Thursday, April 20, 2006

Evidence Shows Mercury Reductions Work

Opponents to Gov. Blagojevich's proposal to reduce mercury emissions from coal fired power plants by 90 percent are fond of claiming that there is no proof that requiring these reductions will do anything to protect the health of Illinois' residents.

Phillip M. Gonet, president of the Illinois Coal Association, told the Southern Illinoisan in January: "To think there is going to be any kind of environmental impact by enforcing a rule like this is absolutely ludicrous," Gonet said. "This rule will have absolutely no impact on the environment at all. This is a case of using an anvil to kill a fly."

However, a recent study by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection found major improvements after enacting mercury emission reductions for incinerators.

Seven years after Massachusetts enacted the nation's toughest mercury emission laws for incinerators, amounts of the toxic metal have declined by 32 percent in a signature freshwater fish caught near some of those facilities. [snip]

The mercury decline appears to stem from two efforts that began in 1998. First, the Department of Environmental Protection began requiring the state's nine trash incinerators to scrub or remove 85 percent of the mercury emitted from their smokestacks. Old batteries, thermostats, thermometers, and fluorescent lights all contribute to the emissions.

Today, only seven incinerators remain, and they scrub about 90 percent of the mercury. Incinerators continue to operate in North Andover, Haverhill, Saugus, Rochester, Millbury, Springfield, and Pittsfield. (Fall River and Lawrence incinerators have closed.)

Second, the state once had 240 medical waste incinerators that burned items such as mercury thermometers, but those incinerators began closing at a greater rate as federal and state rules tightened. The last one closed in 2003.

The results in Massachusetts are similar to the impact found in the Everglades by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Human caused mercury emissions from industrial sources in south Florida, principally incinerators, have come under effective control during the past decade; emissions of mercury in south Florida have declined by 90%. Subsequently, mercury in Fish and wildlife of the Everglades has declined by about 75% to date.


Originally posted at Illinois EnviroBlog.

4 comments:

Anonymous,  1:52 PM  

Don't bother Big Business conservatives with facts, they have no use for such trifles.

Move along now. Ignore that thick black smoke you're inhaling. It won't hurt a bit.

Bill Baar 3:00 PM  

The Hg's not inhaled NW. It's in the water a soil.

So what did Mass do with the Hg from the Medcial Waste etc they no longer incinerate?

It went somewhere.

And consumer pay for this for sure, so what ever we ask coal plants to do, lets hope it works; and we see a result in improved mortality/morbidities.

Anonymous,  4:38 PM  

Did ever occur to anyone that incinerators are completely different than power plants in design, function, emission controls, etc. Before we asked consumers to pay for Hg controls we should make sure that they work on a commercial level and that they are actually going to provide a benefit in terms of public health over what is already required under CAMR. There are energy companies already testing such equipment to see what will and won't work. Only 1% of global mercury is from power plants and great deal more is naturally occuring in the environment. Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park produces more mercury than the eight coal fired power plants in Wyoming combined, according to a Congressional Report on Mercury, but we don't run off and cap Old Faithful.

Anonymous,  10:16 PM  

The Hg anti-pollution standards should be "technology forcing" in nature. The power companies have a long history of dragging their feet when it comes to installing cleaner burning technologies. At one time, their solution to air pollution was dilution; in other words, build the smokestacks taller. The older coal-fired plants should have been replaced years ago. State subsidies should only be available for the newer, coal gasification systems.

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