Report: Texas leads nation in mercury emissions

By RANDY LEE LOFTIS
The Dallas Morning News
October 28, 2004

Fish in nearly one-third of the nation's 41 million acres of lakes are contaminated with mercury, and Texas leads the country in emissions of the toxic metal from power plants, a coalition of environmental groups said Wednesday.

Mercury is a powerful poison that can cause brain and nervous system damage, especially in children, pregnant women and unborn babies. People are exposed to mercury when they eat fish caught in polluted waters.

The Bush administration is battling environmental groups over how to control mercury from power plants, the biggest source of mercury emissions in the United States.

The administration has proposed allowing some plants to delay deep cuts in emissions by buying credits from other plants that make early cuts. Under the plan, the government would cap total emissions nationwide for the first time.

Many environmental groups oppose that emissions-trading plan. They say it waits too long to require emissions cuts, doesn't cut deeply enough and ignores local problems caused when a particular plant emits higher amounts. Unlike other pollutants, some of the mercury remains near its emission source.

"Bush's plan is too little, too late," said Wendi Hammond, executive director of the Blue Skies Alliance, a North Texas environmental group.

EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman said the administration's plan on emissions trading would rely on market forces rather than strict regulations to cut mercury emissions. "The bottom line is that we will be controlling mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants for the first time," she said.

The U.S. Public Interest Group, an environmental and consumer advocacy group, examined reports on state mercury warnings and federal reports on emissions. The group's Texas chapter and several other Texas organizations on Wednesday released a version customized for Texas.

The report found that state advisories or bans on fish consumption because of mercury covered at least 13.1 million acres of lakes, or 32 percent of the nation's total, in 2003. That was up by 6 percent from 2002 because of better monitoring, not more pollution.

Texas ranked ninth in lakes covered by mercury advisories, with nearly 330,000 acres affected, mostly in East Texas.

The state was first in mercury emissions from power plants, with 9,815 pounds in 2002, the latest year available, the report said. Five of the top 10 mercury-emitting plants nationwide are in Texas, it added.

Coal mined in Texas, called lignite, has more mercury than other types, said Drew Douglas, spokesman for Dallas-based TXU Corp., which operates two of the top five plants.

Technology to make big cuts from lignite doesn't exist, he said, but the company is working on solutions with government and university researchers.

E-mail rloftis@dallasnews.com

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