Climate change is obviously the most pressing environmental issue we currently face. It’s an issue I’ve discussed with colleagues since the late 1980’s when I was in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today, the changes we need to make to slow the change seem overwhelming. But, our society has tackled other big environmental issues in the past and beat them back. One of these successes was on my mind in October when we kayaked in Acadia National Park.

Acadia offers abundant hiking and biking opportunities, but on an unseasonably warm October day we decided to lower the kayaks off the campervan and go for a paddle on Eagle Lake. We had previously ridden our bikes on the carriage roads circling Eagle Lake, but the tree canopy along the roads limited views of the surrounding mountain slopes. Kayaking is great because it provides the opportunity to gain a different perspective on the landscape. It also uses a different set of muscles – my legs were a little weary from the hiking and biking we had recently done.

Before leaving our campsite, we checked the weather forecast as well as access conditions to the lake. In addition to the common weather apps, I use Windy, an app for sailors, windsurfers, and other outdoor recreationists, that provides detailed wind speed and direction forecasts. While headwinds on a bike ride are annoying, windy conditions and a long fetch will create conditions not safe for kayaking. On this day, weather conditions looked good. I also scanned Google Earth to view the short dirt road leading to the boat launch and the nearby parking area. Both looked okay for our 21-foot campervan. Our van has about the same ground clearance as a Subaru Outback, but due to its length, we’re much more likely to scrape the vehicle’s underside on an uneven dirt road. Given that I’ve driven all wheel drive Subarus for over 30 years, I’m still trying to teach myself that the van can’t go some places I would not hesitate to drive the Subaru.

Out of curiosity, I searched the internet for other information about Eagle Lake and learned that this surface water body was the source for Bar Harbor’s drinking water. I thought this seemed unusual, a lake within a national park serving as a community’s water supply. I later learned that Eagle Lake was first used as a public water supply for Bar Harbor in the mid 1870’s (well before the park was established) after an outbreak of typhoid and scarlatina attributed to contaminated water created a perception that Bar Harbor was unhealthy. To combat this issue, several businessmen collaborated to form the Bar Harbor Water Company which tapped Eagle Lake and its surrounding watershed for its water supply. A reservoir and piping distribution system was constructed, and clean water sourced from Eagle Lake helped to fuel the expansion of Bar Harbor. Today, a dam at the north end of the lake maintains a water level a few feet higher than the lake’s naturally occurring level.

We pushed away from the boat ramp into shallow water, dodging a few boulders. A favorite You Tuber, bicyclist Ryan Van Duzer, begins each bike ride with the saying “No crashies, no whammies, no flatties” to ward off bad occurrences on his bike. As we paddled away from the boat ramp, our kayaking equivalent saying is “No flippies, no swampies, no leakies.” Once on the water, we were able to take in sweeping views of Cadillac Mountain to the east, the Bubbles to the south, and Sargent Mountain to the southwest. The water was cold and clear. We could easily see the boulders and cobbles on the lake bottom. We also observed a line of buoys prohibiting access to the northeast corner of the lake, where the dam and water supply inlet were located.

It’s hard to imagine that a water body like Eagle Lake is not a nearly perfect example of a pristine lake untouched by impacts attributable to land development and industrialization. Our view of the surrounding watershed was only marred by a few glimpses of the nearby two-lane park road. But we have learned far away pollution sources can mar lakes such as Eagle Lake. Research in the early 1970s at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in nearby New Hampshire found rainwater with a pH of about 4 (“normal” rain has a pH above 5), and this acidic precipitation was altering the natural ecosystems of the forest and water bodies. The low pH rainwater was attributed to “acid rain” which occurs due to the presence of elevated levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere. These pollutants primarily come from industrial sources discharging into the atmosphere.  But there were no nearby factories to cause this acid rain. Instead, it was found that the large coal fired power plants in the Midwest (more than 500 miles away) were emitting significant quantities of pollutants, and the effects were being felt in far downwind areas such as the northeastern United States. The lakes in the northeast were particularly vulnerable to acid rain because of the low buffering capacity of the glacially derived soils in the surrounding watersheds. Acid rain was a huge environmental issue in the 1970s and 1980s.

The term “acid rain” was actually first used in 1872 by a Scottish chemist named Robert Angus Smith who studied the chemistry of atmospheric precipitation. He found acidic rain in British cities, the result of burning coal rich in sulfur. The problems associated with acid rain caused by long range transport from power plants was not realized until the 1970s. At that time, increasing acidity of lakes and streams throughout northeastern United States, such as the lakes and streams of Acadia, was measured. In 1980, the United States Congress passed the Acid Deposition Act to establish a research program to evaluate the problem and in 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act established a control on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions. As a result of these regulatory measures and the ensuing technological changes, the US Environmental Protection Agency reports sulfur dioxide concentrations in air have dropped by about 93%. Monitoring of lakes throughout the northeast have measured improving trends in sulfate and pH levels. A major environmental issue of the 1970s has been solved. As reported by the BBC, “…acid rain went from being a pollution disaster to an environmental success story.”

We paddled along the west shoreline of Eagle Lake to a turnaround point about 1.5 miles from the boat launch. Our arms were wet due to the occasional splashes from small waves lapping on our kayak hulls. As we turned to the north, we naively asked each other why the lake was named Eagle Lake. Shortly thereafter, we observed two eagles perched in trees overlooking the east shoreline of the lake. We chuckled. Another recent environmental success story is the growth of the eagle population, but that can be a topic for another post.

Our return to the boat ramp was aided by a slight tailwind. We tried to linger because we enjoyed being the only boaters on the over 400-acre lake, but nature won as the wind pushed us ashore. Our kayaks scuffed along the boat ramp, but we had successfully avoiding flipping, swamping, and sinking during this kayak adventure (we have a relatively low bar for success…). Similarly, a key environmental issue of the 1970s – acid rain – has been taken on and mitigated. The reduced impact of acid rain gives us hope that we can work to tackle the main environmental issue of today.

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