Bush Aims to Slow Mercury Reduction Efforts

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Bush Aims to Slow Mercury Reduction Efforts

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, February 25, 2003 (ENS) - The Bush administration intends to

roll back efforts to reduce mercury pollution despite increasing scientific

evidence of its health risks, according to public health and environmental

advocacy groups.

Critics contend the administration's Clear Skies initiative would allow coal

fired power plants, the leading U.S. source of mercury pollution, to emit three

times the amount of the toxic substance into the atmosphere than allowed under

existing law.

The administration's policy is " outrageous, " former Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA) Administrator Carol Browner told reporters at a National Press Club

briefing.

" It means more mercury in the air for longer, " said Browner, who served as EPA

chief from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.

Carol Browner headed the U.S. EPA during the Clinton administration. (Photo

courtesy U. of St. Thomas)Under the Clean Air Act, Browner explained, EPA must

issue " maximum achievable control technology " standards for coal-fired power

plants, with compliance by the end of 2007.

In December 2001, EPA said these standards could reduce mercury emissions from

power plants by about 90 percent, reducing the total to some five tons by 2007.

But under the Clear Skies initiative, Browner said, mercury emissions are capped

at 26 tons in 2010 and capped at 15 tons by 2018.

" Mercury is the poster child for what is wrong with the President's plan, " said

Frank O'Donnell, executive director of Clean Air Trust, a nonprofit

environmental group.

" The administration appears motivated by a desire to weaken and delay controls

of mercury, " he said.

Current emissions of mercury add to the existing concentration, which is

continuously mobilized, deposited on land and water, and remobilized.

The primary health risk from mercury occurs when airborne mercury falls into

surface waters where it can accumulate in streams and oceans. Bacteria in the

water transform mercury into methylmercury, which fish absorb when they eat

aquatic organisms. Humans absorb it when they eat fish.

Scientists have shown that methylmercury can cause brain and nerve damage, and

studies indicate children and women of childbearing age are at a

disproportionate risk.

Yesterday EPA released its second annual report on environmental factors

affecting children's health, which found eight percent of women of childbearing

age have unsafe levels of mercury in their bodies. This puts the number of

babies at risk at about 300,000.

Coal fired plants are the nation's largest source of mercury emissions,

contributing some 33 percent of the U.S. total emissions from industrial

sources.

Currently these plants are exempt from clean air standards, but the other two

large sources of mercury, medical and municipal waste incinerators, are tightly

regulated.

Browner said that the EPA's success cutting mercury emissions from these two

sources demonstrates that the Clean Air Act is the proper law to address

reductions from power plants.

Municipal waste incinerators, or combustors, were responsible for some 20

percent of the nation's mercury emissions in 1990. Regulations finalized in 1995

have reduced emissions from these facilities by some 90 percent, according to

EPA.

Medical waste incinerators were responsible for some 24 percent of the total

national mercury emissions in 1990. Emissions controls finalized in 1997 are

credited with cutting emissions from medical waste incinerators by some 94

percent, the EPA says.

Yet the Bush administration, along with the coal fired power plant industry,

argues that the technology to cut mercury emissions is unproven and too

expensive to be forced upon the industry at this time.

" EPA should first determine what levels of mercury reduction can be gained as a

result of controls on other air pollutants before pursuing substantial

additional reductions of mercury, " said Scott Segal, director of the Electric

Reliability Coordinating Council (ERCC), a lobbying group of power generating

companies.

" At that time, EPA must carefully consider what levels of control are

technologically feasible before pressing on, " said Segal.

Browner contends that technologies for reducing mercury emissions do exist and

adds that whenever EPA mandates any sort of pollution reductions, market forces

rapidly push forward improvements to existing control technologies.

Coal fired power plant in New Mexico (Photo courtesy New Mexico Solar Energy

Assn.) " No one in the industry can say with a straight face that there aren't

existing technologies to cut mercury emissions, " Felice Stadler, national policy

coordinator of the Clean the Air Campaign for the National Wildlife Federation

(NWF) told reporters. " We shouldn't even be having this debate. "

Segal says the ERCC is concerned that Browner and other critics of the Clear

Skies initiative are supporting " draconian levels of mercury reduction " that are

scientifically unproven.

Still, there is rising evidence of the health and environmental risks from

mercury pollution beyond yesterday's new EPA report.

Last weekend, five of California's largest grocery retailers began displaying

signs cautioning consumers about the dangers of mercury in fish.

Forty-four state governments now warn women and children to limit or avoid

eating some fish for fear of mercury contamination.

Browner criticized the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its lack of

action. Last July, an FDA food safety committee recommended that pregnant women

and children be warned to limit consumption of canned tuna due to mercury. But

the FDA has yet to act on these recommendations.

" There is very little visibility about this problem, " said Dr. Robert Goyer,

former chairman of National Academy of Sciences committee on mercury. " There is

a lack of public awareness. "

The EPA report on children's health released yesterday provides additional

evidence that the agency's regulatory efforts can protect public health, Browner

said.

The report, " America's Children and the Environment, " shows a decline in the

number of children with elevated blood levels and a reduction in children's

exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. Both reductions were prompted by agency

regulatory action.

The report cites mercury as an " emerging issue, " but offers little specific

guidance for future agency efforts to reduce mercury pollution.

" The administration should follow the law on the books, " Browner said. " The

science is there, the technology is there and so is the law. We now how to solve

this problem. "

Criticism of the Bush administration's policies on mercury extends to its

international efforts, which many contend are designed to impede strong action

to address the issue on a global scale.

In early February, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP) agreed to crack down on sources of mercury emissions around the

globe.

" Mercury is a huge problem, a traveler without a passport, that spreads around

the world in air and water, " said Klaus Töpfer, executive director of UNEP.

" Action is necessary. We have to reduce drastically and as soon as possible the

risk it poses to a lot of people. "

But objections from the U.S. delegation prevented the Governing Council from

adopting binding limits on emissions from power plants and other major mercury

sources.

Several members of Congress, including Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of

Vermont and Representative Henry Waxman of California, also a Democrat, sent a

joint letter yesterday to the President and key administration officials

expressing concern about the U.S. positions during these negotiations.

The letter details a confidential U.S. negotiating document that revealed the

administration's strategy to " oppose efforts " to develop a binding international

agreement on mercury.

" Under previous administrations, the United States had a well deserved

reputation as a world leader on the environment, " the letter says. " The series

of decisions you are making diminishes that reputation. "

" Even more importantly, it threatens incalculable harm to the environment and

the health of our children. "

The EPA's report on children's health can be viewed at:

http://www.epa.gov/envirohealth/children/

 

 

 

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Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2003.

 

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