Acid rain talk set July 21 in Lewes

UD’s College of Marine Studies' air pollution monitoring site at Cape Henlopen State Park

1:44 p.m., July 12, 2005--In an isolated part of Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, stands a collection of equipment that looks like it should be used to explore the outer reaches of space. In fact, this strange-looking gear is used to monitor air pollutants by collecting samples of rain and other precipitation.

At 7 p.m., Thursday, July 21, at UD’s College of Marine Studies campus in Lewes, Joseph Scudlark, research scientist, will give an overview of the status and issues surrounding acid rain in Delaware. His presentation, "Acid Rain: Are We Winning the War?" is part of the Ocean Currents Lecture Series, which is held on the third Thursday of the month, from April through September, on the Lewes campus.

The monitoring site in Cape Henlopen was established in 1977 under the auspices of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, which collects data on the chemistry of precipitation at more than 200 sites across the continental United States, as well as in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

"The original focus of the program was to document the geographic distribution and severity of acid rain in the country," Scudlark said. "By 1990, however, it had been established that acid rain was causing severe environmental damage. The rain in Delaware was found to be as acidic as anywhere in the northeast."

As a result, Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendment in 1990, which included specific provisions for curbing acid rain. With this, the focus of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program shifted to assessing the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act, or whether the expense of controlling air pollution has resulted in cleaner air.

"The challenge in answering this question is that the amount of pollutants in the air is somewhat dependent on the weather, which can vary from year to year," Scudlark said. "Our measurements represent one of the longest, continual records of precipitation chemistry in the entire United States, which enables us to determine whether we are seeing a significant trend in pollution reduction or whether we're just looking at a blip in the record."

Scudlark will conclude his talk by discussing his recent work on the atmospheric deposition of nitrogen in coastal waters, such as Delaware's Inland Bays, as well as the Chesapeake Bay. According to Scudlark, up to 35 percent of the nitrogen that gets into the water comes from the atmosphere. Excess nitrogen in the water can result in excessive plant growth, or what is called an "algal bloom." This algal growth can lead to depleted levels of oxygen in the water.

A member of the College of Marine Studies since 1980, Scudlark earned his master's degree in environmental chemistry from the State University of New York at Syracuse in 1980 and his bachelor's degree in chemistry from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y., in 1977.

The lecture will be held in Room 104, Cannon Laboratory, at the Hugh R. Sharp Campus, 700 Pilottown Road, Lewes. The hour-long talk will be followed by light refreshments.

While the lecture is free and open to the public, seating is limited and reservations are required. To reserve your seat, call (302) 645-4279.

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