TRENTON
– New Jersey Attorney General Peter
Harvey and Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP)
Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell today
announced that New Jersey will file suit
against the new federal Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) mercury rule
unveiled today. The rule fails to protect
the public adequately from harmful mercury
emissions.
“We
will file suit to challenge EPA’s
new rule, which fails to protect our citizens
from the grave threat posed by mercury
emissions,” said Attorney General
Harvey. “Mercury has been linked
to neurological disorders and is especially
dangerous for young children and pregnant
women. By authorizing emissions trading,
EPA’s rule will allow some power
plants to actually increase mercury emissions,
creating hot spots of mercury deposition
around those plants.”
“Once
again, in the choice between families
and polluters, President Bush has left
every child behind in order to reward
industry and campaign contributors,”
said Commissioner Campbell. “This
rule betrays the public’s trust
by calling for standards far too weak
to protect public health and the environment.
Moreover, the emissions reductions trumpeted
by the EPA in this rule are misleading
and inaccurate.”
New
Jersey is consulting with other northeastern
states severely impacted by mercury emissions
and will petition for review of the rule
to demand that the EPA implement a strong,
protective rule as required by the Clean
Air Act.
The
Bush EPA’s mercury rule lets coal-fired
power plants trade credits under a cap-and-trade
system. Cap-and-trade emission controls,
while sometimes appropriate for general
air pollutants like sulfur dioxide and
carbon dioxide, are inappropriate for
hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) because
they can allow localized deposition of
mercury to continue unabated, perpetuating
hotspots and hot regions that can significantly
impact the health of individual communities.
The
rule’s cap-and-trade form of mercury
controls allows several times more emissions
than a Clinton-era plan that called for
a technology-based control standard for
all facilities. A strict Maximum Achievable
Control Technology (MACT) standard, as
required by the Clean Air Act, would reduce
mercury emissions to levels approximately
three times lower than the cap established
in this EPA rule. EPA’s trading
rule will ultimately result in 15 tons
of emissions; MACT control, reducing emissions
at each facility by 90 percent, results
in emissions of about 5 tons per year.
The
Bush EPA rule also extends the deadline
for full compliance to 2018 from a court-approved
deadline of 2007.
In
contrast, New Jersey adopted last year
tough new restrictions on mercury emissions
from coal-fired power plants, iron and
steel melters, and municipal solid waste
incinerators. The rules will reduce in-state
mercury emissions by over 1,500 pounds
annually and reduce emissions from New
Jersey’s coal-fired power plants
by about 90 percent.
Despite
New Jersey’s aggressive efforts
to protect the public from mercury exposure,
stronger federal action than the Bush
EPA rule is needed since more than one-third
of mercury deposition in New Jersey is
from sources in upwind states.
Exposure
to the most toxic form of mercury comes
primarily from eating contaminated fish
and shellfish. Children and pregnant women
are especially susceptible to mercury
contamination, which can cause permanent
brain damage to the fetus, infants, and
young children. Mercury exposure has been
shown to affect the ability of children
to pay attention, remember, talk, draw,
run, see, and play.
Even
exposure to low levels can permanently
damage the brain and nervous system and
cause behavioral changes. Scientists estimate
up to 60,000 children may be born annually
in the United States with neurological
problems leading to poor school performance
because of mercury exposure while in utero.
At least one in 10 pregnant women in New
Jersey have concentrations of mercury
in their hair samples that exceed safe
levels.
Fish
from waters in 45 of our 50 states have
been declared unsafe to eat as a result
of poisoning from mercury. In New Jersey,
there are mercury consumption advisories
for at least one species of fish in almost
every waterbody of the state.