Senator Leahy's Senate Speech at the Introduction of S. 673
"The Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1999"
March 19, 1999

MR. PRESIDENT, today I am re-introducing the "Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1999," a bill that I originally introduced during the 105th Congress. I am pleased that Senator Snowe has agreed to co-sponsor the bill.

As United States Senators, we all have a responsibility as stewards for the nation and society we will be entrusting to our children and grandchildren. I became a grandfather for the first time a little over a year ago, and this duty has never been more real for me. The "Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1999" is a comprehensive plan to eliminate mercury ?? one of the last remaining poisons without a specific control strategy ?? from our air, our waters and our forests. By eliminating mercury pollution from our natural resources, we will protect our nation's most important resource: the young Americans of today and tomorrow.

As we learned from the campaign to eliminate lead, our children are at the greatest risk from these poisons. How many future scientists, doctors, poets, and inspiring teachers have we lost in the last generation because of the toxics they have been exposed to in the womb or in early childhood? Just as with lead, we know that mercury has much graver effects on children at very low levels than it does on adults. The level of lead pollution we and our children breathe today is one?tenth what it was a decade ago. That figure by itself is a tribute to the success of the original Clean Air Act. We should strive to achieve no less with mercury.

Mercury is toxic in every known form and has utterly no nutritional value. At high enough levels it poisons its victims in terribly tragic ways. In Japan, victims of mercury poisoning came to be known as suffering from Minimata Disease, which took its name from the small Minimata Bay in which they caught fish for their food.

For years, the Chisso Company, a chlor-alkali facility that manufactured chlorine, discharged mercury contaminated pollution in the bay, which was consumed by fish and then by people. Their disease was terribly painful, causing tremors and paralysis, and sometimes leading to death. Thankfully, wholesale discharges of mercury like those in Minimata Bay have been eliminated. But a torrent of air pollution still needlessly dumps this heavy metal into the air of North America, poisoning lakes and streams, forests and fields and - most importantly - our children. Mercury control needs to be a priority now because of the neurological damage it causes.

This is not to say that men, women and children are doubled over in agony as they were three decades ago in Japan. Mercury pollution today is more subtle, but it is no less insidious. Wildlife are also being harmed. Endangered Florida panthers have been fatally poisoned by mercury. Loons are endangered as well. In Lake Champlain we have fish advisories for walleye, trout and bass even though we have relatively few mercury emissions within our own state borders. There are now 40 states that have issued fishing advisories for mercury; Vermont's and those of 10 other states cover all of the water bodies in these states. Nearly 1,800 water bodies nationwide have mercury fishing advisories posted. The number of water bodies with mercury advisories has doubled since 1993.

My fellow Vermonters are exposed to mercury and other pollutants that blow across Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains every day from other regions of the country. The waste incinerators and coal?fired power plants are not accountable to the people of Vermont, and therefore a federal role is needed to control the pollution.

That is part of the reason voters send us here. They expect Members of the Congress to determine what is necessary to protect the public health and the environment nationally, then to take the appropriate action. And in many cases, perhaps most, we have done that. But not when it comes to mercury.

Mr. President, what I propose is that we put a stop to this poisoning of America. It is unnecessary, and it is wrong. Mercury can be removed from manufactured products, and much of that has been done. Mercury can be removed from coal?fired powerplants, and now that should be done. With states deregulating their utility industries, this is the right moment and the best opportunity we will have for a generation to make sure powerplants begin to internalize the costs of their pollution. We cannot afford to give them a free ride into the next century at the expense of our children's health.

So, too, should mercury be purged from other known sources such as chlor-alkali plants, medical waste incinerators, municipal combustion facilities, large industrial boilers, landfills, and lighting fixtures.

My bill directs EPA to set mercury emission standards for the largest sources of mercury emissions. The bill requires reducing emissions by 95 percent, but it also lets companies choose the best approach to meet the standard at their facility whether through the use of better technology, cleaner fuels, process changes, or product switching.

The bill also gives people the right-to-know about mercury emissions from the largest sources. That should be the public's right. To facilitate the public's right-to-know and getting mercury containing items out of the waste streams that feed municipal combustion facilities, it also requires labeling of mercury containing items such as fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, pharmaceuticals. The bill also begins a phase out of mercury from products, with exceptions possible for demonstrated essential uses.

We will hear a lot of rhetoric about how much implementing mercury reduction steps will cost. In advance of those complaints I want to make two points. First, when we were debating controls for acid rain we heard a lot about the enormous cost of eliminating sulphur dioxide. But what we learned from the acid rain program is that when you give industry a financial incentive to clean up its act, they will find the cheapest way. More often than not, assertions about the cost of controlling pollution grossly overestimate and distort reality. If you look at electricity prices of major utilities since the acid rain program was implemented, their rates have remained below the national average and some have actually decreased ?? even without adjusting for inflation. The mercury controls on coal-fired power plants contained in my bill may add a little over $2 dollars per month to the electric bill of the average residential consumer who receives power from a coal-fired plant. So, for the monthly cost of a slice of pizza or a hamburger and fries we can rein in the more than 50 tons of mercury that are being pumped into our air from power plants.

Secondly, and most importantly, the bottom line here should not be the cost of controlling mercury emissions, but the cost of NOT controlling mercury. While we may not be able to calculate how many Einstein's we have lost, if we lose one the price has been too high.

Let us make controlling mercury pollution one of our first environmental legacies of the 21st Century.

MR. PRESIDENT, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.

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Overview and Current Status of S.673, "The Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1999"

• The "Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1999", introduced in the Senate on March 19, 1999, would amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of mercury to the environment by establishing requirements for the operation of fossil fuel-fired electric utility steam generating units, commercial and industrial boiler units, solid waste incinerators, medical waste incinerators, hazardous waste combustors, chlor-alkali plants, and Portland cement plants.
• Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is an original co-sponsor of S. 673.
• The Bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on August 2, 1999, by Rep. Thomas Allen (D-Maine) as H.R. 2667. A bi-partisan group of twenty-nine members of the House have signed on as co-sponsors.

