More aggressive plan needed to limit mercury

Thursday, April 14, 2005 11:09 AM CDT

When the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued its watered-down mercury reduction rules last month we lamented the go-slow approach the Bush administration was taking.

The rules were a step in the right direction only because this country has had no mercury control regulations in the past, but the EPA's half-step gave us little reason to cheer.

Yes, it would dent the 48 tons of mercury the nation's power plants pump into our environment each year - cut it by 69 percent of current levels by 2018.

Wisconsin paved the way for mercury regulations last year when it implemented its own timetable with much more aggressive reduction goals in both the short term and long term.

We have good reason to - health reasons and business reasons. Mercury accumulates in fish and that poses both health risks for state residents and an economic threat to the state's $2 billion sport fishing and tourism industry.

That's nothing to sneeze at.

There is no disputing that mercury is a threat to the environment and the level of risk here in Wisconsin is that much greater given our circumstances.

Noting that threat, Gov. Jim Doyle said Monday that Wisconsin would join nine other states in a legal challenge to the EPA rule, saying the agency and the Bush administration had "caved in" to industry.

We agree. The problem with the Bush plan is that it allows 20 states to increase emissions over the next five years. Given the toxicity of mercury and its deleterious effects on the nervous system - especially among infants and children - that's simply not the direction to go.

State health officials pointed to a hair-sample study of 2,000 state residents that showed 20 percent had mercury contamination that exceeded federal guidelines.

We can do better, we have the technology to do so and we should. We would hope the federal government would follow Wisconsin's path, but at the very least they shouldn't usurp our intentions to reduce this toxic pollutant in a more aggressive way.

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