February 25, 2004
Contact: Michael Fiorentino
215-439-8556

DIVERSE MID-ATLANTIC GROUPS DENOUNCE BUSH'S PROPOSED MERCURY RULE AT EPA HEARING
PRESS CONFERENCE HELD TO REVEAL NEW COSTS OF INACTION, FURTHER EPA COLLUSION WITH INDUSTRY, AND NEW REPORT HIGHLIGHTING STATE-SPECIFIC DANGERS OF MERCURY
~RALLY FOLLOWS ~

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Doctors, expectant mothers, state officials, anglers, concerned citizens and environmentalists today criticized a Bush administration proposal that will dramatically roll back air pollution standards for mercury.

At the two-day public hearing, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking public comment on an Administration proposal for national regulations of mercury from power plants. Coal-fired plants are the nation's largest uncontrolled source of toxic mercury, emitting approximately 48 tons each year. Although the Clean Air Act calls for protective standards on the order of 5 tons per year, and a federal court settlement was expected to deliver those reductions by the close of 2007, EPA has developed questionable proposals that delay significant reductions for more than a decade.

"Mercury threatens the health of hundreds of thousands of children every year and puts women of childbearing age at risk," said Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director of Clean Air Council. "EPA has taken its cue in this proposal directly from the power industry, and it's a disgrace. The Agency needs to go back to the drawing board and provide the reductions required by the Act for a hazardous air pollutant like mercury."

"Consuming mercury-laded fish can damage the developing brain and nervous system, leading to developmental deficiencies and delays in walking and talking, yet the Bush administration continues to pretend that mercury is not as dangerous as it really is," said Dr. Michael McCally, President of Physicians for Social Responsibility. "In addition to the human toll, these conditions and deficiencies result in significant excess costs to society, and the lost wages of exposed persons with reduced cognitive abilities are calculated in the billions annually."

State officials from Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey were all present to testify to the failures of EPA's proposal. Pennsylvania is developing a technical analysis to review EPA's basis for setting specific mercury limits. Upon re-performing the calculations for the type of coal predominantly used in Pennsylvania, it found EPA's numbers "three times higher than the control level calculated by Pennsylvania," according to the testimony of Nicholas DiPasquale, Deputy Secretary of Air, Waste and Radiation for the
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. In his testimony, DiPasquale contends that EPA "significantly underestimates achievable control levels" for mercury.

Late last month, EPA reported that nearly one in six newborn babies may be exposed to dangerous levels of mercury in the womb. That's twice as many as in previous estimates, and reflects a disturbing new finding: mercury concentrations in a fetus's umbilical cord blood are nearly twice as high on average, than the mother's overall blood mercury level.

A rally sponsored by Sierra Club, Clean Air Council and PennFuture was also held at noon outside the hotel hosting the hearings. The crowd of activists and citizens listened to speakers from the New York Attorney General's office, the Sierra Club and others.

Coinciding with the public hearings, Clear the Air, a national public education campaign to improve air quality by reducing emissions from coal-burning power plants, released a report documenting the specific impacts of mercury pollution in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The Clear the Air report documents the extent of the problem with mercury in the Mid-Atlantic and provides detailed snapshots of individual states. In Pennsylvania alone, the report states there are 52 coal-fired power plants. These dirty smokestacks have contaminated many of Pennsylvania's water ways forcing all 161,445 lake acres and all 29,962 river miles to be put under fish consumption advisory for high levels of mercury. This hazardous pollutant has also forced 42 other states to issue fish consumption advisories.

"Industries like hospitals and garbage incinerators have been required to reduce their mercury emissions since the 1990s, but the Bush administration has proposed weaker standards for power plants," said Minott. "It gives big energy companies special treatment by allowing them to put six to seven times more mercury into the air than current law allows and gives those facilities an extra decade to clean up. That means far too much mercury will stay in the environment for far too long."

In addition to providing comments on the proposed mercury rule, these groups also denounced the Bush administration for its new Interstate Air Quality Rule. This proposal delays, by up to five years, sulfur and nitrogen reductions that cause fine particle pollution while allowing approximately a 175 percent increase in allowable levels of both pollutants. Fine particle pollution from U.S. power plants cuts short the lives of more than 30,000 Americans each year.

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