The Nation - News from Aug. 23, 1985

Acid rain in the Rocky Mountains has been linked with sulfur emissions from copper smelters up to 600 miles away, scientists reported in the Aug. 30 issue of Science magazine. The study, by researchers for the Environmental Defense Fund, blamed changes in the levels of sulfur dioxide emissions at the smelters for the level of sulfate in the rain. Acid rain has been blamed for destroying aquatic life in high-altitude Eastern lakes and for harming forests. “These results are a direct demonstration that reducing sulfur dioxide emissions reduces acid rain,” one of the report’s authors, Michael Oppenheimer, said. “We now have direct proof that sulfur dioxide emissions may dominate acid rain hundreds of miles distant. . . .”