Senators introduce mercury-monitoring bill

Washington (Platts)--14Mar2007

One Republican and two Democratic senators have introduced legislation that
they say will "create a comprehensive new program" to measure mercury levels
nationwide.

Senators Susan Collins, Republican-Maine; Joe Lieberman,
Independent-Connecticut; and Hillary Clinton, Democrat-New York; announced the
bill Monday as the bipartisan Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act.

"This legislation would create a comprehensive nationwide mercury monitoring
network to provide sound mercury measurements that [the Environmental
Protection Agency] sorely needs," Collins said in a statement.

The legislation would authorize $18 million in fiscal year 2008, $13 million
in fiscal 2009, $14 million in fiscal 2010 and additional funding through 2013
for the EPA, US Geological Survey, US Fish and Wildlife Service and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to create a nationwide mercury
monitoring program. The legislation would establish monitoring sites 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," the senators said
in the statement.

Collins and Lieberman met with EPA Administrator Steve Johnson in 2005 to
express concerns over CAMR. "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problem based on computer measurements, which were not peer-reviewed and which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 senators said.

EPA spokeswoman Jessica Emond responded that the Clean Air Interstate Rule and
CAMR will reduce electric utility emissions by nearly 70% from 1999 levels
when fully implemented. "Additionally, EPA is currently working with
monitoring, modeling and mercury experts to establish a coordinated,
nationwide network of monitoring sites," she said.

The legislation follows up on various new studies that "demonstrate the
existence of mercury hotspots in the northeastern United States and attribute
much of the cause of the hotspots to power plant emissions," according to the
senators. "The studies conflict markedly with EPA's computer modeling data
which was used to justify" CAMR. "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."

-- Steve Hooks, steve_hooks@platts.com