Funding may hinder regulation of mercury

By ANDREW McGLASHEN
Capital News Service

February 08, 2008 04:00 am

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LANSING -- The Department of Environmental Quality wants to eliminate the use and release of mercury in Michigan, if it has the money.

A report from a DEQ work group calls for legislation to regulate the toxic metal. It makes 67 recommendations that would develop a "baseline level" of naturally occurring mercury in order to track human-caused emissions.

Recommendations also are aimed at meeting water quality standards and eliminating fish advisories.

DEQ Director Steven Chester created the work group to review the department's 1993 Mercury Action Plan and recommend new policies.

People exposed to mercury can suffer brain, lung and kidney damage, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and children are especially vulnerable to the toxic metal.

Exposure most commonly occurs when people eat contaminated fish or breathe mercury vapors from industrial sources.

The work group estimated that Michigan releases 7,000 pounds of mercury into the air each year, as well as 490 pounds into surface water and 900 pounds onto land through waste.

Microorganisms absorb mercury, which then becomes more concentrated at each level of the food chain.

The department has been working to reduce mercury levels for years, mostly through "case-by-case efforts" like holding mercury thermometer exchanges and cutting mercury use in automobiles, said DEQ spokesman Robert McCann.

The DEQ also is looking for ways to cut mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by 90 percent by 2015. Those plants are the state's largest industrial source of mercury.

The proposed strategy, McCann said, is more comprehensive than the 1993 plan and includes monitoring, regulation, education and partnerships.

But it's no secret that DEQ is hurting for cash these days.

For example, the DEQ recently stopped accepting applications for toxic site cleanups and brownfield redevelopment projects due to a lack of funds, which McCann said is "really unfortunate for the state."

But McCann said eliminating mercury use is a priority.

McCann said that by working with other organizations, DEQ will be able to keep down the cost of mercury reduction programs.

David Gard, director of the Michigan Environmental Council's energy program, said his group is involved in partnerships to cut mercury use, "but we also want to understand their recommendations."

Overall, though, the DEQ strategy is "certainly an effort that's worthy of the problem that mercury poses," Gard said. "They really are considering just about every source that we know about."