Clean Air News

As the new home of NCPIRG's environmental work, Environment North Carolina can be contacted with any questions regarding this news release. 

RALEIGH—As the Bush administration renews its call for Congress to pass its stalled "Clear Skies" bill, a new report written by North Carolina Public Interest Research Group (NCPIRG) finds that a loophole in the fine print of the bill could exempt 58 percent of the state's coal-fired power plant units from regulation, allowing them to emit toxic mercury indefinitely.

Power plants are the largest source of mercury emissions in North Carolina, making up 62 percent of the state's toxic mercury emissions. North Carolina power plants currently produce more than 3,000 pounds of mercury per year. Reductions expected, but not required, under the state's "Clean Smokestacks" bill would leave mercury emissions at 1230 pounds per year. Under full enforcement of the Clean Air Act, mercury pollution from the state's power plants would be reduced to only 307 pounds per year. The "Clear Skies" loophole, however, could exempt 38 units, 58 percent of North Carolina's coal-fired power plant units, from federal regulation.

"Very small amounts of mercury can go a long way. Scientists have found that just a single gram of mercury, about a drop, deposited over the course of a year was enough to contaminate the fish in a lake. This loophole is serious business for people who fish," said NCPIRG Field Organizer, Breanna Peterson.

Recreational fishing brings over one billion dollars to North Carolina each year, ranking it fifth in the nation for the amount of money spent on recreational fishing related activities each year.

"For the wellbeing of our children and the health of our economy we cannot afford to let mercury go unchecked," Peterson said.

The bill's (S.131) mercury loophole, tucked in the definition of an "affected unit," would exclude from regulation power plant units that emit 30 pounds (13,620 grams) or less of mercury per year, including units that are part of a multi-unit power plant that as a whole emits more than 30 pounds of mercury per year. EPA has performed no analyses to date on the effects of this loophole on public health or the environment.

The report released by NCPIRG, "The Fine Print," uses EPA data from 1999, the best data available on power plant mercury emissions, to examine the scope of this loophole. Key findings include:

"- While it is estimated that North Carolina's Clean Smokestacks Act will reduce mercury pollution by 60%, those reductions would still leave the state with an estimated 1230 pounds of mercury pollution each year, four times as much toxic mercury as would be allowed under the Clean Air Act.

- In North Carolina, the loophole could exempt 38 units, 58 percent of North Carolina's mercury-emitting power plant units, from regulation.

- The loophole could let entire plants off the hook for cleaning up their mercury emissions. North Carolina's Riverbend plant contains 4 units that collectively emitted 75.39 pounds of mercury into the air in 1999, yet the entire plant could get a free pass on mercury controls because none of its units individually emitted more than 30 pounds of mercury.

- Under the Clean Air Act's requirement to use the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT), it is estimated that North Carolina's mercury pollution would decrease from over 3,000 pounds per year to less than 300 pounds per year.

- The loophole could exempt 39 percent (441 of 1,120) of the nation's mercury-emitting power plant units from regulation. These 441 units collectively emitted 4,971 pounds of mercury into the air in 1999.

The report also notes that the loophole could create a "perverse incentive" for power plants to reduce mercury emissions at individual units just enough for those units to fall under the 30-pound threshold - and "off the regulatory radar screen."

"Not only does the bill let power plants buy and trade the right to pollute toxic mercury, but it lets some polluters off the hook entirely. It makes a bad bill even worse," said Peterson.

For those plants that have to clean up, the "Clear Skies" bill gives the plants until 2018 before requiring specific action to reduce their mercury pollution by repealing the Clean Air Act's requirement that every power plant reduce its mercury emissions to the maximum extent by 2008. EPA acknowledged in a 2001 presentation to the electric utilities' trade association that compliance with existing law would reduce mercury emissions by about 90 percent.

Exposure to low-levels of mercury can cause learning disabilities, developmental delays, lowered IQ, and attention deficits in children and heart attacks and other problems in adults. EPA scientists estimate that one in six women of childbearing age has enough mercury in her body to put her child at risk, should she become pregnant.