WASHINGTON - Millions of tons of mercury spewing from electric power plants pose ''significant hazards to public health'' and the pollution must be reduced, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.
The agency said it planned to draft regulations to limit mercury releases from power plants. New requirements are not expected go into effect until 2004.
Power plants, especially those that burn coal, are the largest source of mercury releases, accounting for an estimated 40 million tons getting into the air and water annually, according to a National Academy of Sciences study.
While the EPA has issued emission standards for mercury releases from other sources such as medical incinerators, utilities have never even been required to formally report the amount of mercury coming from its smokestacks.
''The greatest source of mercury emissions is power plants and they have never been required to control these emissions before now,'' EPA Administrator Carol Browner said in announcing the new policy.
Exposure to mercury has been linked to neurological and developmental damage in humans. Fetuses and young children are particularly vulnerable.
Earlier this year, the National Academy of Sciences urged the regulation of power plant releases of mercury.
The report concluded that while the health risks to a large majority of the population is low, as many as 60,000 babies may be exposed to unhealthy mercury levels annually because either they or their mothers ate fish contaminated by mercury. Most exposure to humans comes from fish caught in mercury-contaminated waters, the panel of scientists said.
The EPA for more than six years has been debating whether to limit mercury coming from power plants as it has done for medical and hazardous waste incinerators and other sources.
Its decision Thursday sets no requirements on how much utilities will have to reduce mercury emissions, nor what technology they will have to install to meet the eventual federal standard.
That will be determined in regulations that are not expected to be formally proposed until late 2003 and issued a year later. Full compliance to the new standard likely will not be expected until about 2007, government and industry officials predicted.
Nevertheless, the EPA's action Thursday, declaring mercury from power plants a health problem that must be regulated, was applauded by environmentalists and members of Congress.
''This is a major turning point,'' said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a sponsor of legislation to require a 95 percent reduction of mercury releases from coal-burning power plants. ''We've spend decades studying and talking about mercury pollution, now we can actually start to do something.''
Congress last year ordered the EPA not to pursue the mercury matter until further study by the National Academy of Sciences, which issued its report in June.
Browner said the decision to regulate mercury ''marks a major step forward'' in efforts to protect public health and the environment.
It's not clear how the incoming Bush administration will handle the mercury rule making.
In a statement, the Edison Electric Institute said utilities are ready to work with the EPA on mercury reductions, but any future regulation should ''have a sound scientific foundation.''
The EEI, which represents investor-owned utilities, said ''key scientific and technological issues'' remain to be resolved. It also took issue with Browner's assessment of the health risks from mercury.
''The EEI is disappointed that the (EPA's) regulatory determination includes statements regarding public health threats and hazards that are unsupported by current science,'' said Paul Bailey, the trade group's vice president for environmental affairs.
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On the Net: Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov
Edison Electric Institute: http://www.eei.org/