Supporters of the program, including utilities and the Bush administration, argue that this cap-and-trade program turns mercury pollution into a commodity and uses the laws of supply and demand to encourage utilities to emit less mercury.

As the supply of mercury credits gets smaller, they say, the credits would grow in value. In theory, power companies with good pollution control equipment should end up with extra credits that they can sell to other utilities. Power companies that continue to pollute must buy credits, penalizing them for their inaction.

But critics, including 48 senators, 16 states and many scientists, say it’s inherently wrong to buy and sell mercury, a potent neurotoxin linked to birth defects and other serious disorders. Many states are ditching the program, pointing to studies that say mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants land nearby and create hot spots.

 Take this for an example: Suppose a power company operates two plants in Town X and Y.  If town X has a power plant that is very clean and town Y has an old, dirty plant, it is easier for the company to clean up the plant in town X than in Town Y. Overall the pollution decreases under the cap-and-trade system because less mercury pollution enters the air in the aggregate. And as the cap decreases over time, the plant in town X continues to become more efficient in terms of mercury pollution because it is easier to upgrade newer technology.But taking away, say, 100 tones of pollution does not matter if it is a localized problem, which mercury pollution is.So town X gets cleaner, but town Y stays the same. Less pollution overall, but the continued problem in town Y. The cap-and-trade system does not work for localized–hot spot–problems. 

The other interesting thread in the series regarded the debate between cheap energy (coal) and the environment. As the American energy grid requires more energy and the existing power plants cannot supply said energy, new power plants need to be quickly built. Quick construction means coal burning power plants—the dirtiest power plant around.

Should we sacrifice our environment to satisfy our energy needs? Both answers to this question have terrible consequences: either more pollution enters our atmosphere, land, and water, or we risk the possibility of lights out—too much energy demand and not enough supply.

The debate widens when we consider the fear America has regarding Nuclear power (thanks Three Mile Island!). Since the cleanest available power plants suffer a public relations nightmare, coal seems the best answer. But coal power plants can last over 30 years. Since business has a hard time replacing something that is not broken, they most likely will not transform any power plant to cleaner technology until the old plant is kaput. Letting a company build a coal plant now guarantees dirty energy from that one plant for many years to come. The alternative, though, means more paper work, money, and potential negative press while trying to push a nuclear power plant through the necessary bureaucracy. More time to get approval means a greater chance of power outages, which equals unsatisfied customers. Companies, I bet, do not want to pollute, but increase demand gives incentive to the companies to satisfy the customer—even if that kills a few close to the plant site.

This conundrum could easily be a story for a reporter. Focus on the impact a new power plant would have on the local community while comparing the alternative: a possible lack of power. More coal burning power plants mean more mercury pollution. It’s an easy reality to prove, just look at all the communities close to the coal-fired power plants now.

Another story could be a compromise, or even a solution, to the problem. What do the alternatives look like? 

Before examining the individual types, there are a few factors that determine the severity of mercury poisoning.  First, the three types of mercury (above) all cause different health effects. Of course, how much (dosage) mercury will change the effects, along with the age and health of the victim, the exposure length, and the pathway into the body. It should be noted that infants and fetuses have experience more devastating health effects than do adults. (This is why one sees lobby groups like PennFuture, aimed specifically at the damaging effects from mercury on babies—a touchy subject matter.)

Methylmercury:

This type of mercury, as noted above, is primarily found in lakes and thus found in many of the fish one eats. If one consumes enough fish, one may experience methylmercury poisoning, which “may include: impairment of the peripheral vision; disturbances in sensations; lack of coordination of movements; impairment of speech, hearing, walking; and muscle weakness” (link).  Most importantly, it is methylmercury, if consumed in large quantities by pregnant women, that causes “impaired neurological development”in fetuses.

Elemental Mercury Effects:

Exposure through inhalation occurs when elemental mercury spills or products that contain elemental mercury explode or break. “Symptoms include these: tremors; emotional changes; insomnia; neuromuscular changes; headaches; disturbances in sensations; changes in nerve responses; performance deficits on tests of cognitive function”(link).

Compounds:

“High exposures to inorganic mercury” can result in “skin rashes and dermatitis; mood swings; memory loss; mental disturbances; and muscle weakness”(link).

