Andrew Wetzler's Blog: Curbing Pollution

Global Warming--Now, With Mercury!

2008-03-01T17:16:50Z

For years, scientists have been concerned about the substantial increase of mercury concentrations in Arctic marine mammals such as polar bears, beluga whales, and seals. In some places in Canada, for example, levels of mercury in the tissue of marine mammals has quadrupled in the last twenty-five years. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can result in a wide variety of health effects in animals and people, and pose a particular risk to pregnant women and young children. Most global mercury pollution comes from coal fired power plants, which release mercury into the air. Other significant sources are industrial processes such as chemical manufacturing, battery production, and gold mining.

Today's Winnipeg Free Press reports that changes to the Arctic's food web, such as melting sea ice caused by global warming, may be one of the primary causes of mercury contamination of marine mammals.

[R]esearchers now believe the increasing levels found in beluga whales are actually due to rising temperatures and disappearing sea ice, which have boosted the productivity of the northern seas by creating a warmer, brighter and more nutrient-rich environment for tiny plants and animals to grow.
According to the theory, new sources of food in an increasingly ice-free Arctic are forcing larger predators to change their feeding behavior, creating more links in the Arctic food chain.
That means more mercury gets concentrated at the top of the food chain, even though the overall amount of mercury in the ecosystem has not increased very much.

This research is intriguing and is consistent with predictions in other studies. Of course, the problem of mercury pollution and global warming goes hand-in-hand: ultimately, the best way to decrease global mercury pollution is to reduce our dependence on dirty sources of fuel like coal. If we did that, we would also be taking a big step toward controlling global warming, thus slowing down the very changes to the Arctic ecosystem that may be driving up mercury contamination of marine mammals. Another thing we can do here in the United States is to follow the example of the European Union and ban on the export of mercury. A bill to do just that has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives and companion legislation is awaiting action in the Senate.

Hooray for Westerville

2007-10-24T15:59:14Z

As I've talked about here before, NRDC's Midwest Office is fighting a proposal by the American Municipal Power company to build a 1,000 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Meigs County, Ohio. Before AMP can move forward with its plant, however, it must first secure 50-year purchase agreements from cities and towns across the state. Recently, some of those towns showed signs of beginning to doubt the wisdom of committing to buy power for the next half century from a plant that hasn't even been built yet--and may never been built.

A few weeks ago, Yellow Springs, Ohio, decided to put off making a final decision on purchasing power from the plant (cities have until March 1, 2008, to join up, although AMP has been pushing local governments to commit now). And last night, in a lopsided 5 -1 vote, the City of Westerville, Ohio, became the first town to forgo buying power from AMP's new plant entirely.

I was at the City Council meeting, and the care and thoughtfulness that the Council Members displayed was heartening. City Council Member Craig Treneff quickly identified the key issue for many local communities--the profound fiscal and environmental risks that the AMP contract poses. "I can't take a 50-year risk, not being able to predict that far ahead" he said.

Hopefully, Westerville's decision will prompt cities like Yellow Springs and Oberlin to think twice. The big question, though, is what will Cleveland do? While towns like Westerville and Yellows Springs are set to buy a significant, but relatively modest, amount of power (25 megawatts was proposed in the case of Westerville) the City of Cleveland is considering signing up with AMP for 100 megawatts of energy. If Cleveland were to decide to pursue cleaner, alternative, forms of energy instead, the future of the AMP plant would be very much in doubt. Tonight, the City Council's Public Utilities Committee will hold it's first public hearing on the proposal. With the Committee's chair already publicly stating that he supports the AMP contract, it's going to be an uphill battle, but NRDC will be there.

Ballast Badness

2007-10-05T15:31:24Z

One of the biggest threats to aquatic ecosystems in the United States--and to the Great Lake's in particular--is the introduction of foreign species (everything ranging from plants, to fish, to microscopic organisms) into our waters by transoceanic ships. These vessels take on huge quantities of water to adjust their trim and increase their stability in open ocean. When they get to a port in the United States, that water (and all the critters still living in it) is then flushed so the ship can take on cargo.

The result has been an explosion in the introduction of invasive species into the Great Lakes and other coastal regions. According to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency, the introduction of the zebra mussel alone has caused an estimated $5 billion dollars in damages to water pipes and other hard surfaces in the Great Lakes. And the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem has been invaded by 230 non-native species. More than 10,000 species may be transported across the world's oceans in the ballast water of ships each day.

Which is why it was good news when the Congress started to seriously consider establishing tough national standard for the treatment of ballast water discharges in the United States. Unfortunately, like most things in Congress, there's a catch. Pressed hard by the shipping industry, committees in both the House and Senate have passed bills that not only establish a minimum treatment standard for ballast water, but would short circuit other efforts to regulate ballast water--specifically regulations just now being drafted by the Environmental Protection Agency as well as all state laws (California and Michigan have them on the books already) that also seek to deal with the problem of ballast water.

Luckily, Senator Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, and other legislators have made clear that they're not going to stand idly by while the Clean Water Act and state law is gutted. We'll be supporting her efforts not only to establish strong minimum treatment standards, but also to protect our bedrock environmental laws in the process.