As the new home of WashPIRG's environmental work, Environment Washington can be contacted regarding this news release.
SEATTLE—In
recent U.S. EPA tests of fish caught in Washington lakes, every fish sample
tested was contaminated with mercury and 29 percent contained mercury levels
that exceed EPA's "safe" limit for women of childbearing age, according
to an analysis of EPA data released today by the Washington Public Interest
Research Group (WashPIRG). The EPA data shows that even fish in lakes far from
industrialized areas have become contaminated with health-threatening mercury.
"We've long known that fish in Puget Sound, Lake Whatcom and the Columbia
River are contaminated with unsafe levels of mercury," said Mo McBroom,
staff attorney for WashPIRG. "This data now shows that even in remote,
non-industrial areas in the state, whitefish, trout and other species have been
seasoned with this toxin."
Although the Washington
State legislature passed a law in 2003 that phases out the use of mercury for
some applications, 60% of mercury air emissions in Washington come from a coal-fired
power plant whose mercury emissions remain unregulated. The state relies on
the federal government to regulate mercury discharges from this facility and
others like it across the nation. WashPIRG's report, "Reel
Danger: Power Plant Mercury Emissions and the Fish We Eat" comes
as the Bush administration prepares to finalize a highly controversial proposal
to delay meaningful reductions in mercury emissions from power plants until
at least 2018. The Clean Air Act calls for the maximum achievable reductions
of such emissions by 2008.
"Washington has taken the lead in trying to limit mercury contamination,
but there's only so much the state can do if the Bush administration fails to
enact meaningful controls on coal-fired power plants," said McBroom. "And
this is not just a localized problem: mercury from the TransAlta smokestacks
can travel hundreds of miles into pristine areas before ending up in our lakes
and rivers."
According to the EPA, TransAlta
Centralia Generation/Mining emitted 265 pounds of mercury into the air in 2002,
over 60 percent of the total mercury releases to air reported in Washington.
These discharges put TransAlta in the top 25 percent of 500 plants nationwide
for the highest mercury emissions. Power plants are the single largest source
of mercury releases in the country.
Mercury is toxic to the
developing brain, and exposure in the womb can cause learning disabilities,
developmental delays, and other serious health problems in children. EPA estimates
that one in six women of childbearing age has enough mercury in her blood to
put her child at risk. Eating contaminated fish is the primary way people are
exposed to mercury.
"Reel Danger"
is based on the first available data from EPA's ongoing National Study of Chemical
Residues in Lake Fish Tissue. From 1999-2001, EPA collected approximately two
composite samples of one predator fish species and one bottom-dwelling fish
species at 260 lakes, for a total of 520 composite samples, or 2,547 fish.
Key findings include the
following:
- All of the fish samples
EPA tested nationwide, including those in Washington, were contaminated with
mercury.
- In Washington, 29 percent of the fish samples contained mercury levels that
exceed EPA's "safe" limit for women of average weight who eat fish
twice per week.
- Fish in Keechelus Lake (Kittitas County), Rimrock Lake (Yakima County) and
Frenchman Hills Lake (Grant County) all exceed the EPA's safe limit. Elevated
mercury levels were also found in fish Lake Chelan (Chelan County), Lake Dorothy
(King County) and Potholes Reservoir (Grant County).
- Nationwide, 55 percent of the fish samples exceeded the safe mercury limit
for women and 76 percent exceeded the safe limit for children of average weight
under age three who eat fish twice a week.
"Senators Murray and
Cantwell should continue to take every opportunity to publicly oppose the Bush
administration's plan and press for the reduction of mercury emissions from
power plants by 90 percent by 2008," McBroom concluded.