Many of these health effects will probably difficult to pin to mercury since mercury is a natural element inside our body. However, as a journalist you may find it useful to see if people in the surrounding areas experience any of the above systems, especially those from methylmercury. Also, interviewing doctors can reveal how many people develop symptoms linked to mercury poisoning.  Below is a list of hospitals in the Lehigh Valley to contact.

1.   Muhlenberg

2.   Cedar Crest

3.   17^th & Chew in Allentown

4.   Health Center at Bath

5.   Health Center at Bethlehem Township

6.   Hamburg community Health Center

7.   Health Center at Hellertown

8.   Health Center at Kutztown

9.   Health Center at Trexlertown

 http://www.lvh.org/lvh/Locations

[UPDATE] Check out this site. It gives a good history of mercury usage and poisons . The main problem it seems is that of batteries. “It was estimated in the US in 1989 that discarded household batteries accounted for 86% of dumped mercury.” I will look into this further.  

And the winners are:

#2 The Shawville Generating Station in Shawville, PA. It has four Unites, all build before 1960.

#3 The Allegheny Energy, Inc. Armstrong Power Station in Kittanning, PA

#4 The Allegheny Energy Inc. Hartfield Power Station in Masontown, PA

#14 Reliant Energy’s Keystone Power Plant in Shelocta, PA has two Units, built in 1967 and 1968

Allegheny Energy has lots of powerplants in PA. They could be a good start source of information.

Here are Reliant’s power plants in PA.

Here’s the complete list of dirty power plants.

Currently, the big issue in combating air pollutants focuses on a trading system. Trading can be defined here. A trading system works for carbon dioxide because it is a “global” problem—one that affects all areas regardless of where or who emits CO2. A cap and trade system can work by charging companies for each ton of CO2 they produce without giving them (too many) loopholes to bypass the law. Mercury, however, cannot be traded in a similar way precisely because of its “hot-spot” qualities. Allowing trading leaves many loopholes open. Hypothetically, a company with two power plants, one newer and cleaner than the other, can trade their left over allowances from the newer one to older one staying within the mandated cap. In effect, more mercury pollution will now be emitted from the older power plant without ever solving the root problem: an old, dirty power plant. More mercury pollution will hover over the localized area around the old power plant instead of reducing the emissions over both sites.

As a reporter, be aware of this debate, especially while reading political memos or interviewing politicians.

The White House proposes a cap-and-trade initiative for mercury. Remember this does not work like CO2.

Here’s Pennsylvania problem:

Industries’ representations are further weakened by the fact that the federal rule allows utilities to buy their way out of cleaning up mercury pollution at Pennsylvania power plants.

Because of banking and trading provisions, there are no guarantees that Pennsylvania will see any significant reduction in mercury emissions. Under the federal rule, utilities do not have to make emission reductions. Instead, they can purchase these reductions from other states as opposed to investing to clean up plants in Pennsylvania. (Link)

Be careful of the trading system to reduce air pollutants; sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t

Few regulations hindered the quickening pace of oil extraction. It was a race to extract oil as fast as possible because no one knew when the oil would run dry. Combine this lucky economic endowment Pennsylvania had with that of a rich endowment of coal to create the perfect recipe for energy supplier. The combustion engine quickly allowed coal to be replaced by oil for the transportation industry. (It was Churchill decision to change the British navy fleet from coal to oil power before WWI that really provided the impetus for the new energy landscape.) The shift did not stem from environmental concern, but rather from an economic and increased capability standpoint: oil allowed for quicker ships and eventually, with the advent of the combustion engine, the supplier for automobiles.  Today, a majority of oil goes for transportation exclusively; coal has been relegated to supplying power plants to create electricity.  Coal is cheap and abundant, but extremely dirty.

