Tue, Mar. 9, 2004

Report:  Jefferson County plant emits half of Arkansas mercury toxins
Friday, Sep 09, 2005

By Alison Vekshin
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A power plant located in Jefferson County accounts for nearly half of Arkansas' air emissions of mercury, a toxin that is harmful to the developing brains of children and fetuses, according to a report released Thursday by a watchdog group.

The White Bluff coal-fired power plant near Redfield produced 460 pounds of mercury air emissions in 2003, 48 percent of the 962 pounds produced in the state, according to the U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

"Mercury is toxic at very low exposures," Supryia Ray, U.S. PIRG's staff attorney and the report's author said following a Capitol Hill news conference unveiling the findings.

"The solution is to install the appropriate mercury controls as required by the Clean Air Act," Ray said. "The technology is available, it's effective and it's affordable."

The Jefferson County plant is owned by New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. An Entergy plant in Independence County produced 370 pounds and an American Electric plant in Benton County produced 132 pounds of the state's total mercury emissions, according to the report.

"It's really important for the people in Arkansas to put those numbers in perspective," said Dakin Dubroc, an Entergy spokeswoman in Houston.

"The rules we abide by now are state and federal rules," she said. "Those rules are designed to protect their health and their environment. We will continue to do that."

Dubroc said Entergy is running an experimental program at its Independence plant to further reduce mercury emissions.

Power plants account for only about 3 percent of the nation's mercury emissions from both natural and man-made sources, Dubroc said, citing a 1995 Environmental Protection Agency report.

Doug Szenher, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said the state does not approve permits to plants that exceed mercury levels that would create a threat to human health or the environment.

The state's permit limits on air and water discharge are based on standards set by the federal government, he said.

"All of the coal-fired plants in the state are in compliance with the air emission permits," Szenher said. "We're not involved in any enforcement proceedings against any of them at this time."

Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, said he had not read the report and declined to comment on it.

But, Ross said, "If we have higher than safe mercury levels, we ought to do anything we can to reduce that to a healthy level."

The report based its findings on the most recent data reported by the Environmental Protection Agency's toxics release inventory.

Lawmakers at the news conference were critical of a March EPA rule that they said weakens the mercury emissions standards established in the Clean Air Act.

"In this case, corporate values are being put ahead of family values," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. "It is time to put people first, and to stop letting the big polluters and the special interests write the rules and run the show over at EPA."

In June, Leahy introduced a resolution disapproving of the EPA rule. He said the Senate is expected to vote on the legislation on Monday.

Mercury is a neurotoxin that can cause learning disabilities, developmental delays and lowered IQ, according to the report.

When power plants burn coal or wastes containing mercury, their smokestacks release mercury. Some of the substance is washed out of the air onto land and into waterways, where it may be converted into an organic form of mercury that builds up in fish.

Eating contaminated fish is the main way people are exposed to mercury, the group said.