Today, a Colorado air quality board will consider a plan that would greatly reduce mercury emissions from Colorado’s power plants.
The proposal – negotiated by industry, environmental and regulatory interests – represents weeks of work resulting in a blueprint for reductions that goes beyond federal mandates.
It is a strong plan, and we urge the state Air Quality Commission to approve it.
Coal-fired power plants account for about 40 percent of mercury emissions in the United States. The toxic metal contaminates fish and has been blamed for learning disabilities in children.
The Colorado proposal would reduce mercury emissions 90 percent by 2018. Two of the plants that spew the most mercury into the environment – Xcel Energy’s Pawnee plant near Brush and Platte River Power Authority’s Rawhide plant near Fort Collins – have agreed to fast-track reductions of 80 percent by 2012. Other plants would have to meet that benchmark by 2014.
The need for such progress is underscored by a recent fish consumption warning from the Colorado health department, issued after high mercury levels were detected in fish in five lakes and reservoirs. The finding brings to 14 the number of Colorado lakes and reservoirs that have been the subject of state mercury advisories.
The contamination shows the need for a strict local plan. The federal rule, passed in 2005, includes a cap and trade program. It would allow some plants to make deep cuts while others, conceivably in Colorado, make none. Colorado’s plan gives each plant a mercury allowance and doesn’t allow it to be traded off or sold. At least 22 states are pursuing or have passed mercury plans more strict than federal standards.
Vickie Patton, a lawyer with Environmental Defense, called Colorado’s plan a “momentous achievement.” Mark Stutz, Xcel Energy spokesman, called it a “good agreement.”
The plan before the Air Quality Commission represents compromise and hard work by those involved in crafting it. More importantly, it offers strong local protection. We urge commissioners to approve it.
