Federal Report on Acid Rain Hotly Disputed

Only a small fraction of U.S. lakes and streams has been damaged by acid rain, and the damage is not likely to worsen significantly, a federal task force concluded in a report that was attacked by environmentalists.

The National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, in a summary of its report released Thursday, states that current research suggests “that there will not be an abrupt change in aquatic systems, crops or forests at present levels of air pollution.”

The conclusion runs counter to arguments by some scientists that acid-rain damage is widening in the United States and poses an increasing threat to the nation’s lakes and forests. The report strongly supports the Reagan Administration’s position that acid rain does not warrant expensive new pollution controls.

Summary Attacked

Even before its release, the summary was attacked by environmental groups as a distortion of the scientific reports on which it was based, some 1,000 papers that were distilled into three large volumes that the groups did not criticize.

The Natural Resources Defense Council called the summary “political propaganda.”

Environmental groups support new controls on the motor vehicle, power plant and factory pollutants that cause acid rain.

Asked about criticisms of the summary, Laurence Kulp, scientific director of the assessment program, said: “Frankly I resent it personally, as a professional and as a scientist.”

The program is not trying to hide anything, he said in referring to a conclusion that “some lakes and streams in sensitive regions appear to have been acidified . . . .”