|
 Lawsuit
Charges EPA Ignoring "Lost" Mercury
February 17, 2004, AWAK(e)A_dvocacy
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A lawsuit filed
in February against the Bush Administration asserts that the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is failing to protect the
public health, and violating the Clean Air Act, by ignoring tons
of unaccounted for mercury emissions each year.
The suit, filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the Natural
Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Sierra Club, asks the Court
of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review a recently published
EPA rule on mercury because it fails to address "lost" mercury
disappearing from a handful of chlorine plants around the
country. In some years, as much as 130 tons of mercury has
disappeared from the nine plants that still use mercury in an
outdated process for making chlorine.[1]
"These nine chlorine plants are losing more mercury every year
than the entire power plant industry as a whole emits," said Jim
Pew, the Earthjustice attorney who is handling the suit. "It's
clear the Bush administration is not serious about reducing the
public's exposure to this toxin."
Exposure to mercury can cause severe neurological and
developmental problems in children. The fetuses of pregnant
women who eat mercury-tainted fish and shellfish are at
especially high risk for such problems.
The EPA rule, published in December, acknowledges that the
agency cannot account for mercury that may be evaporating during
chlorine production. However, rather than setting standards to
prevent the problem or trying to trap the escaping mercury, the
rule sets optional "housekeeping" guidelines and concludes that
"the fate of all the mercury consumed at mercury cell chlor-alkali
plants remains somewhat of an enigma."[2]
The nine chlorine plants still using mercury are in Alabama,
Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and
Wisconsin.[3] The chlorine production process subjects large
vats, containing thousands of pounds of mercury, to electrical
charges -- a process that has been phased out at the majority of
the nation's chlorine plants. The mercury can then be re-used,
but every year the plants must purchase additional mercury to
replace varying amounts that disappear during chlorine
production.
In 2000, these plants purchased 65 tons of replacement mercury;
in 2002, they bought 130 tons. The nation's coal-fired power
plants, in contrast, emit roughly 48 tons of mercury each year.
"Where is this lost mercury going? The industry says it gets
lost in the pipes somewhere," said Earthjustice attorney Pew.
"But they've been losing quantities like this for the past
several decades. Those pipes would have to look pretty strange
by now. We don't buy this stuck-in-the-pipes stuff for a minute.
It's completely implausible."
Pew told
www.BushGreenwatch.org that EPA could solve the problem
immediately by banning the use of mercury in chlorine
production, or by forcing plants to route escaping mercury into
stacks where it could be measured.
In a separate legal action, NRDC has also petitioned EPA to
reconsider the rule and set standards guaranteeing reductions in
the plants' toxic mercury emissions.[4]
TAKE ACTION:
Comment to the EPA about both of their mercury proposals.
SOURCES:
[1] Earthjustice press release, Feb. 17, 2004.
[2] EPA mercury rule, Federal Register Vol. 68, No. 244, Dec.
19, 2003.
[3] Washington Post, "EPA Issues New Rule for Mercury; Aim Is to
Prevent Spills, But Tons of Toxin Are Unaccounted For,"
Washington Post, Dec. 20, 2004.
[4] Earthjustice press release, Feb. 17, 2004.
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