Acid Rain Douses Canada-U.S. Ties

The problem of "acid rain" - industrial air pollution continues to aggravate U.S.Canadian relations, as Canada's highest ranking environmental official recently accused the U.S. government of blocking efforts to develop controls on acid rain.

According to a joint U.S.Canada government study in 1979, over 50% of the sulfuric air pollution in eastern Canada actually has its origins in the U.S. industrial smokestacks of the Ohio valley. A 1980 Canadian government study warned that 48,000 Canadian lakes would become sterile by the end of the century if acid rain is not curbed ( MM, Sept.' 80).

To address the issue of acid rain, the two governments have participated in four negotiating sessions over the past two years. The latest one ended in June, with some sharp words flying from the north, aimed at the Reagan Administration.

"In Canada, we are deeply disappointed with the state of negotiations between my country and the United States government on acid rain," said Canadian minister of the environment, John Roberts, in a speech shortly after the talks adjourned. "The Administration's rejection of our proposal to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions in eastern North America by 50% by 1990" was a "bitter pill for us to swallow," Roberts said.

Roberts also criticized the Reagan Administration for "foot dragging and interference in the development of scientific information" about the origins of acid rain. Elaborating on this point in a speech before the U.S. Center for Inter-American Relations, Roberts compared the U.S. claim that more research was needed to the assertion that "we have to know exactly which mosquitoes are carrying malaria before we clean up the swamp."