Fish with high mercury levels have difficulty schooling and spawning, birds lay fewer eggs and have trouble caring for their chicks, and mammals have impaired motor skills that affect their ability to hunt and find food.

“The need to aggressively control mercury pollution is all too apparent given the depth and breadth of the mercury contamination in New York and the nation,” said Jason K. Babbie, Senior Environmental Policy Analyst for the New York Public Interest Research Group. 

On September 6, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) proposed a draft regulation that would require coal-fired power plants to decrease mercury pollution in two phases. The first reduction is in 2010. Ultimately, approximately 90 percent reductions in mercury pollution are required by 2015. The public can comment on the regulations through October 20.    

“New York’s draft regulation allows power plants to belch out hundreds of pounds of mercury pollution every year for years longer than many of our neighboring state," said Babbie. “It is not the action we need to protect public health and the environment in New York.”

Several states have already taken action to reduce mercury pollution from major sources like waste incinerators, chlorine manufacturers, power plants, and consumer products, and the results are very promising. In places where mercury emissions have been cut, such as Florida, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, mercury levels in fish and wildlife downwind have been reduced in a matter of years, not decades, as scientists have previously thought.
 

Massachusetts,  New Jersey,  Connecticut and other states already require at least 90 percent mercury pollution reductions at each of their coal power plants within the next few years.

“New York should require a 90 percent mercury pollution reduction at each power plant by 2010,” said David Gahl.

More information about the regulation and comment period can be found at www.nypirg.org/energy/mercury.html.