July 12, 2000
Milestone Report on Mercury Emissions
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
prestigious panel of scientists
declared yesterday that levels of the
most hazardous form of mercury in
the environment posed an unacceptable health risk to children born of
women who eat fish during pregnancy, and should be reduced.
That finding by the 10 experts,
convened by the National Academy
of Sciences, means that after long
delay, the way is now cleared for the
Environmental Protection Agency to
write new regulations forcing electric power plants, the last large
source of unregulated emissions of
mercury, to cut them.
The panel's conclusion essentially
ends a rancorous debate waged between industry and environmental
officials for more than a decade. At
issue was how to deal with methylmercury, a toxic metal that occasionally taints popular seafood like
tuna and by now has also prompted
41 states to issue warnings against
eating fish caught in many rivers
and lakes.
In unambiguous terms, the panel
said yesterday that warnings did not
suffice. "The long-term goal," its report said, "needs to be a reduction in
the concentrations."
Coal-burning power plants release
more than 40 tons of mercury a year,
about a third of the total entering the
environment.
The environmental
agency was poised two years ago to
write new mercury rules for plants,
but met heavy resistance from members of Congress, who in turn were
encountering intense lobbying from
the electric power industry. The industry pushed hard for an independent study on the risks of methylmercury, created in nature by the interaction between
mercury and bacteria, and Congress responded by directing the E.P.A. to commission it.
The work was undertaken by the 10
scientists, brought together by the
academy's National Research Council.
Representatives of the power industry yesterday accepted the panel's conclusions, thereby effectively
ending their opposition to the
E.P.A.'s plans and shifting the debate over mercury regulation from if
to how.
"We wanted this issue about mercury to be settled based on the best
science available, and that's essentially what the academy has done,"
said Paul Bailey, vice president for
environmental affairs at the Edison
Electric Institute, a trade group representing companies that generate
three-fourths of the country's electricity.
"We expect the E.P.A. to decide
that they are going to regulate mercury from us," he said. "What we're
focused on is working with them to
fashion a program that makes
sense."
Mr. Bailey said the industry would
favor a system of pollution credits
much like that which now governs
industrial emissions of sulfur dioxide. Environmental groups would oppose that approach.
The panel of scientists estimated
that 60,000 children are born each
year who were exposed during pregnancy to methylmercury levels that
could cause neurological and learning problems. Most of the exposure
comes from fish in their mothers'
diet. Through rain and runoff, methylmercury tends to concentrate in
bodies of water, where it accumulates in fish as it passes up the food
chain.
E.P.A. officials said they felt vindicated by the report and intended to
press ahead with a decision by Dec.
15 on limiting mercury emitted by
power plants.
That date was set in
settlement of a lawsuit brought by
some private environmental groups
to force the agency to consider mercury cuts under provisions of the
Clean Air Act.
The report "underscores and reinforces the science that will go into
that policy decision and others that
will follow with regard to controlling
mercury," said David Cohen, a
spokesman for the environmental
agency.
Environmental groups said the
end of the scientific debate over power plants was long overdue, noting
that they were the last large uncontrolled source of mercury emissions.
David Hawkins, director of air and
energy programs for the Natural Resources Defense Council, pointed out
that as a result of government regulation already in effect, owners of
incinerators, another big source,
were adding filters and other equipment to capture the metal before it
leaves smokestacks.
The debate now shifts to how best
to cut the flow of mercury from coal
to power-plant smoke and on into the
environment. Last year the E.P.A.
initiated the first significant study of
the problem, requiring not only that
all power plants measure the amount
of mercury in coal through 1999 but
also that several dozen measure the
amounts emitted from smokestacks
before and after the installation of
filters.
The report issued yesterday, after
the scientists' 18-month review of the
E.P.A.'s risk calculation for mercury, concluded that the most important hazard by far lay in the threat to
developing fetuses.
It emphasized that the risk to most
people was very small, and that the
primary goal was to cut the exposure
in young women who frequently eat
fish in which the highest levels of
mercury tend to accumulate -- generally predatory sea fish like tuna
and swordfish but also some freshwater fish in places with high mercury levels.
Federal officials said the report
could also be an influence in whether
the Food and Drug Administration
tightens its standards for fish. The
food agency now uses a much less
aggressive risk calculation than the
E.P.A. calculation endorsed by the
scientists yesterday.
F.D.A. officials
said they had not yet had time to
review the mercury report.