Mercury Debate Heats Up Again

The debate over mercury emissions is once again reaching a feverish pitch. Two recent scientific reports say that mercury levels near some coal-fired power plants are much greater than previously thought, giving critics of the current administration's plan to curb such toxins the ammo they need to change the regulatory protocol.

At least five states in the Northeast and parts of Canada are considered to be mercury "hotspots" where the pollutant hovers overhead and creates dangers for local eco-systems and any small children and pregnant women who might eat contaminated fish, all according to the journal BioScience. The studies may prove to be significant, prompting a change in the methods by which utilities would have to control their mercury releases.

The Bush administration enacted the Clean Air Mercury Rules to cut mercury levels in 2005. It notes that its initiatives would reduce such emissions by 70 percent from 1999 levels -- the first such regulatory attempt by any administration. Toward that end, pollution levels would be cut from 48 tons today to 15 tons over 20 years. It would do this through a series of actions that include implementing a ceiling on such emissions beginning in 2010 as well as by establishing a cap-and-trade program to allow utilities that do better than the limits to sell "credits" to those that exceed the caps.

"Trading has the potential to lead to static or increased emissions in some areas of the United States," scientists write in the new BioDiversity Research Institute report published in BioScience . They go on to say that by focusing their research on fish and wildlife in problematic areas, they are able to determine the effects that coal-powered generators -- the totality of mercury hotspots -- are having on local eco-systems.

The United States has at least 600 coal-fired power plants that release 48 tons of mercury a year. The Clean Air Mercury Rule will work in two phases: The first will cut mercury emissions to 38 tons per year in 2010 while the second will limit releases to 15 tons a year in 2018. The pollutant is released when coal is burned and flows out of facilities' smoke stacks, then it falls into the ground and water.

The cap-and-trade program is modeled after an existing -- and effective -- one to cut sulfur dioxide. But mercury and sulfur dioxide are fundamentally different. Mercury has a greater potential to fall back to earth, some scientists say, which places prospective "hot spot" communities at risks. Data collected over eight years by Penn State University for the Department of Environmental Protection, for example, show mercury levels 47 percent higher in areas closer to power plants.

Mercury is particularly insidious because it can be spread globally. The EPA estimates that about 50 percent of the mercury deposits in the United States emanate from local sources while another 40 percent comes from outside the country's borders, mostly Asia. But, new studies suggest that nearby coal plants can create hotspots, which would mostly affect poorer communities that don't have political muscle.

Constant Pressures

Critics of the president's plan are taking aim. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says that she will re-introduce legislation to create a network that would rely on first-hand accounts of mercury levels and not on computer-generated models that are currently in use. Her plan would also require such releases to be reduced by 90 percent, and sooner than the president's plan.

"I have long-argued that EPA used faulty science in order to justify an insufficient mercury rule, and these studies prove it," says Senator Collins. "EPA misrepresented the mercury problem based on computer data which had not been peer-reviewed, and then put out a rule which does not account for mercury hotspots ..."

Modern coal-fired generators can limit mercury emissions but the older plants that are far less efficient are the ones with the biggest problems. That's why the environmental community favors mandatory mercury reductions and forcing utilities to use the latest technologies, which they say can cut as much as 90 percent of all such emissions.

WE Energies and the Department of Energy, for example, are involved in a mercury removal program. It began operating in January 2006 and has worked to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent. ADA-ES, a Colorado-based company making mercury control equipment, says that WE's success can be replicated by other utilities.

Such advances have pushed 21 states to go beyond what the federal government is now doing. Many of those states, that include California, New York and Texas, aim to achieve 90 percent reductions in shorter time frames. Manufacturers of mercury-control equipment say that those kinds of law provide them with the certainty they need to advance their research and development.

The Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency issued a statement that essentially says it is constantly evaluating its own policy, with the underlying implication being that it would be open to change under the right circumstances. The administration and its supporters have long argued that the technologies do not currently exist to make more drastic cuts in mercury emissions. Therefore, a properly implemented cap-and-trade is currently the best way to achieve such reductions.

Atlanta-based Southern Co. operates one of the nation's largest coal-burning fleets and says that it plans to spend $6 billion over 10 years to meet the new federal mercury standards. A more flexible regulatory approach is preferable, it maintains, noting that without it there would be years of litigation that would stall any progress.

Technologies will improve and utilities will respond. But, the attention given to mercury emissions now has prompted many such companies to implement best available technologies at their power plants. The new studies on mercury hotspots may help speed up those efforts. They will certainly give critics of the administration's mercury initiatives the firepower they need to make additional changes to policy.