McKenna 1 The Chesapeake Bay and the surrounding land are currently contaminated with mercury from industrial sources, primarily coal-fired power plants. These mercury emissions have been linked to severe developmental disorders, which can occur during prenatal development.1 Coal-fired power plants account for up to 48 tons of mercury emissions per year in the United States.2 In 1990, mercury regulations were mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency, which deemed that the regulation of mercury for coal-fired power plants was “appropriate and necessary.”3 However, after this date, few legislative actions were enforced to prevent coal-fired power plants from emitting mercury into the atmosphere. On December 21, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency finally issued mercury and air toxics standards to limit the amount of mercury and other toxic pollutions released from power plants. Coal–fired power plants have not reduced their mercury output until recently due to the lack of effective technology implementation, the influences of power plant lobbyists, and the lack of government enforcement of mercury regulations. Once mercury is released into the environment from coal power plants, it can then be swept into bodies of water. Environments like the Chesapeake Bay, is home to many fish and wildlife that are harmed by mercury. Not only does mercury pollute the water, but fish also ingest mercury, making them harmful to consume. Once mercury reaches the water, microorganisms are able to convert mercury into methylmercury, which is a much more toxic form. Even a small amount of mercury can cause serious damage. for the sake of precision here, you might put “linked to developmental disorders, some of which can occur during prenatal development.” i.e. to indicate that it’s the mother’s ingestion of Hg which is the problem. 1 2 "Basic Information." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014. . 3 “Basic Information” McKenna 2 According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, approximately one gram of mercury per year is capable of contaminating a 20-acre lake, poisoning fish and other aquatic life. Fish and shellfish consumption is the most common form of mercury exposure in humans. In a process called biological magnification, methyl mercury accumulates in fish and becomes more potent as it travels up the food chain. From this process, concentration of mercury in fish tissue can be more than a million times higher than in the surrounding water. As top feeders, humans face severe physical and mental impairment as a result of inadvertent mercury consumption.4 Mercury is most harmful in the early stages of fetal development; therefore, prenatal mercury exposure can be especially detrimental. Once pregnant women consume contaminated fish, methylmercury can have a negative effect on the development of the fetus, even if the mother does not show any symptoms of mercury exposure. When a mother is exposed to high levels of methylmercury, it can also be excreted into breast milk.5 This will further damage a child’s development and function of both the immune and central nervous system. In the United States alone, one in six women of childbearing age have dangerous levels of mercury in their blood, which has impacted over 400,000 newborn children in the United States.6 Coal, naturally containing mercury,7 is widely used for electricity throughout the United States. It is burned to generate about 50% of electricity in the United States and can circulate in the atmosphere for far distances before it settles into the environment.8 Currently there are power plants in the Chesapeake Bay region that have already installed Beatrice Trum Hunter. “Our Toxic Legacy: How Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, and Cadmium Harm Our Health” Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications, 2014. Ebook Library. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. 4 5 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096006/ 6 “Basic Information” 8 Tom Pelton McKenna 3 efficient technology to reduce mercury emissions, however, older coal-fired plants were not required to have this type of costly technology. In the United States, Carbon Injection (ACI) has been a popular method to decrease mercury emissions in coal-fired power plants. Highly processed carbon absorbs mercury in its gaseous form and converts it to a particulate that allows it to be captured. To install only one ACI in a 300-megawatt power plant, the cost can be $30 million. Another form of technology used to capture mercury is a scrubber. “Dry scrubbers,” have a fabric filter to trap mercury, whereas “wet scrubbers,” capture mercury that is chemically bound with oxygen. Both scrubbers can capture up to 90% of mercury produced by coal-fired power plants; however, their installation is far more expensive than that of an ACI, costing around $120 million per power plant.9 Instead of spending significant amounts of money installing these technologies, older power plants decided to fight against proposed EPA rules for implementing technology.10 Older power plants had been successful in delaying EPA requirements because the process of installing these technologies is both long and tedious. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the total time needed to fully install a wet scrubber system for a typical power plant is at least 27 months. Owners of coal-fired power plant industries take advantage of this lengthy installation process. For example, MidAmerican Energy, a global energy service provider, was in favor of delaying the air toxics rule. Prolonging the institution of these air toxic regulations would help power plant companies save money and prosper for a longer amount of time. Unfortunately, over an extended period of time, these delays are contributing to a lethal accumulation of mercury 9 Daniel Weiss. “Mercury Falling.” Center for American Progress. 21 June 2011. Web. 28 October 2014. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2011/06/21/9843/mercury-falling/ McKenna 4 throughout the environment. Daniel Weiss, the Director of Climate Strategy at American Progress, is currently a proponent for the clean energy and climate advocacy campaign. He has proposed that legislature should focus on the immediate implementation of these control technologies, instead of allowing dominant power plant utilities to continue to procrastinate. Weiss argues that the public needs to take a higher responsibility to urge administration to enforce these long-delayed provisions.11 Coal company lobbyists were also primary contributors to the ongoing delay of these mercury pollution regulations. Jeffrey Holmstead, a particularly egregious example of corruption, abused his power in prominent environmental positions to prevent the implementation of new laws. In 2001, he was appointed as the Assistant Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. During his time with the EPA, he acted as though he was adamant about solving major environment challenges, including those associated with mercury. In reality, he was actively promoting decisions that would benefit his outside clients, who were primarily coal power plant companies. For example, under the bush administration, he helped to design the “Clear Skies Initiative,” which guaranteed that major air pollution-related health and environmental problems would be improved, including mercury.12 Instead, The Clear Skies Initiative gave the coal industry years before they had to take any action. In order to assist their coal operations, Holmstead continued to delay clean air and climate change protection acts. The National Resources Defense Counsel and other environmental groups criticized Holmstead’s actions, stating that he had “tried to achieve through litigation and delay a savings of 11 Daniel Weiss 12 http://www.pbs.org/now/science/clearskies.html McKenna 5 billions of dollars for the industry.”13 From 2002 to 2010, Holmstead, among other lobbyists, significantly impacted the delayed implementation of mercury pollution controls. Finally, on December 16, 2011, the legislative struggle for strict mercury pollution controls came to an end. The final rule established power plant emission standards for mercury, acid gases, and non-mercury metallic toxic pollutants and reduced the amount of mercury emitted into the environment by 90 percent. Daniel Faber, the director of Northeastern Environmental Justice Research Collaborative, proposed ideas to improve pollution from toxins like mercury. He believes that it is crucial to reshape the public opinion on the damaging effects of mercury pollution to promote change. He believes that remodeling the public opinion, putting more pressure on the government, and recommending new political strategies to government officials will help assist in key policy innovations.14 Continuous political pressure and demand for change are essential to enhance public priorities and permanently reduce mercury pollution. 13 “Mercury Man; Did the EPA's Jeffrey Holmstead take a cue from Latham Lobbyists.” Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. 1 August 2005. Web. 4 November 2014. http://www.iatp.org/news/mercury-man-did-the-epas-jeffrey-holmstead-take-a-cue-from-latham-lobbyists 14 Faber, Daniel. Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice: The Polluter-industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Print.
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