RICHLAND, Wash. -- Soot from pollution causes winter snowpacks
to warm, shrink and warm some more. This continuous cycle sends
snowmelt streaming down mountains as much as a month early, a
new study finds. How pollution affects a mountain range's
natural water reservoirs is important for water resource
managers in the western United States and Canada who plan for
hydroelectricity generation, fisheries and farming. Scientists
at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory conducted the first-ever study of soot on snow in the
western states at a scale that predicted impacts along mountain
ranges. They found that soot warms up the snow and the air above
it by up to 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit, causing snow to melt. "If we
can project the future -- how much water we'll be getting from
the rivers and when -- then we can better plan for its many
uses," said atmospheric scientist Yun Qian. "Snowmelt can be up
to 75 percent of the water supply, in some regions. These
changes can affect the water suppl