A hazardous policy on mercury

This past month, media frenzy erupted over Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C., where droplets of mercury were found on a hallway floor. The sighting of this neurotoxin was a nightmare for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which sent in experts to inspect every inch of the building and test all students for poisoning.

Yet the few ounces found in Cardozo High School cannot compare to the tons of mercury pumped into the air we breathe each day. Alarmingly, U.S. coal-fired power plants emit about 50 tons of it annually — hundreds of thousands of times more than the amount lurking in Cardozo's halls.

Mercury, which is known to cause learning and attention disabilities as well as mental retardation, has gone widely unregulated in this country. What's worse is that in the past month, President George W. Bush's EPA has halted all major progress that has been made in the past 10 years to fight against mercury problems, by favoring industries over the environment and human life.

On March 15, the EPA announced new mercury control regulations that will delay deep cuts in emissions. In doing so, President Bush and the EPA have chosen to let power plants generate three times more mercury pollution over the next 50 years than would be allowed under the original Clean Air Act.

This rollback was made possible by a simple change in wording — EPA officials decided to regulate mercury power plants under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act instead of Section 112. A seemingly minor difference, the revision effectively downgrades mercury to "non-hazardous," contrary to evidence from multiple well-respected science institutions. Instead, the EPA will allow reductions using less expensive controls and more gradual timetables.

If we were to simply implement the laws already in place, annual mercury emissions from power plants could be reduced to five tons annually by 2007. But the EPA's new plan to cap emission at 34 tons a year by 2010 and then 15 tons by 2018 will allow 520 percent more mercury to be discharged over the next 15 years. The EPA itself estimated that each year, 630,000 babies are at risk for lowered intelligence and learning problems due to mercury exposure in utero — that's almost 10 million babies affected by mercury in 15 years.

Despite its new category name, mercury continues to be hazardous to the well-being of the environment and the health of the public. One in 12 American women of childbearing age has a mercury level that exceeds the amount considered safe by the EPA. According to scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health, contamination by methylmercury, which forms after mercury that lands in water is transformed by microorganisms, can cause heart damage and irreversible impairment to brain function in children, both in the womb and as they grow.

Since the new regulations were released, environmental groups, as well as the EPA inspector general and officials from the Government Accountability Office, have criticized the Bush administration for ignoring scientific evidence and choosing instead to consult with industry advocates. In fact, according to The Washington Post, Bush officials blatantly ignored a Harvard University study paid for by the EPA that claimed that controls could be more aggressive such that the cost to the industry would not far exceed the public health payoff. The findings were stripped from public documents immediately.

Ultimately, the Bush administration has found a way to save the utility industry hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet, many plants would not have to change a thing about their mercury policies to reach the original target set by the EPA — 34 tons a year — if they simply reduce their emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, two gases that react with airborne mercury. With the coal industry contributing more than $250,000 to President Bush's last campaign, the president and the agency in charge of protecting the environmental resources and public health would rather look the other way and hope no one notices.

Fortunately, we notice. This nation wants and deserves clean rivers and lakes, with fish that can be safely eaten and air that is fresh. The EPA's rollback has put that goal out of reach for decades to come and, along with it, has selfishly placed the safety of our nation's children at risk.