Great Lakes Article:

Environmental groups fear Bush will propose weak rule to stem mercury contamination in Ohio
By Greg Wright
Gannett News Service
12/09/03


WASHINGTON -- Ohio environmental groups said Monday they are worried the Bush administration will propose new rules next week that will let power plants continue to release hundreds of pounds of mercury, a toxic substance that causes nerve damage and birth defects.

But an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to be released by Dec. 15 will slash mercury emissions by 70 percent by 2018, EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman said.

"It's important to note this is the first time mercury emissions from power plants will be regulated," Bergman said. "Reports that we will be rolling back regulations (are) untrue -- there have been no rules on mercury emissions on power plants."

Coal-fired power plants discharged more than 8,000 pounds of mercury in Ohio in 2001, according to a report released last week by the Ohio Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) and the Ohio Environmental Council. The report said American Electric Power in Columbus released 950 pounds of mercury from its Gavin plant and 910 pounds from a Conesville facility in 2001 -- the most for any Ohio-based company.

Ohio PIRG officials could not immediately cite a case of mercury poisoning connected to American Electric Power, FirstEnergy, Dayton Power and Light or Ohio Valley Electric Corp. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 1999 that one out of 10 American women of childbearing age had near-dangerous levels of mercury in their blood, averaging 6.2 parts per billion.

The Ohio health department earlier this year warned children and women of childbearing age not to eat more than one meal of fish caught from state waters per week because of the risk of mercury poisoning.

EPA aides said the new rule would cut U.S. power plant emissions to just 15 tons a year by 2018. However, Ohio PIRG spokeswoman Rose Garr said the EPA's so-called "cap and trade" plan to get mercury out of the atmosphere is flawed.

The government plan would require plants that do not buy mercury filters for smokestacks to purchase mercury reduction credits from plants in other parts of the country that do install the gear, Garr said.

The credit purchases would be a penalty for plants that refused to modernize equipment, Ohio PIRG officials said.

But the proposed rule would create mercury "hot spots" across the nation, with plants in some areas continuing to dump the toxin into air and water, Garr said.

"We want (EPA) to issue a much stronger rule to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent," she said.