State tackles mercury pollution

Proposed rule seeks to crack down on power plant emissions

On Feb. 22, the state Environmental Protection Division released one of the strongest air pollution rules in state history, proposing to reduce mercury pollution by a minimum of 80 percent by 2010 and 90 percent by as early as 2012.

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It’s a major step that, if approved, would help reduce a dangerous toxin that attacks the central nervous system and can leave children with severe learning disabilities.

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In Georgia, 17 percent of women between the ages of 16 and 49 were found to have amounts of mercury in their blood that are considered dangerous by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to hair tests conducted by Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. The EPA has developed mercury health standards only for women of childbearing age, because fetuses and breast-fed infants exposed to too much mercury are susceptible to learning disabilities.

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What’s more, adults exposed to even low amounts of mercury are at a higher risk for impaired vision and hearing.

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The largest source of mercury pollution is coal-burning power plants, which emit about 42 percent of the mercury in the country, according to the Sierra Club. The metal finds its way into humans by settling into oceans, lakes, streams and rivers, where it eventually is consumed by fish that in turn are consumed by people.

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Of the 63 Georgia lakes the EPD monitors, 33 are home to fish that shouldn’t be eaten regularly because of mercury contamination, according to the EPD. And 70 of the state’s 128 rivers carry mercury warnings.

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“It’s not as strong as the Clean Air Act would have required, but it’s far more protective than the Bush administration’s rule,” the Sierra Club’s Colleen Keirnan says of the state’s proposal. “The EPD is to be commended.”

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But Lolita Jackson, a spokeswoman for Georgia Power, says the company will try to convince the EPD to instead adopt the Bush administration’s rules, which rely on a trading system to reduce mercury nationwide instead of within the state.

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Georgia Power and its sister company, Savannah Electric, emit 2,461 pounds of mercury into Georgia’s air every year, compared with 1,112 pounds from the rest of the state’s mercury producers combined, according to the state’s Toxics Release Inventory.

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The company is spending $2 billion over the next five years on pollution controls that will reduce mercury emissions at three of its plants by up to 80 percent, according to Georgia Power.

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Jackson says it’s unclear how much money Georgia Power would have to spend to meet the state’s requirements if the proposed rule becomes official.

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The state EPD will take comments from the public later this spring, and will seek to finalize the rule by November.

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GET INVOLVED: For more info on mercury pollution and to order a mercury hair-testing kit, visit www.greenpeaceusa.org/mercury. To view the state’s proposed rule, visit www.air.dnr.state.ga.us/airpermet, then click on “hot topics,” then on “CAIR/CAMR.”






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