Environmental Group
Seeks Limits on Mercury
August 04, 2005 — By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Pennsylvania environmental group
said it will urge the state Department of Environmental Protection to
move forward with stricter mercury regulations, despite a letter sent by
three legislators who say they're not necessary.
The letter, sent by the chairmen of both the House and Senate
Environmental Resources and Energy committees, questions the need for
state-specific regulations when the federal Environmental Protection
Agency just introduced new standards in March.
"While we agree that mercury is a serious pollutant that needs to be
addressed, there is an overriding concern of pursuing individual state
action on a pollutant that is a national and even global problem," wrote
Sen. Mary Jo White, R-Venango; Rep. William F. Adolph Jr., R-Delaware;
and Sen. Raphael J. Musto, D-Luzerne.
Because U.S. utilities contribute only about 2 percent of global mercury
emissions, it raises "serious questions over whether even U.S. residents
-- let alone Pennsylvanians -- would be the recipients of the benefits
of a more stringent, state-specific mercury emission standard," they
wrote. But the group Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future says that
statement is misguided.
"We believe the threat to public health is well-documented," said Jan
Jarrett, vice president of the organization, also known as PennFuture.
Mercury is a neurotoxin that builds up in the food chain after it is
released into the air when coal is burned. Fish are the primary way that
humans are exposed to mercury, and those most vulnerable include
pregnant women and young children.
The new federal rule establishes a cap-and-trade program to control
mercury emissions at some, but not all, coal-fired power plants to
achieve reductions of up to 70 percent by 2018.
The state DEP filed a federal lawsuit in May along with 10 other states,
claiming that the federal rule is not strong enough and will not protect
the public health.
Four of the top eight mercury emitting power plants in the U.S. are in
Pennsylvania.
To reduce those emissions, PennFuture filed a petition last summer
asking the state Environmental Quality Board, which must approve DEP
rule changes, to adopt regulations for mercury emissions from coal-fired
power plants in Pennsylvania.
On Aug. 16, DEP will go to the board and recommend that the agency move
forward with creating new emission standards.
Richard Fox, executive director of the Senate Environmental Resources
and Energy Committee, believes implementing more stringent regulations
for coal-burning power plants could result in higher electric rates for
customers. That, in turn, could force those consumers to look elsewhere
for power, causing a hardship for Pennsylvania's economy.
Jarrett disagrees with that assessment, citing mercury "hot spots" where
local emissions have caused even higher buildups of the pollutant. She
believes the primary concern among the legislators writing the letter is
the expense power plants would incur in implementing the stricter
regulations.
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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News |