Challenging federal mercury rollbacks
Court requires EPA to better control mercury from power plants
A federal court has ruled that all of the nation's proposed new power plants must install stringent mercury controls before coming online and gives the Environmental Protection Agency two years to develop similar standards for existing plants. The ruling, a major victory for SELC and the leading public health professionals it represents, states that EPA erred when it took power plants off the list of hazardous pollution sources when issuing its Clean Air Mercury Rule.
©Jim
Waite
Old, coal-fired power plants found in the Southeast contribute disproportionately to the nation's mercury pollution level. SELC represented four national health organizations in their first-ever legal action against EPA.
As a result of the January 2008 ruling, EPA now has two years to develop mercury emissions standards for existing plants and that the nation’s approximately 100 proposed new coal-fired power plants must determine on a case-by-case basis how to control mercury pollution at least as well as the best-controlled similar source. This could result in as much as a 95 percent or greater reduction of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.
The Physicians for Social Responsibility, American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, which represent more than 300,000 doctors, nurses, medical researchers and healthcare professionals, joined 14 state attorneys general, a dozen national environmental organizations and several Indian tribes in a national fight to challenge EPA's failure to properly control mercury emissions from power plants, the largest source of mercury pollution in the U.S.
The problem
Mercury is a toxic pollutant that is linked to permanent damage to the central nervous system. Unborn children, breast-fed infants and children exposed to mercury are at risk for lowered intelligence and learning disabilities. Adults exposed to even low amounts of mercury may also be at higher risk for altered sensation, impaired hearing and vision, and motor disturbances linked directly to exposure from eating contaminated fish.
Southerners face a greater risk of mercury contamination due to a number of factors. The high number of old, coal-fired power plants in the region contribute 60 to 70 percent of the region's mercury pollution. Nationally, power plants are responsible for 40 percent of mercury pollution.
Higher rainfall in the region brings more mercury out of the air and into our waterways. Also, the abundance of wetlands and the unique ecology of the South's blackwater streams accelerates conversion of mercury into a compound - methylmercury - that is toxic to humans and other life forms. And lastly, commercial, recreational and subsistence fishing are major activities in the South.
EPA fails to clean up mercury
Under the Clean Air Act requirements for the strictest pollution controls, roughly 90 percent of power-plant mercury emissions would be cleaned up by 2008. However, despite clear scientific evidence and EPA's own findings to the contrary, the EPA announced in March 2005 that it would remove power plants from its list of mercury sources requiring these controls. In May 2005, the Bush administration followed this announcement by allowing power plants to use a "cap and trade" program that treats mercury emissions as conventional pollutants.
The EPA plan allows power plants over a decade to clean up only 70 percent of the harmful pollution. In fact, the EPA projects that U.S. power plants will continue to emit nearly 20 tons of mercury into the air every year as late as 2030. Furthermore, the cap and trade approach allows for toxic "hot spots" as some sources in the Southeast will find it cheaper to buy credits to emit higher levels of mercury than to implement pollution reduction measures.
