Acid Rain

Nov. 12, 1937: "More than 600 automobile owners have reported their cars damaged by the acid rain which followed aerial smoke screen maneuvers over the city by 12 Army planes ... and more complaints are coming in," The Times said. Major insurance firms met to assess the problem. S.H. Bucholtz of the Fire Companies Adjustment Bureau said: "The loss may total many thousands of dollars." The insurers said they would ask the government to pay for the claims.

Former National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane and two other former officials of the Reagan Administration testified Monday that Michael K. Deaver was involved in high-level talks on the Canadian acid rain problem--despite his sworn testimony that he could not recall such discussions. The statements by McFarlane, former U.S. Ambassador Paul H. Robinson Jr.

House and Senate negotiators, resolving their last major differences over new air pollution laws, reached an agreement on new acid rain controls Sunday as they put the finishing touches on a sweeping revision of the Clean Air Act. Working around the clock, negotiators completed work on the broad outlines of legislation that aims to cleanse the nation's skies of smog, acid rain and cancer-causing pollutants by the early part of the 21st Century.

Greenpeace demonstrators protesting acid rain damage climbed two 400-foot smokestacks and tried to scale a transmission tower at Maryland's largest power plant on Tuesday, a utility spokeswoman said. Eight people were arrested. Four demonstrators climbed smokestack catwalks and unfurled banners at the Potomac Electric Power Co.'s Chalk Point facility.

Gov. Michael S. Dukakis signed legislation Tuesday making Massachusetts the sixth state in the nation to fight acid rain by ordering the state's factories, utilities and other polluters to reduce sulfur emissions. Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York and Wisconsin have similar laws.

Chief executives of five eastern Canadian provinces and five New England states ratified a plan today to reduce acid rain, and said they hoped it will prod their national governments to act. The governors and premiers ratified a plan to cut regional sulfur dioxide production significantly in the coming decade.

The Sierra Nevada wilderness is not as pristine as it seems. Acid rain has been detected in the mountains, and ozone is blamed for slight damage to forest pines. Scientists are checking tree rings and the survival rate of giant sequoia seedlings, among other things, at Sequoia National Park to develop a biological census that can be used by future researchers.

A Canadian environmental coalition is launching an advertising campaign urging U.S. visitors to press for a law to reduce acid rain. The Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain said Tuesday that it will ask Ontario radio stations to broadcast the tough-talking messages, which accuse the American government of "pussyfooting around" on the issue and urge Americans to "get mad about acid rain."

For the first time, a top federal official acknowledged today that acid rain demands immediate action, not the continued study advocated by President Reagan. "I will recommend the Administration acknowledge there is a problem," Drew Lewis, Reagan's envoy on acid rain, told a meeting of New England governors here. "Saying (sulfide) doesn't cause acid rain seems to me the same as saying smoking doesn't cause cancer."

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who has accused the United States of not acting to reduce acid rain emissions, called today for an "equitable solution" and told President Reagan the "problem belongs to both of us." Mulroney, with Reagan standing beside him at a welcoming ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, reminded the President that they had pledged during a meeting in Canada earlier this year to work together on the acid rain problem. "This, as you said in Quebec City, Mr.