ONE OF THE most obvious effects of acid rain was dead and dying lakes and waterways. A dead lake is created when the acid levels change the pH of the water and kill off the creatures that inhabit the lake. Lakes and streams suffering from these effects were being discovered all over the world in the 1980s when the issue of acid rain came to the forefront of environmental concerns.

A Tale of Two Lakes

In an effort to discover exactly how acid rain destroys lakes, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison began a landmark study on the effects of acid rain. The subject of their research was a lake called Little Rock in Wisconsin. Scientists proposed introducing acid into the lake to study its effects.

The idea of intentionally destroying a lake was met with a great deal of...