Acid Nightmare

Acid Nightmare

Acid rain is a fresh water fisherman’s worst nightmare. The burning of fossil fuels, mainly coal, emits pollution into the air that then is mixed with rainwater and falls down to the earth polluting our fragile fresh water lakes and streams. Acid rain doesn’t have to fall directly into the water either. It will flow downhill into these bodies of water and have the same effects on all aquatic life in the area.  

The average pH level of a lake or stream is between 6 and 8. The lower the number, the more acidic the water is. Because of acid rain, lakes pH levels are dropping and this is very harmful to the ecosystems in these lakes. According to what the EPA stated in their article, “One of the most acidic lakes reported is Little Echo Pond in Franklin, New York. Little Echo Pond has a pH of 4.2.” That is almost 3 levels below the neutral pH level of 7! 

The acid rain does even more to damage to areas whose soils have a limited ability to neutralize acidic compounds. Because they cannot buffer the acid, they release aluminum into the water that can be harmful to many animals. The region in the United States where the soil is the poorest at buffering acid is the northeast. That includes Massachusetts! This means that many lakes in our state could be experiencing this problem.

This problem with acidity mainly affects the wildlife of these lakes. Many animals in lakes are very small and have a very small resistance against low pH levels. This can cause the extinction of many animals in the lake. At a pH of 5 or below, most fish eggs cannot even hatch. At levels lower most adult fish will die too. I relate this to how we wrote about the effects of taking out a consumer in a community. The changes in populations cause extreme unbalance in the ecosystem.

You might look at that chart and think that frogs are not even affected. Wrong. A main food source of a frog is a mayfly. If the pH is too low for that to survive, which is only 5.5, then the frog is going to be at a loss for food. All animals are interdependent and rely on many different organisms.

This really interests me because I personally love going fresh-water bass fishing. If humans keep burning so much fossil fuel into the atmosphere, then I will probably lose a very fun and non-harmful hobby.

Link to the article: http://dwb4.unl.edu/Chem/CHEM869V/CHEM869VLinks/www.epa.gov/airmarkets/acidrain/effects/surfacewater.html

By the Environmental Protection Agency.

Last updated: December 2000.