More and more, people across the state—including your state legislators and governor—are learning about mercury's far reaching impacts. Birds are showing signs of mercury poisoning, fish are unsafe to eat, and one in six women of childbearing age have mercury levels in their blood high enough to potentially harm an unborn child.
Mercury pollution threatens people and wildlife on all levels of the food chain:
· Rainbow trout in mercury contaminated environments suffer from stunted growth and high embryo and larvae mortality.
· Yellow perch and northern pike show impaired kidney function and endocrine disruption.
· Contaminated loons hatch 50 percent less young, incubate eggs for significantly less time and produce lighter eggs.
· Children exposed to high levels of mercury—both in and out of the womb—suffer from delayed development and memory problems.
The largest source of these harmful mercury emissions are coal-fired power plants. They don't have to be. Technology exists today to retrofit old plants with new pollution controls that would reduce mercury emissions by up to 90 percent.
Sadly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has failed to take meaningful action to address this significant source of toxic pollution. As a result, state governments across the country are tackling the problem and implementing solutions.
Several states have already enacted mercury emission requirements that force plants to clean up 90 percent of their mercury within the decade. Most importantly, these states don’t allow mercury emissions trading to occur in lieu of pollution reductions from smokestacks. Since the EPA won't take sufficient action to solve the power plant mercury problem and protect the Pennsylvania’s water, fish and wildlife, we need strong action at the state level.
It is especially critical that Pennsylvania take action to control mercury from its power plants, since the state ranks third in the country for the most mercury emitted from this source. It is essential that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection require major reductions in these plants. The state’s waters are already so contaminated with mercury that there is a statewide advisory warning people to limit or avoid eating certain species of fish caught in the state’s waters.
It is time to tackle this toxic pollution. Please let Pennsylvania's leaders know that you want to see swift, aggressive action to reduce the state's power plant mercury emissions!
Send a letter to your legislators and let them know that you do not support efforts to derail the Department of Environmental Protection’s process to control mercury pollution from power plants.
