Research on mercury convinces IDEQ to vote down a motion on mercury emission regulation - Saturday Summary 2/14/09

“Industry Group Rolled the Idaho Conservation League” (reprinted from IACI’s Legislative Report, February 13, 2009)
This was Rocky Barker’s assessment of the IDEQ Board meeting on February 12th at which IACI and ICIE presented its white paper on Sources and Receptors of Mercury in Idaho. The Board voted down a motion that would have asked industries to voluntarily install the best available technology for removing mercury from their smokestacks. The Idaho Conservation League had petitioned to get the Board to regulate mercury in the state in an effort to combat the pollutant that accumulates in fish and has serious health implications.

IACI and ICIE reported on the uncertainty in the science, and included one of the world’s top mercury pollution experts, Steve Lindberg, a retired environmental chemist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as one of its presenters at the meeting. He has assisted in developing mercury rules for states and the EPA and has worked on both sides of the issue during his career. Lindberg reported that the science linking an industry source to high mercury levels in fish in nearby reservoirs was not yet clear enough. He raised questions about whether atmospheric mercury pollution was as serious a problem in the American west as it is in the east, where there is more rain and more wet deposition of the pollutant. Board member, Nick Purdy, indicated that the confusion and uncertainty about the sources made it hard for them to make rules.
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