PennFuture, PA Trout, Other Groups Ask PA Supreme Court To Reinstate Mercury Rule

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future,Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited and the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association this week urged the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision and reinstate the Pennsylvania Mercury Rule.

 

In a friend of the court brief, the groups argued that the lower court wrongly interpreted the Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Act.

 

Previously, Commonwealth Court had applied a section of the Air Pollution Control Act to block implementation of the Pennsylvania Mercury Rule in light of a separate ruling in federal court. PennFuture, PA Trout and PSNA argued, in support of the Department of Environmental Protection, that state law allows the Pennsylvania Mercury Rule to go forward.

 

"We believe that Pennsylvania was well within the law when it adopted the rule requiring a 90 percent reduction in the emissions of toxic mercury from power plants," said Jan Jarrett, president and CEO of PennFuture. "If the Supreme Court does not reinstate the Pennsylvania mercury regulation, it will be years before we get adequate protection for women and children from this powerful neurotoxin because the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently lacks regulations addressing mercury pollution from power plants."

 

The genesis of the Pennsylvania rule was in August 2004 when PennFuture formally filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board on behalf of 10 public health, sporting, women's rights and environmental and conservation organizations, asking the EQB to enact a regulation requiring coal-fired power plants to reduce their mercury emissions by 90 percent.

 

Almost 70 organizations, including the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association, the Pennsylvania Parent Teachers Association, the Learning Disabilities Association and the Pennsylvania Council of Churches joined the effort.

 

Toxic mercury pollution from power plants threatens the health of women and their babies. Unsafe levels of mercury in mothers' blood and breast milk can interfere with the proper development of babies' brains and neurological systems and can lead to learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, problems with coordination, lowered IQs and even mental retardation. The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 300,000 newborns each year may have increased risk of learning disabilities associated with in utero exposure to mercury.