Hundreds of Moms, Doctors, Concerned Philadelphia Residents to Demand Protection from Toxic Mercury at EPA Hearing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, May 24, 2011

CONTACT: Katie Feeney, Clean Air Council, 814-450-5237, kfeeney@cleanair.org

Rachele Huennekens, Sierra Club, 703-470-2454 rachele.huennekens@sierraclub.org

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Today hundreds of mothers, children, medical professionals, health advocates, faith leaders, fishermen, and concerned citizens gathered at The Westin hotel in downtown Philadelphia for the first of only three public hearings held by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on a proposed rule limiting life-threatening air pollution from coal burning power plants. The EPA’s “Mercury and Air Toxics” standards would protect Americans from toxic mercury, arsenic, and other hazardous air pollutants, currently being emitted by coal-fired power plants with no national limits.

 

In Pennsylvania, coal-fired power plants emit more than 15,500 pounds of toxic mercury every year. Mercury exposure can cause serious neurological and developmental problems in children, babies, and developing fetuses. 

 

“As a mother, I am worried about the constant threat my children face from the pollution that coal-fired power plants put in our air and water,” said Gretchen Alfonso, local mother of Reny, 2, and Fiona, 1 month. “It makes me angry that, despite my best efforts at living a healthy lifestyle, my body and my children’s growing bodies are being invaded by toxins from all angles.”

 

According to research conducted by EPA scientists, 1 in 12, and as many as 1 in 6, women of child-bearing age has enough mercury in her body to put her unborn child at risk.

 

“Young children are uniquely vulnerable to the toxic effects of environmental poisons such as mercury and arsenic,” said Dr. Kevin Osterhoudt, Medical Director of The Poison Control Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). “These compounds are especially dangerous to the developing brain and nervous system. To protect our children it is a basic sensibility to try our best to provide them with clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and clean, nutritious food to eat.”

Mercury and other toxic air emissions are deposited with rain and snow into rivers, lakes and streams, where they build up in the environment and the fish that people eat. More than 6 million acres of lakes, reservoirs and ponds, 46,000 miles of rivers and streams, and 225,000 square acres of wetlands are polluted by mercury. Currently, citizens of the Commonwealth are warned against eating certain fish from 6 different river basins because of mercury contamination.

“It is disgraceful that in the year 2011 I can't take my grandson fishing on the Susquehanna River and eat the fish he catches because they are contaminated with mercury,” said Ed Perry, an avid fisherman from State College, PA. “It's about time we stopped poisoning ourselves when reasonable alternatives to reducing mercury pollution are available.”

 

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA’s new proposed Mercury and Air Toxics rule would reduce toxic pollution from coal-fired power plants by 90 percent and close the 20-year old loophole that has allowed coal-fired power plants to poison air and water with mercury, arsenic, acid gases, and other toxic air emissions, without any national limits.

 

"This regulation to control coal-fired power plants is twenty years in the making,” said Dr. Walter Tsou, Board President of Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility. “It is about time we protect the public and our patients from air hazards."

In addition to improving public health, the Mercury and Air Toxics standards would create good jobs; the EPA estimates that the new standard could generate more than 30,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 long-term utility jobs, benefiting steelmakers, pipefitters, boilermakers and others.

“Powering our homes should not poison our kids,” said Adam Garber of PennEnvironment. “After decades of dirty energy lobbyists getting their way, EPA has finally issued a rule that is a major step toward clean air and healthy Americans. It’s about time dirty coal companies are required to clean up their act."

 

“No more business as usual: communities of color are being harmed by this toxic air pollution,” said Leslie Fields, Sierra Club Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships program Director. “Environmental justice is one of EPA's priorities, so we expect that the agency will consider the effects of dirty power plants on communities of color.”

The hearing in Philadelphia is the first of only three national public hearings on this rule; today Chicago will also host a hearing and Atlanta will host the final public hearing on May 26. The EPA will accept written public comments through July 5, 2011.

“Pennsylvania is an ideal setting for this discussion on toxic coal pollution,” said Joseph O. Minott, Esq., Executive Director of the Clean Air Council. “In 2009, EPA placed Pennsylvania second nationally for emissions of mercury from power plants, and the pollution from which contributes to an estimated 1,359 premature deaths every year in Pennsylvania.”

 

In the absence of strong action from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nineteen states have already adopted specific mercury pollution limits for power plants. Pennsylvania, however, is not one of those states, choosing instead to wait for the federal government to take action.

“Pennsylvania is ground zero for mercury pollution,” said Jan Jarrett, President and CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture). “In addition to its health and environmental impacts, mercury contamination of Pennsylvania fish has a negative economic impact of $1.35 billion annually on our recreation sector, according to the Fish and Boat Commission.”

 

From moms and doctors to public health and environmental advocates, the hearing showcased a broad range of support for EPA to move forward with strong mercury and air toxics standards to protect the public from life-threatening pollution like mercury that power plants emit into our air and water. 

 

"The EPA must protect our health from toxic mercury pollution from power plants,” said Robin Mann, Sierra Club President and a Pennsylvania resident. “We have waited too long, while Big Coal has been allowed to emit air toxins with impunity. It is time for the EPA to shoulder its responsibility to protect our children from coal's dangerous pollution."

 

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