Printer-friendlyEnvironment DEC
From the February 2008 issue
Multi-State Plan to Reduce Mercury Impacts in Fish wins EPA Approval
DEC recently announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved a multi-state plan to reduce mercury in the waters of New York and New England. The approval was a necessary step toward implementing a collaboration between New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont to reduce mercury pollution and make freshwater fish safer to eat.
Mercury in the air returns to earth, contaminating our lakes and streams
Control of Air Emissions Also Needed
DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said, "New York is pleased that EPA has agreed with the scientific evidence showing mercury's negative effects on the environment and public health, but EPA needs to follow up with a national program to more effectively control harmful air emissions. New York State will remain diligent in monitoring the impacts of mercury, and pursue its ongoing initiatives to make a positive difference for our residents and natural communities."
Mercury is a toxic pollutant that accumulates in the environment. It pollutes the air through processes that burn coal to generate electric power. Mercury can also combine with other elements to form both organic and inorganic compounds. Exposure to these compounds, or high levels of metallic mercury, can damage the nervous system and kidneys. Women of child-bearing age, pregnant women, and children are particularly vulnerable. Exposure to unsafe levels of mercury pollution could cause children to suffer brain damage or behavioral and developmental problems.
Mercury and Fish Consumption
The vast majority of mercury pollution affecting New York comes from air emissions--much of it from out-of-state sources. Mercury pollutes at least 80 waters in New York to the extent that state and federal laws are violated. Eating fish caught in New York can yield health benefits, and fishing in the state offers many recreational and economic opportunities. However, to reduce potential exposure to unwanted contaminants like mercury, the New York State Department of Health has issued fish consumption advisories that inform people about which fish and game to avoid, and how to reduce their exposure to contaminants in the fish and game that they do eat. Fish consumption advisories can be found on the Department of Health website's Chemicals in Sportfish and Game: 2007-2008 Health Advisories page (see "Related Links" below). Fish advisories exist for waters throughout the state including Onondaga Lake, several New York City water supply reservoirs, Lake Champlain, Rushford Lake in Allegany County, and Great Sacandaga Lake in Fulton and Saratoga counties.
Anglers are warned about the accumulation of methylmercury in fish
The goal of the multi-state plan is to reduce atmospheric deposition of mercury to the region by between 86 and 98 percent, allowing fish-tissue mercury levels to decline, and enabling the states to discontinue their fish consumption advisories. The multi-state plan, called the Northeast Regional Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), recommends actions to be taken by EPA, including the implementation of a stringent, national, mercury control program. The plan also calls for the northeastern states to continue building upon existing state initiatives to control mercury contamination.
Out-of-State Emissions
While EPA approved the TMDL, it did not address many of the recommendations called for by New York and the other states regarding the lack of federal action to effectively control the extensive out-of-state mercury emissions impacting the Northeast. Specifically, the TMDL seeks a national program to address sources such as coal-fired power plants in the Midwest that have ongoing harmful effects on other states' environments and public health. Grannis added, "Now that EPA has acknowledged the need for substantial mercury reductions, it needs to step up and impose the emission limits needed to protect and restore our waterways."
Major contributing sources of mercury emissions include coal-fired power plants, cement plants, and sewage-sludge incinerators among others, and these sources are being targeted by participating states to achieve reductions. The TMDL plan acknowledges the success of the Northeast states in eliminating many in-state sources of mercury contamination. Nearly a decade of work has resulted in regional reductions of greater than 70 percent in mercury emissions and discharges, including a 90 percent reduction in emissions from municipal waste incinerators.
Eating contaminated fish is a health hazard, particularly for children and women of child-bearing age
While advocating for federal action on out-of-state sources, New York will continue to focus on ways to implement mercury reductions from sources within the state. The five largest mercury emitters in New York are the LaFarge cement plant and four coal-fired power plants in Albany County, NRG's Huntley and Dunkirk plants in Western New York, AES's Somerset plant in Niagara County, and Dynegy's Danskammer plant on the Hudson River.
New Restrictions Target Emissions Reduction in NY
New York recently adopted new air regulations, significantly more stringent than the federal government's requirements, which will cut mercury emissions from coal-fired utilities by 90 percent by 2015. As Attorney General, Governor Eliot Spitzer led New York in a lawsuit against EPA's cap-and-trade system for regulating mercury emissions from power plants. The northeastern states argue that EPA's program will delay emissions reduction for many years, perpetuate hot spots of local mercury deposition, and pose a serious threat to the health of children.
In the absence of federal leadership on the regulation of large, in-state mercury contributors other than power plants, DEC is currently examining technologies for cement plants that would substantially reduce mercury emissions. New York has also joined with other states in a legal challenge to the federal government for adopting a rule that does not adequately regulate mercury and other pollutants from existing cement plants.
Among other solid waste reduction initiatives, DEC has enacted prohibitions on the possession and use of non-encapsulated elemental mercury in dental offices, while also requiring dentists to recycle any elemental mercury or dental amalgam (used in tooth fillings) waste to help prevent this material from entering landfills, incinerators, or sewer systems. In addition, the state is continuing efforts to require wastewater treatment plants to prepare mercury minimization plans and monitor mercury using the most effective analytical methods.
Related Links:
Chemicals in Sportfish and Game: 2007-2008 Health Advisories (leaving DEC's website)
