MERCURY RISING

If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs more evidence that a Bush administration plan to reduce mercury pollution misses the target, it got it this week with its own report on the increasing number of water bodies across the country that are contaminated with the toxic heavy metal. The report reiterates that the agency should move ahead with more stringent mercury emission rules required under the Clean Air Act instead of a cap-and-trade program proposed by the administration.

EPA administrator Michael Leavitt recently put the cap-and-trade program on hold so he can re-evaluate it. His agency’s report, which found that the number of water bodies with fish contamination advisories due to high levels of mercury increased almost 10 percent between 2002 and 2003, must be added to the many documents the administrator will review. According to the report, more than 3,000 lakes and rivers were under fish consumption advisories, with 280 new water bodies added last year. In Maine, 19 rivers and lakes have been under such advisories for a decade.

The advisories typically warn pregnant women and young children not to eat more than a specified number of fish from fresh water sources in a month. All other freshwater species are off-limits to pregnant and nursing women, women who may get pregnant, and children under 8, because of the high risk; everyone else can have two meals a month, according to Maine’s fish advisories. A federal advisory recommends that children and nursing and pregnant women eat only two 6-ounce meals a week of low-mercury fish like canned tuna, salmon, shrimp, pollock and catfish.

EPA officials say that the increasing number of contaminated lakes and rivers is due to the fact that state and federal regulators are looking harder for mercury in water bodies. This may be partially true, but it also shows that rules aimed at keeping mercury out of the environment in the first place must be strengthened.

Dropping the administration’s mercury emissions rule in favor of tougher regulations requiring the installation of maximum achievable control technology (MACT), as required by the Clean Air Act, is a good place to start. MACT would reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2008. The administration’s cap-and-trade rules, which would allow companies that cannot reduce their share of mercury emissions to pay for cuts at other facilities, would result in a 70 percent reduction by 2018. Industry testimony before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, as well as that from environmental groups, confirms that the MACT rule can be implemented without undue economic burden.

The evidence is mounting that this approach, which will accomplish the largest reduction in mercury emissions in the shortest period of time, should be adopted.