EPA Rules Target Mercury Emissions

EPA proposed a rule last week that for the first time would require coal-fired power plants to install pollution control technologies to reduce emissions of mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel, and acid gases. The agency said the proposed standards, issued under a court-ordered deadline, would prevent as many as 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks a year. Medical groups call the proposal a sensible public health measure. “When it becomes final, the cleanup rule that EPA is putting forward will save lives, protect the health of millions of Americans, and finally bring about an action that is 20 years overdue,” says Charles D. Connor, president and CEO of the American Lung Association. EPA says more than half of all coal-fired power plants already deploy technologies that will allow them to meet the new standards. The agency is also proposing that chlor-alkali plants must either eliminate mercury or adopt work practices that would reduce emissions of the toxic air
pollutant.