Hold firm: The EPA must draw a line on mercury emissions
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Last March, the Environmental Protection Agency offered a plan to enact the first national controls on mercury and other airborne toxics generated by electric utilities. Since then, corporate polluters have used stall tactics and shell games to block the rules.
The EPA is under a court-ordered deadline of Dec. 16 to make the new rules final. Regulators must hold tight to the science behind their recommendations, and keep public health ahead of politics.
Pennsylvania has the nation's second-largest mercury emissions, after Texas. Two coal-fired power plants, Keystone in Armstrong County and Conemaugh in Indiana County, are among the top 25 mercury emitters in the country, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.
The new controls would be expensive, but so are the hidden costs that power plants pass on to those who ingest mercury, a potent toxin that attacks the brain and central nervous system.
Mercury is especially harmful to young mothers and children. As it falls from the sky and settles on large bodies of water, mercury contaminates fish. The new form created in the water is many times more acute than what comes out of smokestacks.
The EPA estimates its new standards will cut emissions by 91 percent, and prevent 17,000 premature deaths a year. Health experts have wanted for years to get mercury covered by the federal Clean Air Act, a landmark environmental law. Improvements to the act aimed at controlling smog-forming ozone and fine particles are projected to prevent 230,000 premature deaths by 2020, the EPA says.
Coal-fired power plants produce more hazardous air emissions than other sources of industrial pollution. The American Lung Association says such plants are releasing mercury in "staggering" amounts.
Pennsylvania officials can show leadership on this critical issue by supporting federal rules that protect public health over the financial interests of large corporations.
First Published December 14, 2011 12:00 am
