Tell Legislators to VOTE FOR HB 586
Make Coal-Fired Power Plants Clean Up Their Mercury
Pollution!
On Monday,
Feb. 19, at 3:00, the Federal Relations, Energy and Telecommunications
committee will consider whether coal-fired power plants should clean up their
mercury pollution. Please attend and tell the committee to protect public
health!
HB 586 by
Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy (D-Box Elder) does what the Board of Environmental
Review refused to do. It requires all coal-fired power plants to
significantly reduce their mercury emissions by 2010. This bill applies to new
and existing plants and requires them to install technology that is available
today and that can reduce emissions significantly. The rule adopted by the
Board allows companies to make excuses for not reaching a strict limit until
2018. Even then the rule does not require plants to reduce emissions to 90%. HB
586 will fix that.
Why do we
need this bill and why set a 90% reduction requirement?
¥ 15 other states require coal
plants to reduce mercury emissions by about 90%. Montana should do the same. Some states
require plants to meet this standard faster, some slower. Montana should
require it as soon as possible. Three years provides more than enough time for
these large companies to design and install this technology. New plants can do
it immediately. Existing plants will require retrofitting which will take some
time. But since existing plants have spewed up to 1,000 pounds of mercury into
the air each a year, it is time to provide some relief to downwind communities
and make these polluting facilities act as quickly as possible.
¥ ItÕs
about public health.
Numerous scientific peer-reviewed journal articles prove that mercury in the
environment harms public health, particularly the health of young children.
Mercury has been linked to neurological disorders, cardiac impairment and much,
much more. The science is in and it is overwhelming. ItÕs now up to the policy
makers to have the political will to act on that science.
¥
Mercury deposits locally.
Many studies show that while mercury can travel long distances after it is
released into the air, recent studies prove that much of this mercury can also
deposit near the source. This means that those living downwind of these large
sources of mercury suffer a disproportionate impact from the mercury pollution.
¥
The technology available today reduces mercury based on a percentage reduction. The process, known as activated carbon
injection injects carbon into the gas stream. Technically speaking, the
removal process requires that the mercury molecules move by diffusion randomly
toward the carbon particles. The amount of removal depends upon the
amount of time available to move to the carbon particle and the distance to the
carbon particle. The more carbon particles, then the shorter the average
distance between the mercury molecules and carbon (therefore greater removal at
higher injection rates).
The
percentage removal is based upon two issues:
.
There
is more than enough capacity in the carbon to hold however many mercury
molecules migrate to the surface, and
.
The
molecules are migrating independent of each other. Therefore, if there
are ten molecules around a particle and there is sufficient time to create the
probability that 90% will migrate to the carbon particle, then 9 will be
removed. In the same situation, if there were 1000 molecules around the
carbon particle, then 900 would be removed. So the process of removal is
a probability phenomenon and therefore it dictates a percentage removal.
Because of
this factor, when technology vendors guarantee mercury removal, their
guarantees are based upon percent removal of the mercury in the coal.
Attend
the hearing! If you canÕt call or write your legislators urging them to protect
public health, not corporate profits!
To leave a
message for legislators call 406-444-4800.
For more
information on the health and environmental effects of mercury pollution see
MEICÕs fact sheet at:
http://www.meic.org/air_quality/mercury_pollution
**********************
Anne Hedges
Program Director
Montana
Environmental Information Center
P.O. Box 1184
Helena, MT 59624
(406) 443-2520
fax: (406) 443-2507
ahedges@meic.org