Massachusetts Sets New Limits on Mercury Emissions
May 26, By Stephanie Ebbert, The Boston Globe Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Massachusetts today plans to unveil the toughest limits in the nation on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, three years after the previous administration promised to clean up the state's dirtiest electricity generating facilities.
Activists who live near the power plants and who have been pushing the state
on the issue for years were heartened by the results, though disappointed by the
delays in issuing the regulations and their effective date.
"I'm really glad this is going to happen. I can't believe I'm glad it's
going to happen in 2012," said Sally Huntington, a Westport mother of three
who lives near the Brayton Point Station in Somerset and has been advocating for
changes for eight years.
Power plants produce about one-fifth of mercury emissions in Massachusetts.
The output is still dwarfed by the amount produced by trash incinerators, which
burn up products like thermostats and car switches that contain mercury and
account for about half the emissions, according to the state Department of
Environmental Protection. Three years ago, Acting Governor Jane Swift announced
a crackdown on Massachusetts' oldest, dirtiest power plants, whose age exempts
them from modern, federal air pollution standards. The so-called "Filthy
Five" regulations actually required six power plants to cut emissions of
four pollutants, but put off setting specific targets.
Regulations on two of the other pollutants -- sulfur dioxide and nitrogen
oxide -- are already being phased in.
Limits on carbon dioxide have yet to be set by the Romney administration,
which has focused on working with other Northeast states to develop a regional
program to limit emissions of the gas, which contributes to global warming.
These states are working on a plan to allow companies that cut emissions to sell
their pollution rights to industries and power plants that don't meet reduction
targets -- a program similar to the one that helped control acid rain.
The mercury rule was delayed by the change of administrations, and the
drafting of and public comment on the regulation.
"We really are first in the nation to create a standard for mercury in
the electricity sector," said Ellen Roy Herzfelder, the secretary of the
Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. "It's a huge step forward in
bringing clean air to Massachusetts."
The mercury rule comes as the US Environmental Protection Agency is grappling
with the first federal regulations of the pollutant, measures viewed by
advocates as being far less stringent than Massachusetts' action. The proposed
federal rules call for 70 percent mercury reductions, but would not take full
effect until 2018 and would allow plants to buy and sell pollution credits.
"This is an enforceable regulation that's going to happen," Cindy
Luppi, organizing director for Clean Water Action, said of the state standard.
"It's really a very strong step forward for the state to be taking."
She and other advocates were pleased that Massachusetts dropped a provision that
would have given power plants more time to cut mercury emissions if they helped
recycle mercury from other uses, such as thermometers in schools. Environmental
groups argue that trading programs are better geared toward global pollutants
than metals like mercury, which have the most detrimental effects on local
communities.
Herzfelder echoed advocates' concerns that mercury not only drifts in from
other states but causes an immediate local health concern. "When it comes
out of a stack, it does travel -- but it goes right next door into the lake
right nearby," said Herzfelder.
Health advisories continue to spotlight the risks of eating fish exposed to
mercury. The EPA recently doubled its estimate of the number of children born in
the United States with dangerous levels of mercury in their blood -- to more
than 600,000. Massachusetts warns pregnant and nursing women, as well as
children, not to eat any native fish caught in fresh water in the state. In
Swampscott, the local health board is making restaurants post warnings that
eating fish can be dangerous.
But messages are often lost on consumers -- especially those who don't speak
or read English. In Fall River, immigrant families can often be seen fishing on
the Taunton River, without the benefit of translated warnings, said David Dionne,
a Westport selectman who served as spokesman for the Campaign to Clean up
Brayton Point.
The regulations call for four plants -- Salem Harbor Station in Salem, Mount
Tom in Holyoke, and Brayton Point and NRG Power Station, both in Somerset -- to
cut the amount of mercury escaping their smokestacks.
Mercury emissions have already been trimmed -- from 566 pounds a year -- as
the plants used scrubbers and other means to cut other pollutants required under
the Filthy Five regulations, said Ed Coletta, DEP spokesman. Collectively, the
plants now give off about 185 pounds of mercury per year, according to DEP, with
Brayton Point Station contributing most of the emissions.
Total power plant mercury emissions are expected to drop to 86 pounds in 2008
and 29 pounds by 2012.
A spokesperson for National Energy & Gas Transmission Inc., whose
subsidiary owns the Brayton Point and Salem plants, could not be reached for
comment. Lesa Bader, a spokeswoman for NRG Inc., said she could not comment on
the impact on NRG Somerset Power Station until the company reviewed the new
rules.
"While these new regulations are very challenging, we have every
intention of meeting the new standards," said Joel Weinberg, spokesman for
Northeast Generation Services, which maintains and operates the Mount Tom plant.
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