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DEQ
wants 90 percent mercury reduction
State asks PGE to decrease
amount of toxic emissions by even more at Boardman
By the Associated Press and the East Oregonian
BOARDMAN -- The state has asked Portland
General Electric to cut toxic mercury emissions from its Boardman
coal-burning power plant even more than it proposed in May.
The Department of Environmental Quality wants PGE
to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent within the next six years.
In May, DEQ officials considered giving the
utility up to 12 years to cut mercury by 60 percent. That plan provoked
outrage from environmental groups and others who described it as one of the
weakest mercury control rules in the nation.
"What we heard from the public was that they
wanted it done sooner, so we probably underestimated that reaction,"
said Andrew Ginsburg, director of the DEQ's air quality division.
He said the agency misjudged the public's intense
interest in curtailing mercury, a toxic compound that contaminates the food
chain and causes development disorders in children. So the state is now
taking the unusual step of returning to the public with a new, tougher
proposal. The state will accept comments until Aug. 25.
PGE officials said they are committed to controlling
mercury, dependent on control equipment becoming available.
"It's not a question of doing it," said
PGE spokesman Steve Corson. "It's a question of when can we get that
equipment. That's going to be driven by the technology."
Corson said the equipment has to be technically
feasible and commercially available for the Boardman plant and for the coal
the company burns there.
"That's not yet the case, but we're actively
working with our engineering consultant to monitor and understand the
development and testing now under way throughout the country -- both to
control mercury emissions and to continuously monitor those emissions -- so
that we can find and implement the most appropriate solution for the
Boardman plant," he said.
Corson said the DEQ still has not given the
utility specific information about the reductions it expects. The state
Environmental Quality Commission will decide the final reduction level.
"Right now the DEQ's newly revised proposed
rules have only been shared in summary form with us and with other
interested parties," Corson said. "We're going to be discussing
the rules with DEQ staff to get a better understanding of what they propose
to require of us at Boardman, and we'll provide the agency with more
detailed comments once we have that information. In any case, we are
cooperating fully with the DEQ in this process."
Power plants that burn coal release mercury into
the air as a byproduct. It later rains out of the air and into in rivers
and lakes, where it collects in fish.
The increased reduction still includes provisions
for Oregon to join a controversial national trading system where one power
plant could avoid installing mercury controls by purchasing credits from
another plant.
Critics say that could allow PGE to make money off
steps it takes to control mercury. The company could sell the credits it
earns by limiting its mercury emissions to power plants in other parts of
the country that still pollute.
"You're basically transferring a hazardous
substance -- a poison -- to another population and allowing a utility to
profit from it," said Michael Lang of Friends of the Columbia Gorge,
one of the groups pressing for tougher mercury limits.
The Boardman plant is under scrutiny not only for
its mercury emissions, but also because it's suspected of contributing to
haze and acid rain and fog in the Columbia River Gorge.
Coal-fired power
plants are the largest remaining source of airborne mercury pollution in
the country, and PGE's Boardman plant is the only one in Oregon. A new
federal directive requires states to enact limits on mercury from power
plants.
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