Acid Rain Polluting the Water

The majority of people know our water is polluted but what they don’t know is why, and how polluted it is. Acid Rain has been a leading addition to the pollution in our water supply today. Acid Rain comes in the form of rain, snow or fog and is polluted by acid in the atmosphere. In our environment perfect clean water has a pH of 7, acid rain has a pH of 5.5 and below, meaning it is very acidic. The air combines with mainly sulfur and nitrous oxide and makes the water in the air acidic. This acid precipitation then falls onto the environment making the streams and rivers acidic killing the organisms that live in and around these bodies of waters. The rain also kills off trees and other plants at higher elevations. The area that acid rain mostly affects is the North Eastern United States because of the wind currents and because of its soil buffering capacity is low(EPA 1). The buffering capacity is the ability for the land to neutralize acidic compounds. The wind is a major contributor because it carries these acids from different work sites and puts them into the air around the east. One of the leading studies and areas of concern is in upstate New York. One study from the environmental agency in New York said “by 2040, about half the region’s 2,800 lakes and ponds will be too acidic to sustain much life and 100 percent of its rivers and streams will be too acidic to support life during spring snow melts” (Dao 3). Acid Rain has polluted many of the bodies of waters in New York and its surrounding areas. The pollution is contributed from many things although most of the sulfur and nitrous oxide is put into the air from burning fossil fuels. Any person who relies on transportation by a motorized vehicle or a person that relies on power form a company that burns fossil fuels contributes to the pollution. The chemicals that these companies are putting out aren’t affecting them but instead are affecting the east.

Acid rain has been affecting my home and its surrounding since I can remember. I grew up in upstate New York and acid rain is starting to leave a large impact. When hiking in the mountains a person can see the affects it has had, the large amounts of trees are turning yellowish brown and dying in the higher elevations.