8, which is almost the same rating as vinegar ("Acid Deposition", 2002). Already 140 Ontario lakes are completely dead or dying. An additional forty eight thousand are vulnerable to acid rain due to the surrounding acidic soils. (Eyre S. R., 1963).
Little defense, major cost.
In southern regions of Ontario, near the Great Lakes, substances such as limestone or similar antacids can neutralize acids entering the body of water, thereby protecting it. However, large areas of Ontario that are near the Pre-Cambrian Shield have granite based geology and little topsoil (" Acid Deposition", 2002). They don't have enough buffering capacity to neutralize even small amounts of acid absorbed by the soil and the lakes. Limestone or lime (a naturally-occurring basic compound) can be added to acidic lakes to "cancel out" the acidity. Liming tends to be expensive, has to be done repeatedly to keep the water from returning to its acidic condition, and is considered a short-term remedy in only specific areas rather than an effort to reduce or prevent pollution ("What are Acid- 2002). Furthermore, it does not solve the broader problems of changes in soil chemistry and forest health in the watershed, and does nothing to address visibility reductions, materials damage, and risk to human health. Over time, the basic environment will shift from an alkaline to an acidic one (Macalady 1998). This is why lakes in the Muskoka, Haliburton, Algonquin, Parry Sound and Manitoulin districts could lose their fisheries if sulfur emissions are not reduced substantially. In Canada, Ontario alone has lost fish in an estimated four thousand lakes and authorities calculate that Ontario stands to lose fish in forty eight thousand, five hundred more lakes within the next twenty years if acid rain continues at the present rate (Lovrich, et al 1992). Ontario is not alone, on Nova Scotia's eastern most shores; almost every river flowing to the Atlantic Ocean is poisoned with acid, further threatening a two million dollar a year fishing industry.