Why I introduced the "Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1999"?

• Over strong opposition from the coal-fired electric utility industry, I successfully prompted EPA to release its long-awaited "Mercury Study Report to Congress." The study, mandated by the 1990 Clean Air Act, documents mercury pollution sources and troubling trends in mercury pollution in the United States.
• My concerns about the current and long-term environmental and health consequences in the United States resulting from the discharge of toxic chemicals into the environment are longstanding. I am particularly concerned about the effects of mercury. I am also concerned about transport of air pollution from other parts of the nation to the lakes, rivers, forests, and agricultural lands of Vermont.
• Mercury is one of the last major pollutants without an overall pollution control strategy, and as a result it remains largely uncontrolled.

What are the key findings of the "Mercury Study Report to Congress"?

• Scientific and medical evidence show that exposure to mercury and mercury compounds is harmful to human health, and concentrations of it in the environment are rising (e.g., in lake and river sediments).
• Pregnant women and their developing fetuses, women of child-bearing age, and children under the age of 8 are most at risk for mercury-related health effects such as neurotoxicity.
• Neurotoxicity symptoms include impaired vision, speech, hearing, and walking; sensory disturbances; incoordination of movements; nervous system damage very similar to congenital cerebral palsy; mental disturbances; and, in some cases, death.
• Exposure to mercury and mercury compounds occurs most frequently through consumption of mercury-contaminated fish but can also occur through ingestion of methyl-mercury contaminated drinking water and food sources other than fish, and dermal uptake through soil and water.
• The major sources of mercury emissions in the United States are coal-fired electrical utility steam generating units, solid waste combustors, commercial and industrial boilers, medical waste incinerators, hazardous waste combustors, chlor-alkali plants (which manufacture chlorine and sodium hydroxide), and Portland cement plants.
• EPA's analysis of mercury deposits and transport, in conjunction with available scientific knowledge, supports a plausible link between mercury emissions from combustion and industrial sources and mercury concentrations in air, soil, water, and sediments.
• The following geographical areas have the highest annual rate of deposition of mercury in all forms: the southern Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley; the Northeast and southern New England; and scattered areas in the South, with the most elevated deposition occurring in the Miami and Tampa areas and in two areas in northeast Texas.
• The analysis of mercury deposits and transport supports a plausible link between mercury emissions from combustion and industrial sources and methyl mercury concentrations in freshwater fish. In 1997, 40 states have issued health advisories warning the public about consuming mercury-tainted fish, compared to 27 states in 1993. Eleven states have issued state-wide advisories, and 5 states have issued advisories for coastal waters. Mercury advisories have increased 98 percent from 899 in 1993 to 1,782 in 1998.
• The presence of mercury in consumer products is of concern in light of the health consequences associated with exposure to mercury.
• The presence of mercury in certain batteries and fluorescent light bulbs is of special concern, particularly given the substantial quantities of used batteries and fluorescent light bulbs that are discarded annually in the solid waste stream and the potential for environmental and health consequences associated with land disposal, composting, or municipal waste incineration.

Illustration: The Cycle of Mercury in the Environment
Illustration by Lori A. Messenger, CMI

Estimates of U. S. Annual Mercury Emissions Rates for the Largest Emitting Source Categories Source of Data: Mercury Study Report to Congress, December 1997

• Coal Fired Utility Boilers: 52 tons per year
• Solid Waste Combustors: 30 tons per year
• Commercial/Industrial Boilers: 29 tons per year
• Medical Waste Incinerators: 16 tons per year
• Hazardous Waste Combustors: 7 tons per year
• Chlor-Alkali Plants: 7 tons per year
• Portland Cement Plants: 5 tons per year

Key features of the "Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1999":

Directs EPA to promulgate mercury emissions standards and regulatory strategies for the largest emitting source categories:

• fossil-fuel fired electric utility steam generating units;
• fossil-fuel fired commercial and industrial boilers;
• solid waste combustors;
• chlor-alkali plants; and
• ortland cement plants

Requires Reports to Congress:

• by EPA on progress in implementing mercury emission reductions for medical waste incinerators pursuant to existing regulations;
• by EPA on progress in implementing mercury emission reductions for hazardous waste combustors pursuant to existing regulations;
• by the Department of Defense on the use of mercury and mercury compounds by DoD.

Other Features of "Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1999":

• Directs EPA to work with Canada and Mexico to inventory the sources and pathways of mercury air and water pollution within North America, and recommend options and strategies to greatly reduce transboundary atmospheric and surface water mercury pollution in North America.
• Expanded research into characterizing the health effects of mercury pollution to critical populations (i.e., pregnant women and their fetuses, women of child bearing age, and children).
• Requires safe disposal of mercury recovered through coal cleaning, flue gas control systems, and other pollution control systems so that the hazards emanating from mercury are not merely transferred from one environmental medium to another.
• Requires annual public reporting (hardcopy publication and Internet) of facility-specific emissions of mercury and mercury compounds;
• Requires labeling of mercury containing items such as fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, pharmaceuticals, laboratory chemicals and reagents, electrical devices such as thermostats, relays, and switches, and medical and scientific equipment.
• Begins a phase out of mercury from products. Exceptions may be made for essential uses.
• Implementation of public awareness and prevention programs.
• More consistent state-by-state information on mercury-related fish consumption advisories.
• Expanded characterization of mercury sedimentation trends and effects in Lake Champlain, the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, the finger lakes region of upstate New York, Tampa Bay, and other major water bodies.