Your friend's data is 40 years out of date!
and it never was the *whole* state..
What part of upstate NY are you moving to?
there has been problems with acid rain in the Adirondacks..
but that was 30-40 ago..(1960's, 1970's, maybe 80's)
but things have been gradually improving in the past few decades..
but the rest of the state is fine..never had any acid rain.
I have been collecting rainwater for 17 years in Rochester..no issues.
unless you are moving to a mountain top in the Adirondacks, the rain in NY state is just as clean as anywhere else on the east coast..
we used to be downwind from the largest industrial region in the world (the Great Lakes basin)
but most of the heavy industry is now gone..
things are much better now, environmentally speaking, than they were in the first 3/4 of the 20th century..
Scot