Long story. Click on link at end of blog entry to read it all. Reprinted in full from the KCStar:
Missouri, Kansas rank among ‘dirty dozen’ states with coal-powered plants
By KAREN DILLON
Missouri and Kansas are two of the “dirty dozen” states that have coal-fired power plants generating the highest mercury pollution in the nation, according to a study released Thursday.
The report, from the Washington-based nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, says dangerous mercury pollution levels are also rising at many of the 50 worst coal plants in 12 states.
Missouri and Kansas are 9th and 10th respectively on the “dirty dozen” list. The plants that give the states that unwanted recognition are the Westar plant north of Topeka, the Kansas City Power & Light La Cygne plant south of Kansas City, and Ameren plants in Jefferson and Franklin counties near St. Louis.
Utility officials say they are working to reduce the pollutant and one plant has had dramatic results. But one utility official questioned whether mercury from power plants is even a health problem.
The report’s authors say it is a serious health problem and not enough is being done to reduce mercury emissions. Of the six worst plants, four are in Texas and the worst plant is in Alabama.
“The report found that the top 50 most polluting power plants emitted nearly 20 tons of the dangerous neurotoxin mercury into the nation’s air in 2007,” said Ilan Levin, the project’s senior attorney. “Coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of mercury air pollution, accounting for roughly 40 percent of all mercury emissions nationwide.”
Currently mercury is not regulated.
The Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 issued a mercury rule, but environmentalists said it was weak and this spring a federal appeals court agreed. The court found that the rule violated the Clean Air Act, and overturned it.
That ruling has been appealed and the industry, environmentalists and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius are watching.
Nicole Corcoran, Sebelius’ spokeswoman, said the governor believes mercury emissions should be regulated because of the health risks.
When power plants release the highly toxic metal into the atmosphere, it eventually settles into rivers and lakes and is absorbed by fish, which are then eaten by people.
“We’re watching the federal court case to see whether the clean air mercury rule will be upheld,” Corcoran said in a statement. “The outcome of the appeal will determine the ability of states, including Kansas, to regulate mercury emissions.”
Pregnant women and children exposed to mercury are at greater risk for a variety of developmental and learning disorders, studies have shown.
But not everyone agrees with those studies.
An Ameren official questioned whether mercury from power plants is even harmful to women and children.
“Scientists have been studying pregnant women and children in the Seychelles Islands — where they eat fish daily that are contaminated with mercury at higher levels than you will find anywhere in the U.S.,” Susan Gallagher, an Ameren spokeswoman, wrote in a statement. “They have been studying these women for 20 years and have never found any detrimental IQ effects.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that about 6 percent of American women carry mercury levels that could put a fetus at risk for neurological damage.
Women of child-bearing age and children should limit the amount of locally-caught fish they eat to once a week because of the high-levels of mercury, according to warnings issued by the EPA, Kansas and Missouri regulatory agencies.
Jonathan Garoutte, an environmental specialist for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said that eating fish can be a tradeoff. Even though most fish are contaminated with mercury, they still are beneficial to the human diet.
In Missouri, the health department is tracking the mercury in fish with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Missouri Department of Conservation through annual sampling of fish tissue.
“The overwhelming largest source of exposure to mercury is the consumption of fish,” Garoutte said. “We do monitor fish for changes in mercury levels from year to year.”
The Environmental Integrity Project used 2007 toxic release data from power plants to analyze mercury emissions from coal plants. The project retrieved data for each U.S. plant that reported mercury emissions of 300 pounds or more.
Utility officials of the four Missouri and Kansas plants said they are monitoring mercury and working to reduce mercury emissions.
Two of the four worst power plants in Kansas and Missouri did not follow the national trend of increasing mercury emissions.
At the La Cygne plant, the amount of mercury actually decreased by 51 percent to only 485 pounds a year and emissions at the Ameren plant in Jefferson Count decreased 29 percent.
KCP&L officials said the drop by half in mercury emissions was a result of installing mercury-reducing technology.
Bill Riggins, KCP&L’s general counsel and chief legal officer, said the utility has plans to decrease mercury emissions even further at the La Cygne plant. In addition, the company is “looking at technologies that will reduce not just one emission but multiple emissions” at all its coal plants.
Ameren officials said they are testing mercury removal technology on their sites, and in Illinois they will begin controlling mercury emissions by 2010 with new technology.
Ameren’s second plant in Franklin County is ranked fifth in mercury pollution in the nation, reporting 1,518 pounds of mercury, which is an increase of 11 percent from 2006.
Westar’s plant, which released 736 pounds of mercury in 2007, ranked 22, an increase of about 6 percent from the previous year.
Dan Wilkus, manager of Westar’s air and water program, said the plant is operating within EPA and state permit limits. Currently Westar and KCP&L are monitoring emissions at their power plants in Kansas to find ways to reduce them.
Wilkus said Westar also is waiting for EPA to issue new regulations.
However, Levin, the project’s attorney, said technology exists that would eliminate up to 90 percent of mercury emissions, and utilities needed to step up to the plate.
He pointed out that in 1970 when the Clean Air Act was passed, utilities persuaded Congress not to impose regulations on old power plants because they would soon be closed down. The older power plants, which are the biggest emitters of mercury, are still operating today.
