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Executive Summary
Environment America is the new home of U.S. PIRG's environmental work. Power
plants are the largest industrial source of U.S. air emissions of
mercury, a potent neurotoxin that poses serious health hazards. Mercury
is particularly harmful to the developing brain; even lowlevel exposure
can cause learning disabilities, developmental delays, lowered IQ, and
problems with attention and memory. While current law requires swift,
steep reductions in power plant mercury emissions, the Bush
administration recently promulgated regulations that allow power plants
to avoid the Clean Air Act requirement to reduce mercury and other
toxic air pollutants quickly and by the maximum achievable amount. This
report uses the most recent available data reported to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory to
analyze power plant mercury emissions by state, county, zip code,
facility, and company.
When
power plants burn coal or wastes containing mercury, their smokestacks
emit mercury, some of which is washed out of the air onto land and into
waterways, where it may be converted into methylmercury, an organic
form of mercury that builds up in fish. Scientists found that a gram of
mercury, about a drop, deposited in a mid-sized Wisconsin lake over the
course of a year was enough to contaminate the lake’s fish.
Eating
contaminated fish is the primary pathway for human exposure. Indeed,
mercury pollution is now so pervasive that 44 states, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), and the EPA have issued fish consumption
advisories warning people to avoid or limit their consumption of
certain types of fish. Moreover, EPA scientists estimate that one in
six women of childbearing age has enough mercury in her blood to put
her child at risk should she become pregnant.
This
report analyzes the most recent EPA data on mercury air emissions from
power plants. Key findings in the report include the following:
-
Power plants in the U.S. collectively emitted 90,108 pounds of mercury
into the air in 2003. Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Alabama
were the states with the most mercury air emissions from power plants
in 2003.
- Counties with the highest mercury air emissions from power plants
were concentrated in states in the Gulf Coast, Midwest, and
Mid-Atlantic regions. More than half of the top 50 counties with the
highest mercury air emissions were located in just seven states:
Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West
Virginia. In the top county, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, power
plant mercury emissions totaled 1,527 pounds in 2003.
-
The most polluting 100 facilities emitted 57,242 pounds of mercury into
the air in 2003, or 64% of power plant mercury emissions. Most of these
facilities—nearly 60%—were located in just nine states: Alabama,
Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas,
and West Virginia. Five of the 10 most polluting facilities were
located in Texas.
-
The most polluting 15 companies emitted 48,353 pounds of mercury in
2003, or 54% of total U.S. power plant mercury emissions. Three
companies— American Electric Power, Southern Company, and Reliant
Energy, which collectively own 57 facilities—emitted 19,694 pounds of
mercury in 2003, or 22% of total U.S. power plant mercury emissions.
Rather
than let many of the nation’s power plants continue to emit or even
increase their mercury emissions, the Bush administration should
protect public health by rewriting its mercury rules to ensure the
maximum, timely reductions in power plant mercury pollution that the
law requires.
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