Health benefits predicted with proposed mercury regulations on coal plants

By Karen Dillon From The Kansas City Star

Newly proposed mercury regulations on coal-fired power plants should have a major effect on health, Kansas City-area officials said Tuesday.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s rule would prevent dozens of deaths in the area as well as an estimated 780 heart attacks, 800 asthma attacks and 5,600 sick days, said Rex Archer, director of Kansas City’s Health Department.

“It’s about time we got these standards in place,” Archer said during a news conference at the Health Department. Karl Brooks, EPA Region 7 administrator, said 8,000 pounds of mercury were emitted annually by power plants burning coal in this area. He noted that Congress “promised this to the American people in 1990” but acknowledged it had been politically difficult to implement over the years.

The rule will not only limit mercury but also lead, arsenic and acid gas pollution.

More than half of power plants in other states meet the standard because of state laws, Brooks said. But the six in the Kansas City area do not.

A court-ordered deadline requires EPA to make the rule official by November. Coal plant owners will have up to four years to implement the pollution removal technology.

All water bodies in Missouri and many in Kansas are contaminated with mercury.

Statewide advisories indicate most fish are contaminated with mercury and set limits on the number of fish that children under age 13 and women of child-bearing age should eat.

Brooks said the regulation was expected to generate tens of thousands of jobs nationally and cost billions of dollars. But the cost is cheaper than what is being spent on people sickened by mercury, the officials said.

Bill Eastman, head of environmental safety at Westar Energy Inc., said company plants were using scrubbers that reduce mercury. But once the new regulations are implemented, Westar will have to put on more pollution-controlling equipment.

In a statement, Kansas City Power & Light said it planned to make several improvements to its plants in order to meet some provisions of the rule ahead of schedule.

Posted by Kate Gonzalez www.climateandenergy.org/