Not surprisingly, in Pennsylvania power plants are abundant, too. (Companies/countries go where the resources are –think colonialism in the 17^th, 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th centuries. PPL Corporation controls 11 power plants statewide. Reliant Energy controls over 15. The PA chapter of the sierra club explains just how dirty power plants are:

Nationally, 50 percent of electricity comes form coal, but coal-fired power plants are responsible fro the lion’s share of dangerous pollution from the electric power industry. Within the electric power industry, these plants generate:

• 97 percent of deadly fine particle soot and sulfur dioxide emissions
• 92 percent of smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions;
• 86 percent of emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant; and
• Almost 100 percent of toxic mercury emissions. [Emphasis added]

 

Pennsylvania turned into a major polluter even though these industries are vital to the state economy. The people living near these plants are much more likely to consume pollutants, theoretically decreasing health. Shouldn’t the power plants be forced to reduce emissions to protect their customers? It’s as if these companies force people to pay for health risks. In upcoming posts I will examine the health risks of mercury pollution and how it is a critical local issue in the Lehigh Valley. I will also explore the power plants in PA to see how clean they really are and the effectiveness of the emission trading system to see if it really works.  Besides power plants, what about the municipal waste incinerators? I will explore this too, specifically inside the Lehigh Valley.

Mercury is a natural chemical in the world, but is not usually found free in nature. It usually is a by-product from some other applications. Mercury has been used for various purposes in various civilizations. From forming alloys to being used in cosmetics, mercury’s history dates back to 500 BC.  Today, we easily remember the thermometers our parents would stick in our mouths, under our tongues to check if we had a fever. That rising silver liquid inside the glass tube (that occasionally kept us out of school for a day) is mercury. That said, we could deduce that mercury expands as temperature increases. This application many people understand. However, many other applications use mercury too, which may go unnoticed by the general public.

Mercury, in different forms, can be found in these applications:

• Lamps (Mercury easily conducts electricity.)
• Advertising signs
• Pesticides
• Chlorine production
• Batteries
• Thermometers
• Electronics manufacturing
• Industrial chemical manufacturing

But where we use mercury is not the problem. The main problem comes from how it enters the atmosphere. It is usually through the improper disposal of the applications above that releases mercury into our environment. (Think of the last battery you replaced. Did the dead battery end up in the normal trash?) MerucyPolicy.org claims, “Eighty-five percent of all mercury pollution in the U.S. is released by power plants burning coal and municipal and medical waste incinerators burning mercury tainted trash.” Once it penetrates the atmosphere, the mercury vapor basically sits in the sky until rain takes it for a ride into streams, rivers, lakes, ground water, and the soil. Once it’s in the water, danger begins. (I will go into this in a future post.)

Back to the Lehigh Valley. Since one of the main reasons for mercury pollution are power plants burning fossil fuels, a history of Pennsylvania and fossil fuels become necessary. It shouldn’t surprise many, but it so happens that Pennsylvania is rich with power plants, refineries, and coal and oil deposits. PennFuture cites some facts about Mercury pollution in Pennsylvania here. This is the one of great concern for this post: “Pennsylvania power plants are the nation’s second biggest mercury polluters and put more than 6,000 pounds of mercury into the air each year.”

Wow. That’s why we need to worry.

Take a look at this diagram to see how mercury pollution gets into the water.

 The picture comes from www.wsn.org

Trying to protect the 70% of the world covered by water, Oceana describes their mission as one to, “protect and restore the worlds oceans.” The group is more than a bunch of idealistic tree-huggers; from economists to marine scientists to lawyers to advocates (including Ted Danson!), many professionals make up their membership, which (they claim) to be over 300,000 worldwide. Their website (dramatically) suggestions, “THE WORLD’S OCEANS ARE AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE and face a bleak future if nothing is done.”

Oceana campaigns around the world to stop global water contamination, protect habitats, stop ocean life casualties, and help bolster small-scale fishing. Most of their campaigns target government in attempts to persuade lawmakers to use an environment lens when drafting (inter)national policies. Click here to see what they have accomplished around the world. 

Protecting our oceans is a global problem, but the effects of mercury are more than spoiled fish; the consequences are much more local: regions where mercury pollution soars have many more problems to combat than those in mercury free zones. The Lehigh Valley happens to sit, unfortunately, in the heart of America’s mercury deposition.

Yes, contaminated fish can spread around the world as transportation time decreases (“the world is flat” as Thomas Freidman says), but myriad other consequences result from mercury pollution. This blog will attempt to uncover all the consequences, find out why the Lehigh Valley is particularly vulnerable, and reveal the regulations (or lack there of) that are in the works. 

So the next time you eat that delectable tuna sushi, remember mercury pollution has become a greater problem in America (and the world), but more importantly remind yourself of the effects mercury pollution has on the people living in mercury-saturated areas.