Snowe seeks reduction of mercury emissions

PORTLAND – Sen. Olympia Snowe said Monday she would push for legislation to force the Environmental Protection Agency to impose new restrictions on mercury emissions from utility power plants, coal- and oil-fired commercial boilers and other sources.

Snowe, R-Maine, said she would introduce the Omnibus Mercury Emissions Act with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont.

The bill would require power plants and commercial boilers to reduce mercury emissions by 95 percent in five years and require the EPA to publish a list of mercury-containing items that need to be separated and removed from the waste streams that feed solid waste facilities.

It also would expand research on the effects of mercury on pregnant women, children and other groups sensitive to mercury, and direct the EPA to work with states to improve fish consumption advisories.

“Even in Maine, where great efforts have been made to preserve clean air and water, mercury arrives as an unseen threat, carried in the air from hundreds of miles away and deposited in our lakes, rivers and coastal regions through rain and snowfall,” said Snowe. “This bill complements the steps Maine has taken to reduce mercury emissions, and by addressing what happens outside our borders, it also can ensure that Maine’s actions will not be in vain.”

A new EPA rule announced this month on mercury emissions is inadequate and does not reduce mercury emissions to acceptable levels until 2018, Snowe said.

She said that unless all coal-fired power plants are required to reduce emissions, mercury will persist in Maine and other parts of the country.