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News Release RI Department of Environmental Management 235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908 (401) 222-2771 TDD/(401) 222-4462
RHODE ISLAND JOINS NORTHEAST STATES IN PETITIONING EPA TO CONTROL OUT-OF-REGION MERCURY EMISSIONS PROVIDENCE - Utilizing a seldom used provision of the Clean Water Act, Rhode Island is one of seven Northeast states that have triggered a mandatory process for the U.S. EPA to control the atmospheric deposition of mercury that makes fish throughout the Northeast unsafe to eat. The states filed a petition with Administrator Johnson under the Clean Water Act's Section 319(g), which requires U.S. EPA to craft agreements to resolve multi-state pollution issues.The seven states — Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont — collaborated with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) to prepare the petition. Section 319(g) of the law requires the U.S. EPA Administrator to respond to the petition by convening a management conference including all states that are significant sources of the mercury in Northeast waters. The purpose of the conference must be to develop an agreement among such states to reduce the level of pollution and improve the water quality of the New England states and New York State. This unprecedented multi-state action underscores the determination of the Northeast states to resolve the problem of contaminated fish and to address the main cause – mercury deposited in the Northeast from sources outside the region. Mercury bio-accumulates in fish. In the Northeast, elevated levels of mercury in certain fish species are of great concern and have resulted in fish consumption advisories on more than 10,000 lakes, ponds and reservoirs, and over 46,000 miles of rivers. Data from 19 of these waterbodies located in Rhode Island are the basis for our statewide advisory and include Meadowbrook Pond (Sandy Pond) in Richmond; Watchaug Pond in Charlestown; Tucker Pond, Larkin Pond, Hundred Acre Pond, Indian Lake and Yawgoo Pond in South Kingstown; Alton Pond, Ashville Pond, Locustville Pond, Wincheck Pond, Wyoming Pond and Yawgoog Pond in Hopkinton; Browning Mill Pond (Arcadia Pond) and Boone Lake in Exeter; Eisenhower Lake in West Greenwich; Quidneck Reservoir and Tiogue Lake in Coventry; and J.L. Curran Reservoir (Fiskeville Reservoir) in Cranston. Women who are pregnant, nursing, or planning to have a baby in the next year are advised to eat no freshwater fish from Rhode Island waters except for stocked trout. For information on the benefits of eating fish during pregnancy and what fish are safe to eat individuals are directed to the US EPA website: http://www.epa.gov/mercury/advisories.htm. The persistent need for these advisories comes despite nearly a decade of work within the Northeast that substantially reduced regional mercury emissions and discharges. Multiple research studies have shown that the majority of mercury in the states' waters now comes from out-of-region sources such as coal-fired power plants, whose mercury emissions drift to the region on air currents and then fall directly into waterways or get carried by runoff into them. The filing of the petition today is not the first time that the seven states have collaborated in a major move to address mercury contamination. In June 2006, they were among the 16 states that sued the federal government over the legality of EPA's Clean Air Mercury Rule, which would have limited mercury reductions to 70 percent and delayed those until 2018. And in October 2007, the Northeast states submitted to EPA the Northeast Regional Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), which like the petition was developed in conjunction with NEIWPCC. The TMDL stipulates the precise amount by which mercury arriving in the region from out-of-region sources must be reduced if the fish are to be safe to eat. Late last year EPA approved the TMDL, and earlier this year the states prevailed in federal appeals court when EPA's Clean Air Mercury Rule was declared invalid. The petition brings the effort to a new level by describing precisely where the mercury is coming from and the first steps for controlling it. Information on mercury pollution and the Northeast states' reduction initiatives, the Northeast Regional Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load report and the §319(g) petition are available online at www.neiwpcc.org/mercury. -30- |
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