It doesn’t make the news much these days, but acid rain reaches Vermont lakes. Each year, Watershed Management Division staff sample acid-impaired and acid-stressed lakes to track changes in water quality and evaluate effects on the biological communities. They’ve been doing this for 40 years – an incredible data trove – and have observed significant changes during that time. The data clearly show, for example, improvements in rain quality that can be linked to the Clear Air Act as amended in 1990.
Vermont Public Radio recently followed Rebecca Harvey of the Monitoring, Assessment and Planning Program during one of her spring sampling trips. You can read or listen to the story here.
