DEQ heeds outcry over mercury

Controls - The agency will start anew on drafting limits on the toxic compound emitted by a PGE coal-fired plant

Saturday, June 24, 2006

MICHAEL MILSTEIN

Battered for not doing enough to limit toxic mercury releases, Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality will develop a new, tougher strategy to control mercury from Portland General Electric's coal-fired power plant near Boardman.

DEQ officials said they were responding to a backlash against their mercury-control proposal, which critics blasted as one of the weakest in the nation.

"The reaction against our current proposal has been very strong," said William Knight, a DEQ spokesman. "We're basically going to be starting over."

Stephanie Hallock, the agency's director, decided on the reversal of course, he said.

A new federal mandate requires states to limit mercury from coal-burning power plants, the largest national source of the toxic compound that contaminates the food chain. Mercury collecting in women's bodies, mainly from the consumption of fish, can lead to learning disorders in their children.

But the DEQ proposal went barely beyond the minimum federal standards -- also under criticism as too weak -- and fell short of the limits many other states are pursuing.

The initial DEQ approach, the subject of public hearings this week, allowed the PGE plant to continue releasing mercury as long as it offsets the releases by purchasing credits from cleaner coal plants elsewhere. The company would have until 2018 to install mercury controls that would cut the plant's mercury emissions by at least 60 percent.

Many other states are considering tighter controls on earlier deadlines, according to a national association of air-quality regulators. For instance, Washington and Montana are expected to call for 80 percent reductions in emissions.

Some states also are refusing to allow plants to offset their mercury emissions by purchasing credits, forcing them to install controls instead.

Additionally, an alliance of states has sued the federal government for not requiring tougher mercury-control standards. Mercury occurs naturally in many earth sources, but a significant amount of airborne mercury falls with rain to waterways and the ocean, contaminating fish.

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Many of those speaking this week at public hearings in Oregon blasted the department for weighing the costs to PGE of controlling mercury more heavily than the benefits to the public. They said the agency should have more closely examined the public health consequences of mercury emissions.

PGE officials say mercury-control technologies remain in early stages of development. They said that when they install controls, they want them to be as effective as possible.

But others said control technologies are available and are being used in other states. Critics who hammered the DEQ's proposal said they were pleased the agency was reconsidering.

"The agency just seems completely unwilling to lead on matters that are important issues of public health," said Mark Riskedahl of the Northwest Environmental Defense Center. "Maybe they've finally realized they've strayed too far."

Oregon's largest source of mercury emissions is a cement kiln in the Eastern Oregon town of Durkee that is not subject to any mercury-control regulations.

Former Gov. John Kitzhaber, a physician, directed the DEQ in 1999 to eliminate by 2020 releases of mercury statewide. But the agency concluded in 2002 that it could not meet the goal.

The comment period on the DEQ's initial coal-plant control proposal will end Monday. The agency then will issue a more stringent mercury-control proposal in mid-July for another round of public review, Knight said.

"We need to re-evaluate in light of what we have heard and come up with a proposal that is more amenable to the people of Oregon," he said.

He said many people made clear in their comments that the DEQ's call for reducing mercury emissions 60 percent by 2018 is not good enough.

"They really don't want any mercury," he said. "They're not so concerned about what it costs."

Michael Milstein: 503-294-7689; michaelmilstein@news.oregonian.com