Acid Rain

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that are near the Great Lakes, such
substances as limestone or other known antacids can neutralize acids entering
the body of water thereby protecting it. However, large areas of Ontario that
are near the Pre©Cambrian Shield, with quartzite or granite based geology and
little top soil, there is not enough buffering capacity to neutralize even small
amounts of acid falling on the soil and the lakes. Therefore over time, the
basic environment shifts from an alkaline to a acidic one. This is why many
lakes in the Muskoka, Haliburton, Algonquin, Parry Sound and Manitoulin
districts could lose their fisheries if sulphur emissions are not reduced
substantially.

ACID

The average mean of pH rainfall in Ontario's Muskoka©Haliburton lake country
ranges between 3.95 and 4.38 about 40 times more acidic than normal rainfall,
while storms in Pennsilvania have rainfall pH at 2.8 it almost has the same
rating for vinegar.

Already 140 Ontario lakes are completely ...

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States for annual losses of $2 billion
to 4.5 billion worth of wheat, corn, soyabeans, and peanuts. A wide range of
interactions can occur many unknown with toxic metals.

In Canada, Ontario alone has lost the fish in an estimated 4000 lakes and
provincial authorities calculate that Ontario stands to lose the fish in 48 500
more lakes within the next twenty years if acid rain continues at the present
rate.Ontario is not alone, on Nova Scotia's Eastern most shores, almost every
river flowing to the Atlantic Ocean is poisoned with acid. Further threatening a
$2 million a year fishing industry.

Acid rain is killing more than lakes. It can scar the leaves of hardwood forest,
wither ferns and ...

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