Two down, 500 to go.

Cranberry Lake is the third largest in the Adirondacks.In an indication that acid rain recovery is under way, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has removed Cranberry Lake and Gull Pond -- both in St. Lawrence County -- from its list of polluted waters.  However, the Adirondack Council says more emissions reductions are needed to cleanse more than 500 upstate lakes still affected.

The council is urging members of New York's congressional delegation to support a bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Thomas Carper, D-DE, that would compel a 50 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions by 2015 and an 80 percent cut in sulfur dioxide emissions by 2018, the Troy Record reported. Sulfur and nitrogen are the main precursors to acid rain.

Carper's bill also would impose new regulations to reduce mercury emissions by at least 90 percent by 2012.

"Hundreds of lakes and ponds remain too acidic to support their native wildlife," Brian Houseal, executive director of the Adirondack Council, said. "In others, wildlife is being steadily poisoned by mercury contamination, which is worsened by the acidic conditions in soils and waters."