Adirondack Council records

The Adirondack Council was founded in 1975. Its mission is to ensure the ecological integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. To achieve its mission, it sponsors and publishes research; educates the public and policymakers; advocates for regulations, policies, and funding to benefit the Park’s environment and communities; monitors compliance, proposals, legislation, and policies impacting the Park; and, takes legal action when necessary to uphold constitutional protections and agency policies established to protect the Adirondacks. Adirondack Council has offices in Albany and Elizabethtown, New York.

The Council’s actions on combating acid rain go back as far as 1978. In 1990, the Council co-directed and helped fund a national clean air advocacy meeting in Washington, D.C. This resulted in the passing of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Within two years, a pollution trading scheme initiated by the EPA misled the public that it would end acidity in Adirondack lakes and streams. It didn’t work and further action was still needed.

The Council’s response to acid rain in the late 1990s and early 2000s center on revising previous legislation for better environmental protection. Specifically, to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury from polluting power plants. Their efforts culminated in testimonies before the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property and Nuclear Safety. The Adirondack Council urged the government to finish the job Congress started in 1990. Through public outreach, research, legislative wrangling, and education, it achieved major successes in 2002 and 2003 with the passing of the Clean Power Act and Clean Skies Initiative.