A cutline for a photograph accompanying this story was corrected at 12:50 a.m. July 29, 2006.
The standing-room-only crowd Tuesday at Pennsylvania's first public hearing on controlling mercury pollution was the largest turnout Ken Bowman can remember at a Western Pennsylvania environmental hearing since the landmark Clean Air Act hearings of the 1970s.
More than 100 people from throughout the region attended the hearing on Washington's Landing. Thirty testified on rules proposed by the state Environmental Quality Board calling for a 90 percent reduction in mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants by 2015. Federal rules call for an 86 percent reduction by 2018.
"This is a very big issue. I think everybody recognizes the seriousness of mercury pollution," said Bowman, Southwestern Pennsylvania's regional director for the state Department of Environmental Protection. "Pennsylvania is the second-biggest emitter of this pollution in the country. There is a convergence here of economic issues and serious public health concerns."
Three union representatives spoke against the rules. All other speakers were in favor of them. No industry officials spoke.
"It is critical that Pennsylvania take strong steps to reduce mercury emissions from our power plants," said Myron Arnowitt, Western Pennsylvania's executive director of the national environmental group Clean Water Action. "The DEP proposal is one that creates a balance between health and business."
The proposed rules could force the closure of smaller, older power plants, which create up to 20 percent of the electricity Pennsylvania gets from coal, said Robert Ashbaugh, of Indiana County, representing 1,880 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Indiana County and the surrounding area. "One of the plants I feel is at risk of closing is the Shawville (Clearfield County) plant I represent. That would mean the loss of family-sustaining jobs, not only at the plant, but the hundreds of others that drive coal trucks, run gas stations, work in stores and restaurants."
The DEP says most of the mercury pollution emitted in Pennsylvania comes from the state's 36 coal-fired power plants. Mercury pollution rains down into streams and moves up the food chain through fish. Eating those fish is largely how people are exposed to mercury, which can cause neurological problems, particularly to fetuses and young children.
Federal rules allow power companies to "trade" pollution credits with distant states, enabling Pennsylvania's plants to continue polluting while paying plants elsewhere to cut their emissions more than required. The state plan prohibits the trading of pollution credits.
Another public hearing will be conducted today at the DEP's offices in Harrisburg, and a final hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Montgomery County. Written testimony will be accepted through Aug. 26. For more information, contact the Environmental Quality Board at 717-787-4526.
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