Canada’s Fight Against the Sources of Acid Rain

The letter to the editor (April 9) from the president of the Edison Electric Institute took exception to your editorial (March 20) on acid rain and made a number of statements that should be set straight. Among them: “The fact is Canada is behind the United States in curbing emissions . . .” and “U.S. utilities operate 119 scrubbers . . . Canada has none.”

It is a bit difficult to understand the suggestion that Canada lags behind the United States in curbing such emissions. The facts are that during the 1970s, allowable emissions levels in Canada dropped by 27%. While one can play with numbers in different time periods, this certainly compares very favorably with reductions in U.S. emissions during the same period. In fact, actual emissions levels in Canada between 1970 and 1983 decreased by more than 40%.

What is important to note is that in both countries these reductions in the 1970s were accomplished to meet local air quality standards, not to deal with long-range transport and acid rain problems.

In Canada, having achieved local air quality targets, which incidentally are generally more stringent than those in the United States, we are now moving to deal with the long-range transport acid rain problem. 1980 emissions will be reduced 50% by 1994 in eastern Canada, where acid rain is a serious problem. Unfortunately, this program will not be fully effective unless there are compatible actions in the United States, since fully one-half of the acid rain in eastern Canada results from emissions in the United States.

On the matter of scrubbers, the first point to note is that in Canada emissions from electric utilities amount to a comparatively small part of the total; about 15% compared to around 65% in the United States. Non-ferrous smelters are the major source in Canada (about 45%), and scrubbers are not the preferred technology for control from these sources. Second, the only large coal-fired electricity plants in Canada (Ontario Hydro) all meet local air quality standards, in good part through the use of washed coal blended with low-sulfur coal. Depending on future demand, it is possible some of these plants will find it necessary to install scrubbers to meet emissions reductions required under the Canadian acid rain control program.

Acid rain is indeed a very serious problem, and the need is for cooperation in dealing with this threat to our shared environment and not for rhetoric that obscures the facts.

JON C. LEGG

Los Angeles

Legg is consul for political and economic affairs at the Canadian Consulate General.