The Midwest is home to some of the nation’s worst polluters – power plants. Some of those plants are old, and have never put in the newer control devices that would help limit their emissions… and perhaps one of the worst emissions is mercury. But now, in a move being watched by states throughout the Midwest, Wisconsin could become the first state in the country to force electric utilities to reduce the amount of mercury their plants put into the air. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Transcript
The Midwest is home to some of the nation’s worst
polluters — power plants. Some of those plants are old, and have never
put in the newer control devices that would help limit their emissions…
and perhaps one of the worst emissions is mercury. But now, in a move
being watched by states throughout the Great Lakes, Wisconsin could become
the first state in the country to force electric utilities to reduce the
amount of mercury their plants put into the air. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Mercury is a major health concern for humans. If too much is ingested,
it can cause severe neurological damage, especially in children. While
much has been done to reduce mercury use in consumer products, little has
been done to stop the biggest source of mercury — coal-fired power
plants. Much of the coal burned to produce electricity contains elemental
mercury… and right now that mercury is simply released into the air when
the coal is burned. The mercury eventually settles onto the land or the
water. There, it makes its way into the food chain, and ultimately into
humans. The federal government doesn’t currently restrict mercury
emissions from power plants, but now Wisconsin is developing rules that
would force utilities in the state to cut down.
The Department of Natural Resources has proposed a plan by which power plants would reduce their emissions in three stages. The final limit would take place 15 years after the rule goes into effect, and would require a 90% emissions reduction. Utility companies are responding to the state, saying they can probably manage a 40% reduction. Now, two committees are trying to hash out a compromise. They include representatives of environmental groups and utilities. Wisconsin Electric’s Kathleen Standen says her company is actively researching ways to control mercury emissions.
“Environmental objectives and regulations do force technology development, and we would rather be involved at the front end of technology development so that we can meet our own objectives at our own facilities.”
Standen and other utility executives are proposing an alternative to the state’s plan. They want to design individual pollution reduction plans for each power plant. They say that would help them get the best economic — and environmental — return on their investment. Wisconsin Electric recently tested a system in which activated carbon is injected into the plant’s exhaust. The mercury sticks to the carbon, and the carbon and mercury are removed from the exhaust together. According to the company’s tests, the system reduced mercury emissions by as much as 70%, but the new technology is not problem-free. Wisconsin Electric sells its ash to companies that use it to make cement. Adding the carbon changed the ash enough to make it impossible for the companies to use.
Lloyd Eagan oversees the mercury reduction plan
for the Wisconsin DNR. She says the industry proposal for custom-designed
limits on each plant might work. It could encourage companies to come up
with solutions for several pollution problems at the same time. For
example, there is a way to use activated carbon without ruining the ash,
but that method would require the company to build an addition to the
plant called a baghouse.
“If they were going to use one of those baghouses because they were
going to do some other pollution controls, then it makes sense for them to
put that investment in, and that’s what makes this complicated, is to try
to look at this in terms of all the pollutants that they’re trying to
capture, and do it in a very cost-effective manner.”
Scientists think roughly half the mercury in a plant’s exhaust falls close to the plant, and the other half can be transported great distances. So power plants in Minnesota pollute lakes in Wisconsin, and midwestern plants pollute New England waters.
Utilities in Wisconsin say even if they clean up their emissions, Wisconsin lakes will still have too much mercury.
But environmentalists say it’s still Wisconsin’s
responsibility to cut down on its mercury pollution. Russ Ruland is
president of the Wisconsin Muskelunge Club, and he says the state’s
premiere sport fish, the musky, is having trouble reproducing — possibly
because of mercury contamination.
“I don’t see how we either as a state or as the United States can say,
well, we’re not going to do anything until somebody else does it.”
Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency has been working for
more than a year on rules to regulate mercury emissions from utilities
nationwide. In March, the Bush administration announced its Clear Skies
initiative. It includes a cap-and-trade program for mercury and other
hazardous pollutants. That would allow utilities to cut pollution at some
plants but not others.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.