Georgia may adopt tougher limits on mercury releases

 

May 27 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - S. Heather Duncan The Macon Telegraph, Ga.

For the first time ever, Georgia is set to limit the amount of mercury that power plants can release into the air.

As proposed, the state mercury rules are more strict than those issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, although not as tough as originally outlined last year. The state Board of Natural Resources is scheduled to vote on adopting the mercury limits in June.

Georgia is not alone in going beyond the federal rules, which have been widely criticized as too weak not only by environmental groups but by many states. The Carolinas and Florida are also opting for various tougher approaches.

Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but power plants increase its concentration in the environment by releasing it into the air. When it falls to the ground with rain and enters waterways, mercury takes on a more toxic form that accumulates in fish -- and the people who eat them.

As a neurotoxin, mercury can damage fetuses and cause developmental problems in children. The state Environmental Protection Division has estimated that more than 20,000 children may be born in Georgia each year with dangerously high levels of mercury in their blood.

Georgians have been warned to limit the amount of fish they eat, especially largemouth bass or catfish, from more than 2,000 miles of Georgia waterways because of mercury contamination.

Locally, mercury advisories have been issued for Lake Tobesofkee in Bibb County, Little Ocmulgee State Park Lake near McRae, the Flint River in Upson, Taylor, Macon and Dooly counties, and the Ocmulgee River in Bibb, Wilcox, Telfair and Wheeler counties.

Some environmental groups have endorsed Georgia's new mercury rules, but others say they don't go far enough.

"You realize what a bad deal you're getting when you look at what we started with," said Jennette Gayer, a policy advocate for Environment Georgia. "What we have now isn't exactly the opposite, but it's close."

But Julie Mayfield, vice president and general counsel of the Georgia Conservancy, said her group supports the state's approach. "It will result in more mercury emissions reduction than the federal rule, and that alone is a victory," she said.

Georgia Power, the primary power company operating in the state, had argued for a state program mirroring the more permissive federal one. Although it didn't get that, it did receive many concessions.

Georgia Power's Plant Scherer in Monroe County is responsible for about 40 percent of Georgia's mercury emissions, according to environmental agency records. EPD officials have said that the effect of mercury pollution is much greater close to the source, so tough rules would have a local impact.

TIMETABLES HELP

One of the reasons Georgia's mercury plan is better than the federal one is that it lays out a timetable for adding pollution controls at power plants around the state, said Heather Abrams, the state air branch chief. Georgia will also require all new plants to install the best mercury controls possible.

Plant Scherer would have to install mercury control technology on all four of its units by 2010. In addition, to help meet other environmental standards, Scherer will be required to install controls that will reduce its release of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming.

Georgia Power spokeswoman Lolita Jackson said the company has already started construction of the new equipment at Plant Scherer. She said the cost hasn't yet been finalized, and she declined to share an estimate.

Jackson said the company is comfortable with the mercury rules as they have evolved.

Georgia's timetable requires all top-of-the-line controls installed by 2015, three years before the EPA, Abrams said.

Originally, the state EPD had proposed limiting the total mercury that could be released per year. The state also would not have participated in most aspects of the federal "cap-and-trade" mercury program.

The federal cap-and-trade approach essentially lets companies buy and sell "credits" that allow some mercury pollution, as long as America's total emissions remain below a certain level.

Abrams said the EPA didn't want to approve Georgia's attempt to opt out of the cap-and-trade program or limit companies' ability to bring mercury credits into the state (allowing more mercury pollution in Georgia). Abrams said the EPA found this approach too complicated.

However, because the Georgia rule includes such sweeping requirements for specific plants, Georgia Power has indicated that it may not need to buy any mercury credits anyway. It could still sell mercury credits out of state.

Environment Georgia, the Georgia Conservancy and the Sierra Club opposed the state's participation in the cap-and-trade program. Gayer said she thinks Georgia Power is likely to sell its pollution credits to power plants owned by its parent company, Southern Company, in neighboring states. This could still hurt Georgians who might end up eating contaminated seafood from states such as Alabama and breathing air polluted by plants along Georgia's border, she said.

Some environmental advocates also protest that without requiring specific mercury reductions, there is no way to measure success.

"There is nothing that will allow the concerned citizen to say, 'Have we reduced mercury? Have we done what we wanted to do?' " said Gayer, the policy advocate with Environment Georgia.

"It's almost ridiculous that (Georgia Power is) saying, 'We'll install these controls but we won't guarantee the results,'" she said. "This can cause brain cancer. You can't just say, 'We're going to run these things correctly and you should trust us.' "

But Abrams said the state and Georgia Power agreed on the best equipment, they just disagreed on how much mercury it could remove. Jackson, with Georgia Power, said most of it is so new it doesn't have a proven track record, so the company didn't want to commit to accomplishing a specific reduction.

The EPD anticipates that the equipment will reduce 85 percent to 90 percent of the mercury released in the state by 2018.

Abrams and Mayfield said one of the best features of the Georgia rules is a scheduled revaluation of the program in 2023. The EPD will be doing extensive fish tissue sampling in the meantime so the state can better measure mercury reductions and decide if more limits are needed, Abrams said.

To contact writer S. Heather Duncan, call 744-4225.