Acid rain in Eastern Canada and New England, said to be destroying fish life in thousands of lakes, has become a daily issue for the people who make a living mining high-sulfur coal.
Environmental Protection Agency officials said at least 200 lakes in the Adirondack region of New York have no life because of acid rain. Canadian officials estimate that 14,000 lakes in Eastern Canada are nearly lifeless and 310,000 are threatened.
"We need to cut the amount of (sulfur dioxide) coming across the border about in half," said Alex Manson, senior manager of the Department of Environment Acid Rain Program in Ottawa, Ontario.
Reducing the amount of sulfur dioxide in the Ohio Valley region means expensive cleaning projects for coal-burning power plants, or the loss of thousands of jobs for people who mine high-sulfur coal.
"I think acid rain is a Canadian farce," said Tom Bell, mayor of Powhatan Point, an Eastern Ohio town dependent on jobs in high-sulfur coal mines. "The only reason we have acid rain is because Canada wants to sell power to the United States."
Rep. Douglas Applegate, D-Ohio, said passage of the latest proposed acid rain bill could signal the end of the region's coal industry, but he predicted the bill will be defeated.
Manson insisted that the Canadians are not turning acid rain into an economic or political issue.
"We're pushing the acid rain issue to protect the lakes and forests in Eastern Canada," Manson said.
Chris Rice, a spokesman for the EPA in Washington, said the agency is not blind to the fact that jobs depend on the decisions.
"We believe that any attempt to resolve that problem should take into account the social and economic impact, and be dealt with as a national problem," Rice said. "There's no question that the administration and the EPA are sensitive to miners in West Virginia and Ohio."