ALBANY, NY--A multi-state plan to reduce mercury in the waters of New York and New England has been approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
The approval was a necessary step to implement a collaboration between New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont to reduce mercury and make freshwater fish safer to eat.
The vast majority of mercury pollution affecting New York comes from air emissions - much of it from out-of-state sources. Mercury impairs at least 80 waters in New York to an extent that violates state and federal law.
The multi-state plan's goal is to reduce atmospheric deposition of mercury to the region by between 86 percent and 98 percent, allowing fish-tissue mercury levels to decline and enabling the states to discontinue fish consumption advisories. The multi-state plan, called the Northeast Regional Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), recommends actions to be taken by EPA, including the implementation of a stringent national mercury control program, and also for the Northeastern states to continue building upon existing state initiatives that will control mercury contamination.
While EPA approved the TMDL, the agency did not address many of the recommendations called for by New York and the other states to address the lack of federal action to effectively control the extensive out-of-state mercury emissions impacting the Northeastern resources. Specifically, the TMDL seeks a national program to address sources such as coal-fired power plants in the Midwest that have ongoing harmful effects on other states' environment and public health.
In the absence of federal leadership on the regulation of other large in-state mercury contributors, DEC is currently examining technologies for cement plants that would substantially reduce mercury emissions. New York has also joined with other states in a legal challenge to the federal government for adopting a rule that does not adequately regulate mercury and other pollutants from existing cement plants.
New York State Department Of Environmental Protection
www.dec.ny.gov
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