greenlink%gn@cdp.uucp (10/09/89)
/* Written 6:44 pm Oct 2, 1989 by gn:greenlink in cdp:gp.press */
/* ---------- "LIMESTONE POURED ON WATERSHED IN ST" ---------- */
Subject: LIMESTONE POURED ON WATERSHED IN STUDY OF ACIDIFIED LAKE
Via GreenLink:
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By STEVE SCHAEFER
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (UPI) -- For the first time in North America,
tons of limestone are being poured this week onto the watershed
of an acidified lake in an experiment aimed at neutralizing what
is thought to be a result of acid rain.
Dozens of scientists involved in the $2.5 million study of the
impact of treating an acidified lake's watershed with limestone
gathered Thursday at Woods Lake in the Adirondacks.
"This watershed study is truly of national significance," said
Donald Leopold of the State University of New York College of
Environmetal Science and Forestry.
"People have been trying to correct the lakes that have been
acidified by putting lime into the lake. We're trying to correct
those problems not by putting the lime in the lake, but in the
areas around the lake."
Woods Lake is north of the village of Big Moose in Herkimer
County, about 100 miles northeast of Syracuse.
This week researchers were busy using a helicopter to pour 500
4,000-pound bags of limestone pellets onto two areas of the
lake's watershed, or the area of land that drains into the lake,
Leopold said. The areas are 99 acres and 148 acres in size.
"When the lake was being treated, the response would only last
two or three years," said Leopold. "Swedish scientists have been
treating the land area just around the margins (of lakes), and
they're seing pretty good responses."
Woods Lake is in a remote area of the Adirondacks where many
bodies of water have high acidity levels, and no longer support
aquatic life. Some scientists believe the high acidity is at
least in part the result of acid rain, which is thought to be
caused by industrial air pollution.
"Some of it is due to atmospheric deposition," said Leopold. "We
can't say why it is happening, but we do know that some of these
lakes are relatively sterile."
The research, which is being coordinated by Cornell University,
involves at least 20 principle researchers from several
institutions, including Leopold, an environmental and forest
biologist.
"This will be the first time we've had the opportunity of
studying the effects of liming a terrestrial ecosystem on surface
water systems, aquatic life, groundwater and forest vegetation.
We anticipate both rather immediate and long-term responses to
the treatment," he said.
In addition to Cornell and the SUNY-College of Environmental
Science and Forestry at Syracuse, researchers from Syracuse
University, Clarkson University and Smith College are working on
the project, Leopold said.
The research, which has received $2.5 milion in funding through
December of 1990, is also being supported by Living Lakes, a
Washington-based non-profit group, as well as the Electric Power
Institute, the Empire State Electric Energy Research Corp., and
the United States Geological Service.
/* ---------- "LIMESTONE POURED ON WATERSHED IN ST" ---------- */
/* Written 2am 10/8/89 by David Yarrow(jdmann) in en.climate */
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COMMENTARY: Being from Syracuse, I have a close perspective on this.
Scientists have discovered the trees, but still, the forest.... Narrow
views abound, and narrow reponses follow. Meanwhile, the entire ecosystem
is cracking. Does anyone know how far the Ring of Death has descended down
Mt. Mitchell this year, highest in the Appalachians?
It is not only acid rain which has sterilized Adirondack lakes. Any good
farmer knows you can't always fix sour soil with lime, and even lime can
be applied only so heavily. What's critical is a total balance of minerals.
And more subtle is the subtle energy of those molecules; they don't just
sit there dense and dark - they resonate.
Therefore, this "single bullet" remedy of limestone lumps will achieve
but temporary response. A better move is to spray solutions of finely
ground rock dust with a broad spectrum of elements. Finely ground, it is
quickly digested by bacteria and microbes, the very base of Gaia's
biological pyramid, and transformed into protoplasm. Broad spectrum, it
feeds every need in every diet in the ecosystem food chain; magnetic
elements iron and cobalt are critical. In spray solution, it should be
stirred in a bio-dynamic vortex to charge the molecules.
Notice who is funding the project: utilities. But acid rain isn't the
only eco-mess they must fix and cleanup. Evidence grows that magnetic
fields from high current power grids are affecting human health and the
earth-sky polarity which drives weather systems. In a wholistic view, it
makes sense that troubles in our atmosphere have origins deep in the Earth.
Where do utilities get their energy from?
There's also a simplistic notion that smokestacks in the Midwest drift
east to become acid rain, in direct, cause-effect mechanism. But now we know
there are bands of acid brown air circling the whole globe, replete with
sulphur clouds. Only this time it's not the Almighty's fire and brimstone
reigning on our half brained heads. Only a whole mind can see a whole planet.
It's significant the Adirondacks are among the oldest rock on the planet,
part of original Pangaia. Adirondack rocks are among the most geologically
complex, and were recently found beneath a continental glacier. And
tremendous waterflows issue from within Gaia there, hence the famous lakes,
and also famous Hudson River. Although heavily logged, most of the
Adirondacks are a NYS wilderness preserve; a sacred land, they are granted
grudging protection.
As we begin to understand the dance of matter and energy in a global
ecosystem, rocks such as the Adirondacks assume special significance. The
death of Adirondack lakes is a deeply ominous sign. Not only acid rain and
disturbed atmospheric energy is a cause of sterile lakes and dying forests,
but there are shifts in the energy fields emanating from within the Earth.
- prepared by David Yarrow, the turtle, for SOLSTICE magazine
***** SOLSTICE: Perspectives on Health and Environment, is published
bimonthly at 201 E. Main St Suite H, Charlottesville, VA 22901 804-979-4427
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