High mercury found in eggs

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http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/state2003/122303_loons_eggs_2003.shtml

 

High mercury found in eggs

Researcher: Data contradicts Bush policy

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

By STEPHEN FROTHINGHAM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time of year, the call of loons on Swain's Lake and Mendum's Pond in

Barrington been replaced by silence - and, soon, the whine of snowmobiles.

The ponds, lined with summer cottages and known for their bass fishing, are like

dozens - even hundreds - around New Hampshire. But over the last eight years

they've produced loon eggs with the highest mercury levels of any tested in the

country.

Now, a scientist who studies those eggs is citing them as evidence the Bush

administration is headed down the wrong path with the mercury pollution plan it

announced last week. David Evers, executive director of the BioDiversity

Research Institute in Falmouth, Maine, says changes in mercury levels in the

eggs suggests that mercury pollution stays close to its source, generally

incinerators, coal-burning power plants and even home furnaces.

The solution, he says, is to require plants to use the best available technology

to cut emissions.

The administration has a different approach. Last week, it proposed regulating

mercury polluters by allowing them to buy pollution credits from cleaner plants.

After six years, the plan would start imposing limits on mercury emissions,

though environmentalists note the limits are lower than those proposed by the

Clinton administration and some would not take effect until 2018.

The Environmental Protection Agency says the program would cut mercury emissions

from coal plants from 48 tons a year to about 34 tons a year. And when all the

limits were imposed, emissions would drop to about 15 tons a year, the EPA says.

" We are calling for the largest single industry investment in any clean air

program in U.S history, " EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt said.

But Evers says trading credits is the wrong approach for a pollutant that stays

close to home.

" You end up sacrificing parts of the country like southeastern New Hampshire to

try to improve mercury pollution nationally, " Evers said.

The starting point for his argument is a study he co-authored that was published

this year in the journal Ecotoxicology. The study found that loon eggs in

southeastern New Hampshire had the highest mercury levels of any tested in eight

states, and that levels in Swain's Lake and Mendum's Pond were especially high.

But the study was based on eggs tested prior to 2000. More recently, eggs from

the same ponds have shown a significant decline in mercury, apparently because

of state-mandated changes at municipal waste incinerators in the area, Evers

said.

Across New England, about 40 percent of mercury pollution comes from New England

sources, 40 percent from the Midwest and 20 percent from global sources, as far

away as China, scientists say.

But in hot spots like southeastern New Hampshire, an even larger proportion of

the mercury originates locally, Evers said. His study found the highest levels

in the area roughly east of Interstate 93 as far north as Concord.

He theorizes that common wind patterns bring in mercury-laden air from the

Boston area and the Midwest. He believes additional mercury comes from several

area municipal incinerators, home furnaces and the coal-burning power plant in

Bow, which is on the western edge of the region. The declining mercury levels

convinced Evers that mercury pollution is best dealt with on a plant-by-plant,

or " point-source, " basis, in regulatory lingo.

" It shows that there is a point-source problem, " Evers said.

Evers said trading makes sense for sulfur dioxide emissions, which create acid

rain, and carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which are seen as a key

factor behind global warming. Because the pollutants act globally, a net

decrease improves the environment for everybody.

But if a heavy mercury-emitting plant bought credits from a cleaner plant,

especially one in another state, it would result in little improvement to the

environment near the plant, Evers said.

Evers studies loons because they are at the top of the food chain. He doesn't

know whether the levels of mercury he's measured in eggs has any effect on

loons' health.

But there's no question mercury is bad for people. The state Department of

Health and Human Services says mercury can damage the developing brains of

fetuses, babies and young children. The department advises pregnant or nursing

mothers and young children not to eat freshwater fish caught in the state more

than a few times a month.

" Caps and trading doesn't seem like the logical way to deal with this problem, "

Evers said.

 

 

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

 

 

 

 

 

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