Acid Rain

IS THE HEALTH of trees on Appalachian slopes connected to the health of oysters and fish in the Chesapeake Bay?In general, the answer is simple.It is well-documented that rain falling in the bay's watershed carries far less pollution from forestland (about 60 percent of the watershed) than from farms, cities, golf courses and other land uses.In restraining major pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus, our 25 million acres of forest are doing at least as much work as all our sewage-treatment plants and industrial discharge controls, and at considerably less cost.

Clinton TardinessI became a Democrat because Franklin D. Roosevelt was my role model, because Hubert H. Humphrey fought for the passage of the first major civil rights law for persons with disabilities (1973 Rehabilitation Act), because Jimmy Carter brought the idea of ethics to foreign policy, because our party nominated the first woman to run for vice president and because of the efforts of such Maryland Democrats as Rep. Steny Hoyer and Rep. Kweisi Mfume for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Environmental issues, such as acid rain and global warming, are often too immense in scope to identify with on a personal level. Suppose, for example, you learn that the carbon emissions from oil, coal and natural gas energy sources in 1989 totaled 5,764 tons. Obviously that's a lot of toxic glop ascending into the atmosphere, much of it from power plants and smokestack industries. Individually, what are the rest of us supposed to do about it? We don't own power plants and steel mills, right?

Pork bellies, heating oil, orange juice, acid rain?Created by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, air-pollution rights began publicly trading last week like other commodities on the Chicago Board of Trade. A permit to emit one ton of sulfur dioxide -- the principal component of acid rain -- sold for about $140; nearly 300,000 rights (tons per year) were offered for sale.The pollution rights market rewards utilities that go beyond their government-mandated smokestack cleanup requirements, and provides a hedge for utilities that cannot (or choose not to)

Katie WaltersSchool: Atholton High SchoolHometown: FultonAge: 17Her accomplishments: Katie took second place at the 31st Annual Maryland Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, held recently at the University of Maryland College Park. Her project, "Acid Rain's Effect on the Remobilization of Lead Due to Variations of Exposure Time, pH Level and the Presence of Ligand," found that lead is present in and around homes even after they have been painted with non-lead paint.Her two-year study also showed that lead is not only in roads and streets, but also in ponds and streams -- a result of acid rain.

Each year, before planting season, my garden and I get regular checkups. I visit my doctor, but the garden requires a house call.These checkups are important. Both the garden and I need to be in top shape for spring. Me, for digging; the garden, for growing.The latest tests produced mixed results. I passed my physical, after promising to shed 20 pounds.However, the garden is ill. It suffers from acid indigestion, for which it needs a large dose of medication.What the garden needs is a 500-pound Rolaid, or the same amount of powdered limestone.

Rockwell quits electric carGeneral Motors Corp.'s electric car could be delayed because Rockwell International Corp. has pulled out, apparently angry over the cost-cutting tactics of GM's new global supply procurement executive. Rockwell was to be the lone source for plastic body panels for GM's electric car, called the Impact, the ,, trade journal Automotive News reported yesterday.The electric car is critical to GM and other automakers because California, the biggest single market for cars in the nation, requires that 2 percent of any maker's autos sold there by 1998 be pollution-free.

Auto labor agreementThe United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp. reached a tentative agreement yesterday to end a 4-day-old strike at a plant that makes the bodies for its second-best-selling car. UAW international representative Jim Sickles refused to disclose details of the agreement until the 4,200 members of Local 602 vote on the proposed agreement today. The strike centered on local plant grievances.Workers walked off the job Friday at the Lansing, Mich., plant that makes the outer body of the fast-selling Pontiac Grand Am. Workers picketed outside the facility Sunday.

Once upon a time, children's books were the stuff of princesses menaced by dark forests and big, bad wolves gobbling up innocents. Now the people threaten the forests, and the wild creatures are themselves the innocents.In a new wave of books that promote such causes as recycling, forest preservation and pesticide-free food, publishers and authors are attempting to make money and mold young minds with environmental message books for children.The themes have proven as popular with publishers as they are noxious to industry, which complains that the books are often manipulative and one-sided.

Two utilities hundreds of miles apart will announce today that they have signed a contract that calls for one to buy from the other the right to emit a chemical that causes acid rain, freeing the dirtier one from having to clean up its own plants as stringently.It is the first such deal to be publicly disclosed, those involved and other experts say, and could break the ice for dozens of similar deals.The Tennessee Valley Authority will buy the right to emit 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, the main cause of acid rain, from Wisconsin Power and Light Co. The Wisconsin company will reduce its emissions to a level 10,000 tons below what the law requires, and the TVA will get additional time to install smokestack scrubbers or replace high-sulfur coal with cleaner fuels.