rain was supplied by the 1980 "State of the Parks" report. prepared by the National Park Service at the request of myself and Representative Keith Sebelius. The report revealed that air quality resources are endangered in mote than 45 percent of the units of the National Park System. 83 reports specifically mention acid rain. Unfortunately. many of the prime public.parks. wildernesses. and tourist attractions are found in the very types of mountainous and forested terrain where lakes and streams are particularly sensitive to acid rain. For example. in addition to the wellknown fish dieoffs in the Adirondacks. studies of lake chemistry in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area indicate that a third of the lakes there are nearing the dangerous acidity threshold. Acid rain fallout is threatening fish populations in a number of areas from Sequoia National Park in the West to the Great Smoky Mountains. Shenandoah. and other national parks in the East. Canada has even more at stakean estimated 48.000 resort lakes in the Nation could be irreparably acidified within the next two decades if present trends continue. In a March address in Boston. Canadian Minister of the Environment John Roberts bluntly described the frustration of an entire nation over this issue: We know how dangerous acid rain is. We know that the technology exists to stop the emissions that cause acid rain. Still. thousands of tons of acidcausing chemicals are being exported to Canada by the United States every day. The impatience of Canadians showed through when President Reagan visited Ottawa earlier this month. Thousands of demonstrators protested on Parliament Hill while the President was conferring with Prime Minister Trudeau. They were there to make the point that the United States should move. and move quickly. to prevent emissions of sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen which produce acid rain in my country. Yet legislative proposals now under consideration by the administration would alldw substantial increases rather than reductions in industrial emissions of sulfur oxides. provoking Canadian Ambassador Peter Towe to send a stern diplomatic note to the State Department. These proposals also would weaken the prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) program under the Clean Air Act. substantially eliminating protection for class II and class III cleanair areas and scaling back the degree of protection for class I national parks and wildernesses. Moreover. the administration is apparently reexamining the visibility regulations issued for parks under the act. Under the current PSD program. Federal land managers such as the National Park Service have "an affirmative responsibility to protect the airqualityrelated values" of class I areas. Mr. Speaker. this responsibility is an example of what. true stewardship of parks implies. If we are to protect our prime natural areas in the United States and Canada. we must insure that the Clean Air Act provides for significant control of SO emissions for existing as well as new industrial sources and includes a strong PSD and visibility program.e