The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the first-ever national controls on mercury and other air pollution toxics from power plants. The health-based regulations are expected to prevent as many as 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks a year.

The standards, announced Wednesday in response to a court deadline, are designed to reduce emissions of mercury -- a potent neurotoxin -- arsenic, chromium, lead, nickel and acid gases from power plants by 91 percent, while providing the utility industry four years to comply.

There are now no national standards for mercury emissions and acid gases, half of which come from power plants. There are 17 states with mercury controls but Pennsylvania is not among them.

Two Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants, the Keystone power plant in Armstrong County and the Conemaugh power plant in Indiana County, are listed among the top 25 mercury emitters in the U.S., according to a report released today by the Environmental Defense Fund.

"Today's announcement is 20 years in the making, and is a significant milestone in the Clean Air Act's already unprecedented record of ensuring our children are protected from the damaging effects of toxic air pollution," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at a news conference in Washington, D.C. "With the help of existing technologies, we will be able to take reasonable steps that will provide dramatic protections to our children and loved ones, preventing premature deaths, heart attacks, and asthma attacks."

The proposed rule is open for public comment. A final rule is expected in November.

Coal-fired power plants are responsible for 99 percent of mercury emissions from the electric power industry. The toxic pollutants are known to cause neurological damage, according to the EPA, including lower IQ in children. The pollutants also cause environmental damage to rivers, lakes and streams and the fish that live in them. Many states, including Pennsylvania, have fish consumption advisories due to mercury pollution.

"This is historic. It would end the lethal loophole that permits coal-burning power plants to spew poisonous pollution into the air," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, an environmental organization focused on air quality. "Indeed, this is the single biggest step for public health protection that the EPA will take this year. Thousands of Americans will live longer and many millions will breathe easier as a result. Not only that, but fish will be safer to eat as toxic mercury is reduced from water bodies."

The EPA estimates that the proposed rule's public health and economic benefits, including the creation of an estimated 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 long-term maintenance and operational jobs, will greatly exceed the costs of implementation. Every dollar spent to install pollution controls will produce public health and economic business benefits of up to $13 dollars. That could total as much as $140 billion annually.

Ms. Jackson said the installation of toxics pollution controls at the 44 percent of the nation's coal-fired power plants that have no controls could lead to utility bill increases of from $3 to $4 a month for consumers. It might also cause utilities to close some of the nation's oldest and biggest polluting power plants and invest in new power plant construction instead.

First Published: March 16, 2011, 3:45 p.m.