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Testimony of Jean Flemma, Executive Director, Prairie Rivers Network, before the U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyRe: Proposed National Emission Standards for Hazardous Pollutants; and, in the Alternative, Proposed Standards of Performance for New and Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Steam Generating Units; Docket ID No.OAR-2002-0056February 25, 2004 Thank you for allowing me to testify. My name is Jean Flemma, and I am the Executive Director of Prairie Rivers Network. Prairie Rivers is a statewide river conservation organization that seeks to protect the health and beauty of the rivers and streams of Illinois for the people, fish and wildlife that depend on them to survive. Illinois has 87,000 miles of rivers and streams and 309,000 acres of lakes and they have been severely polluted by mercury. So much so, that the Illinois Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program has issued a statewide advisory for predator fish in all Illinois waters due to methylmercury. The advisory has been established to protect the most sensitive populations: pregnant and nursing women, fetuses, women of childbearing age and children younger than 15. Predator species to which the advisory applies include all species of black bass (largemouth, smallmouth and spotted), striped bass, white bass, hybrid striped bass, walleye, sauger, saugeye, flathead catfish, muskellunge and northern pike. Now, your Agency has the opportunity to drastically reduce mercury emissions which have enormous impacts on public health, particularly that of women and children, and on the health of the rivers and wildlife of Illinois. Unfortunately, the proposed rules published on December 30 do not do this and instead allow the children of Illinois to be exposed to far more mercury, for a decade longer than is necessary. They also fail to implement the Clean Air Actās requirements for safeguarding human health and our environment against toxic air pollutants. As such, I join with many of the witnesses here today in urging EPA to reject the proposals it is currently considering and instead reduce power plant mercury emissions as much as possible, using maximum achievable control technologies at each and every power plant by 2008. As many with far greater expertise than I will testify today, mercury is a highly toxic chemical whose effects on the central nervous system are comparable to those of lead. (U.S. EPA, June 2002. "Mercury Update. Impact on Fish Advisories.") Exposure, which can cause severe neurological and developmental problems, is widespread. As I already mentioned, Illinois has a statewide fish advisory in effect for a large number of fish species that applies to all of our rivers and lakes. Nationwide, there are more than 12 million acres of lakes and 400,000 miles of rivers that currently have posted warnings advising people to avoid or limit fish consumption due to mercury. [U.S. PIRG, Fishing For Trouble, (June 2003)] Still, a recent study by Centers for Disease Control estimated that 1 in 12 women of childbearing age in the U.S. have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood. [Centers for Disease Control, January 2003. Second National Report on Human Exposure Environmental Chemicals.] In addition, your agency just doubled its estimate÷to as many as 630,000---of the number of children born each year who could be at risk of developmental disorders because of mercury exposure in the mother's womb. [New York Times, EPA Raises Estimate of Babies Affected by Mercury Exposure (February 10, 2004).] Mercury is not just a threat to human health. It also has biological and physiological effects on many species of wildlife. Studies indicate that in some fish species, size, weight, and reproduction are negatively impacted by mercury exposure. The toll on fish-eating birds, including mallards, red-tailed hawks, and the common loon are also well documented and include eggshell thinning, and reduced hatchability due to increased embryo mortality. Mercury has also been shown to impact the survival, reproduction, and growth of river otters. This is of concern in Illinois where, once on the verge of extinction, otters have recently returned to our rivers. Here in Illinois, wildlife-associated recreation---including sport fishing, hunting, and birdwatching---contributed $1.9 billion to the economy in 2001. [2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife Associated Recreation, US Departments of Interior and Commerce, October 2002.] The continued assault of mercury on the environment threatens not only human health, but this valuable contributor to the state's economy at a time when we can ill afford it. Fortunately, we know the source of our mercury emissions problem and we have the technology to address it. The largest industrial source of the mercury that threatens human health and contaminates our rivers is coal fired power plants. Yet, they are also the only major mercury polluters not regulated under federal clean air standards. As a result, in 2001, Illinois utilities released more than 4000 pounds of mercury to the air, a staggering number that ranks our state 6th in the nation for mercury emissions from utilities. [USEPA, 2001Toxics Release Inventory] Protecting public health and our $1.9 billion wildlife-associated recreation industry in Illinois necessitates the reduction of mercury from its largest source, and the Clean Air Act requires these reductions. Specifically, Section 112 of the Act says that toxic substances such as mercury must be controlled to emission levels achievable by "maximum achievable control technologies" (or MACT). Two years ago, EPA estimated that under a MACT standard, electric utilities could reduce 90 percent of mercury from power plants using existing technologies, thereby lowering mercury emissions to about 5 tons per year by 2008. [U.S. EPA, December 4, 2001 ( supplementary presentation for EEI on mercury), page 6. ] What a difference two years can make. When issued last December, EPAās proposed options for reducing mercury were dramatically different from the protections provided under the Clean Air Act and from your own estimate of what was possible. Specifically, the proposed MACT rule would only require an overall 30% cut in mercury emissions nationwide and not until 2010 at the earliest. This is a far cry from the 5 ton per year limit --- or the 90% reduction--- that the agency estimated was possible by 2008. In addition, much of these reductions would come from power plants that burn coal mined in the eastern United States, while requiring much less emissions reductions from plants that burn western coal. As a result, a state like Illinois, where coal fired power plants use a significant amount of western coal, could see limited mercury reductions. This is of particular concern given our 6th place ranking in amounts of mercury currently emitted. While your proposed New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) alternative would eventually set a cap of 15 tons of emissions per year, these would not be required until 2018 and again would fall far short of the 90% reductions your agency has said are possible. In addition, it would allow some power plants to avoid making mercury reductions at all by adopting a mercury emissions trading program. Because local sources of emissions often account for a large amount of local mercury deposition, this type of program---which allows plants to buy mercury credits instead of reducing emissions---significantly increases the likelihood and severity of "hotspots" where mercury deposition is more prevalent. Again, this is of significant concern given the large amount of mercury emitted from Illinois' 24 coal fired power plants. At the same time, we already know that requiring plant-specific controls can provide significant benefits when addressing local mercury problems. As others have mentioned, a study conducted in southern Florida and the Everglades found that the levels of mercury contamination in largemouth bass and other wildlife in the Everglades declined by 60 to 75 percent after an effort was initiated in the early 1990s to clean up municipal and medical-waste incinerators. In closing, EPA's pending proposals to regulate mercury emissions do not protect the people and the environment of Illinois and do not fulfill the Agency's obligation under the Clean Air Act, allowing power plants to emit six to seven times more mercury into the air, and for a decade longer, than the Act requires. I respectfully urge you to withdraw the proposals now on the table and develop a new MACT proposal that rejects mercury trading plans and that will require every plant to install state of the art mercury controls to achieve an aggregate reduction of 90% by 2008. Thank you very much. | |