Senator Collins To Introduce Mercury Legislation

Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) announced she will introduce the bipartisan "Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act" on Monday. This legislation would create a comprehensive new program to measure mercury levels across the United States. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY).

 

This legislation would authorize $18 million in fiscal year 2008, $13 million in fiscal year 2009, $14 million in fiscal year 2010, and additional funding through 2013 for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United States Geological Survey, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to create a nationwide mercury monitoring program. The legislation would establish mercury monitoring sites across the nation in order to measure mercury levels in the air, rain, soil, lakes and streams, and in plants and animals. The legislation would provide new data to help address the flaws in EPA`s existing mercury data, based largely on a computer model, which was used to justify the flawed Clean Air Mercury Rule issued in 2005.

"This legislation would create a comprehensive nationwide mercury monitoring network to provide sound mercury measurements that EPA sorely needs," said Senator Collins. "I was deeply troubled by the computer data which EPA used to justify its mercury rule. This data was neither peer- reviewed nor verified with scientific measurements, and yet EPA used as the basis for its mercury rule which does not account for mercury hotspots and which places children and pregnant women at risk. Hopefully, the new measurements provided by this legislation will form the basis for a new mercury rule which adequately protects human health and environment." Senators Collins and Lieberman met with EPA Administrator Johnson in 2005 in order to express concerns over the EPA`s proposed Clean Air Mercury Rule. At that time, Johnson misrepresented the mercury problem based on computer measurements which were not peer-reviewed and which were not verified with scientific measurements.

The legislation follows up on new studies, by David Evers and Wing Goodale of the Biodiversity Research Institute in Gorham, Maine, Charles Driscoll of Syracuse University, Kathleen Fallon Lambert of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation in Hanover, New Hampshire, and others, which were published in the January issue of BioScience Magazine. The studies demonstrate the existence of mercury hotspots in the northeastern United States and attribute much of the cause of the hotspots to power plant emissions.

The studies conflict markedly with EPA`s computer modeling data which was used to justify the EPA Clean Air Mercury Rule. For example, the studies showed that mercury deposition is five times higher than previously estimated by EPA near a coal plant in the vicinity of a biological mercury hotspot spanning southern New Hampshire and northeastern Massachusetts. The studies demonstrate major flaws in the EPA Mercury Rule, and also demonstrate the need for real mercury measurements, instead of the computer model used by EPA.

"I have long-argued that EPA used faulty science in order to justify an insufficient mercury rule, and these studies prove it," said Senator Collins. "With these studies, David Evers has shown the importance of real, on-the- ground mercury measurements, instead of relying solely on the computer model used by EPA to justify its misguided rule. The legislation I am introducing today would create a nationwide mercury monitoring network to provide the sound science that EPA so badly needs. Congress should act on this legislation expeditiously." Dr. David Evers, executive director of the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham, Maine endorsed the legislation. "The new mercury monitoring bill introduced today by Senator Susan Collins addresses a crucial gap in our national public and environmental health infrastructure," said Evers. "National networks exist for far less hazardous pollutants like acid rain, but there is no coordinated system for tracking mercury and its effects. This bill is particularly important in light of the EPA rule that allows mercury trading by coal-fired power plants. My colleagues and I have demonstrated that mercury emissions produce local impacts and hotspots which trading may perpetuate. It`s time to put a mercury monitoring system in place so that we can directly measure the impact of these federal policies and hold EPA accountable. Senator Collins` bill is comprehensive, scientifically-sound, and vital to protecting the health of fish, wildlife and people. Congress should act quickly to pass this bill and appropriate the necessary funds to put the mercury monitoring network into action."

In addition, Senator Collins is working on new legislation that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants by 90-percent.



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