Mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants is increasing in Illinois even as it declines nationwide, a troubling trend for the state because emissions of the toxic metal tend to fall back to earth close to the source.
The amount of mercury blown into the air by the state’s coal plants jumped by 7 percent last year, according to a Tribune analysis of newly released federal data on industrial pollution. By contrast, mercury emissions from all U.S. power plants declined by 4 percent.
(Click HERE for a national map of mercury emissions.)
Only one other state, Michigan, recorded a larger increase in pounds released. Texas tied Illinois for the second largest, but emissions declined in 28 other states, including Indiana, Ohio, Georgia and several others that rely heavily on coal to generate electricity.
The increases in Illinois and several other states can be attributed to power companies’ burning more high-mercury coal in 2008, without equipment to filter out the poisonous byproduct. That type of coal generally contains less sulfur, which helps companies meet federal limits on acid rain pollution. There still are no national restrictions on mercury emissions from power plants, the largest man-made source of the toxic metal.
It takes only a small amount of mercury to pollute lakes and streams. Nearly half of the nation’s lakes contain fish contaminated with harmful levels of mercury, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study released earlier this year. The problem is so pervasive that Illinois and 43 other states advise people, especially women of childbearing age and young children, to avoid or limit eating certain types of fish.
EPA scientists also have determined that ChicagoChicago reviews
is a “hot spot” where relatively large amounts of mercury fall. Nearly two-thirds of the pollutant comes from sources within the state.
“This shows why it is so important to have enforceable limits in place nationwide,” said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.
Though Illinois adopted its own mercury limits on power plants three years ago, the regulations won’t take full effect until midway through the next decade. The Obama administration has proposed national limits, but power companies likely will be given several years to comply, meaning emissions could keep rising in some states.
Mercury is one of dozens of toxic chemicals and heavy metals that billow out of the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants. The increases seen in Illinois and several other states are striking because most other pollutants from coal plants declined last year, including substances in lung-damaging soot, smog and acid rain.
Carbon dioxide pollution that contributes to global climate change also dipped last year, reflecting lower demand for electricity because of the recession.
The hodgepodge of results on mercury emissions occurred because levels of the metal can vary widely depending on the type of coal burned. And most power plants still are not equipped to scrub mercury droplets out of smokestack exhaust.
In Illinois, where about half of the state’s electricity comes from coal plants, most power companies have switched from coal mined within the state to sources in Wyoming and other Western states. Western coal contains lower amounts of sulfur, an ingredient in acid rain, but it generally contains more mercury.
Mercury emissions went up at three coal-fired power plants in the Chicago area: two in Will County and another in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Emissions declined at plants in Waukegan and Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.
Doug McFarlan, a spokesman for Midwest Generation, the company that owns all five plants, said mercury pollution should drop across the board this year. Mercury-scrubbing equipment was installed in mid-2008 at the Chicago and Waukegan plants and in July at the two Will County plants.
Under state rules, all Illinois coal plants must reduce mercury pollution by 90 percent by 2015. “We’re on track to meet those limits,” McFarlan said.
Earlier this year, a federal appellate court threw out industry-friendly rules imposed by the Bush administration that would have given all U.S. power companies until the 2020s to reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent. Those rules also would have allowed some plants to keep releasing large amounts of mercury as long as emissions slowly declined nationwide.
The Obama administration is pushing its own rules that would require faster, deeper cuts in mercury pollution at each power plant, a move that would fulfill one of the president’s campaign promises. Mercury controls are expected to be included in a package of rules that also would clamp down on soot, smog and acid rain pollution from coal plants.
“The agency is committed to following science and the law as it develops a strategy to reduce harmful emissions from these facilities, which threaten the air we all breathe,” said Cathy Milbourn, an EPA spokeswoman.
Mercury is one of the last pollutants released by power plants to be targeted for limits by environmental regulators. The toxic fallout has become a lingering problem even as other smokestack emissions have declined, mostly because other chemicals are subject to federal limits.
–Michael Hawthorne
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