Rhode Island and six other states yesterday joined in announcing Clean Water Act standards that include a call for a 90-percent reduction in mercury pollution from the coal-fired power plants of the Midwest and other out-of-state sources.
The plan – the draft “Northeast Regional Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)” water-quality restoration study, still subject to public review and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval – was released jointly by the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission and the environmental agencies of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and New York.
It is part of a national drive to reduce mercury pollution.
“The U.S. is the first nation in the world to regulate mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants,” said David Deegan, spokesman for the EPA’s regional office in Boston,
“The Clean Air Mercury Rule will build on EPA’s Clean Air Interstate Rule to achieve a projected 80-percent reduction in mercury deposition across the northeastern United States.
“EPA is currently working to establish a coordinated, nationwide network of mercury monitoring sites.”
Over the past decade, the seven states note, they have succeeded in eliminating more than 70 percent of mercury emissions and discharges from within the region via measures including emissions limits on power plants and incinerators and recycling of dental amalgam, fever thermometers and mercury-containing switches.
“But in-state progress is not enough,” the R.I. Department of Environmental Management said in a statement accompanying the release. “The majority of mercury in the states’ waters comes from out-of-state sources, such as coal-fired power plants that bring mercury to the region’s waters through atmospheric deposition.”
The regional water-pollution commission lists more than 46,207 miles of rivers and 10,175 lakes, ponds and reservoirs in New England as polluted by mercury, mostly from atmospheric sources. The DEM said that total includes 18 bodies of water in the Ocean State – Meadowbrook/Sandy Pond in Richmond; Watchaug Pond in Charlestown; Tucker, Larkin, Hundred Acre and Yawgoo ponds in South Kingstown; Alton, Ashville, Locustville, Wincheck, Wyoming and Yawgoog ponds in Hopkinton; Browning Mill/Arcadia Pond and Boone Lake in Exeter; Eisenhower Lake in West Greenwich; Quidneck Reservoir and Tiogue Lake in Coventry; and J.L. Curran/Fiskeville Reservoir in Cranston.
The multistate plan therefore “stipulates the amount by which mercury arriving in the region from out-of-state sources must be reduced if the waters are to be removed from the impaired list and the fish consumption advisories rescinded,” the DEM said. It calls for for mercury emissions from Midwestern power plants to be pared by 90 percent to 95 percent, using existing technology. Such controls are achievable, cost-effective and should commence immediately, the states said.
The move was applauded by the Conservation Law Foundation, which has been pushing for tougher standards on mercury. “It’s clear that the federal government’s mercury reduction plan won’t clean up our waters and make our fish safe to eat,” said Melissa Hoffer, vice president and director of CLF’s New Hampshire Advocacy Center. “Now the New England states and New York are using their legal authority under the Clean Water Act to protect our health and safety from this dangerous, toxic pollution.”
The R.I. Department of Environmental Management has slated a hearing on the document for 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25, in Room 300 at DEM Headquarters, 235 Promenade St., Providence.
The states also will accept written comments on the draft plan, through the close of business on May 25. After reviewing the comments, the states will submit the document for EPA review; the EPA will then have 30 days to decide whether to approve the plan.
Details of the plan are available from the R.I. Department of Environmental Management at www.dem.ri.gov. Comments may be submitted in writing to Elizabeth Scott, Deputy Chief, DEM Office of Water Resources, 235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908-5767, or via e-mail at elizabeth.scott@dem.ri.gov, through 4 p.m. on May 25.
Additional information is available from the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission at www.neiwpcc.org/mercury.
