Book 30, Question 123
Can a lake recover from acid rain?
Yes.
In the past, smoke from factories and smelters mixed with rain and made acid rain, which hurt lakes in places like Sudbury, Ontario. Many lakes lost fish and plants. Then cleaner technology cut the pollution, and people limed some lakes and planted trees. Scientists have watched many lakes slowly recover. The comeback shows that cleaning up helps.
Watch the videoWatch on YouTubeSee the series on Amazon
Quick answers
Can a lake recover from acid rain?
Broader recovery, in lakes across North America, happened because acid rain was tackled at its source.
Source: BBC
More fun facts
- The discovery that acid-neutralising bugs exist in the sediment in lots of lakes , not just at the ELA, suggested that lakes could recover if the pollution causing the acid rain were eliminated.
- Kelly and colleagues set to work to find out, and discovered that alkali-producing microbes were capable of buffering some of the acidity, helping the lake chemistry to recover.
- A half-century after those early experiments, lake 223 in the ELA is no longer acidic, the acid-eating microbes having done their job.
- From its discovery in 1963 to passage of the Clean Air Act in 1990, legislative action on acid rain took 27 years.
Sources: BBC