U.S.

Black Rain

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 15, 1999 / 8:16 PM EDT / CBS

Rain contaminated with mercury from coal-fired electric plants is fouling Midwest lakes and rivers, according to a report released by environmental groups.

Mercury is showing up in Chicago rainfall at levels 42 times greater than federal standards considered safe, according to Andrew Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation. Mercury levels in rain are even higher in Detroit and Duluth, Minnesota.

Meanwhile, New York state took legal action Wednesday against 17 Midwestern electric plants, accusing them of violating the 1990 federal Clean Air Act and alleging their pollution has contaminated air in the Northeast for years.

New York attorney general Elliot Spitzer said the plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia failed to upgrade equipment that cleans smokestack emissions when they made other big investments in the plants, a requirement under the act.

Preliminary findings of a six-month EPA study suggested a pattern of such violations by operators of many of the country's biggest and dirtiest coal-burning plants, Clinton administration officials said in July.

The increased acid rain problems in the Northeast over the last 20 years have been linked to sulfates and nitrates, which are products of coal-fired power plants. Recent studies by the EPA and the Department of Energy indicate that 85 to 90 percent of the sulfates over the mid-Atlantic and New England states originate in Midwestern power plant emissions.

The mercury contamination report was released Tuesday by groups including the Environmental Law and Policy Center and the Sierra Club. The data was collected from government and university studies with the help of the EPA.

"Unfortunately, the largest contributor to the problem, the electric utility industry, continues to get a free ride on its mercury pollution," said Peter Morman of the Environmental Law and Policy Center. "While other sources are reducing emissions, no such requirements exist for coal-fired power plants."

Morman expects mercury pollution by Midwestern utilities to increase because deregulation will prompt them to generate higher levels of electricity.

Buchsbaum said the plants should cut their mercury emissions, with an eye on eliminating them altogether by turning to cleaner energy sources such as natural gas.

A ComEd spokesman said the company is cooperating with the EPA studies on mercury emissions but added the utility has no plans to convert its coal plants to gas.

A naturally occurring metal, mercury accumulates in fish and becomes more concentrated as it moves up the food chain. In humans, it functions as a neurotoxin that can slow fetal and child development and cause brain damage.

Data collected by the University of Michigan Air Quality Laboratory found that rain falling on Chicago's South Side had mercury levels ranging from 5.4 parts per trillion to 74.5 parts per trillion.

The EPA considers mercury levels in the Great Lakes to be saffor wildlife at 1.3 parts per trillion. For humans, it is 1.8 parts per trillion.

The Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry in the Department of Health and Human Services says based on the latest studies, people can consume as much as 0.3 micrograms of mercury per kilogram of their body weight without health risks. Its previous standard and the standard still used by the EPA had been 0.1 microgram.

But the health impact of low levels of mercury contamination has been widely disputed. Congress last year barred further regulation of the heavy metal until an 18-month long health effects study is completed by the National Academy of Sciences.