TVA ranks 4th worst in mercury emissions

TVA ranks 4th worst in mercury emissions

BY DAVE FLESSNER
BUSINESS EDITOR

The Tennessee Valley Authority, ranked fourth among U.S. utilities in mercury emissions, probably will be able to meet the initial mercury standards proposed Thursday by the Bush administration without additional control measures, according to TVA officials.

John Shipp, TVA's vice president of environmental policy and planning, said the ongoing installation of coal scrubbers and selective catalytic converter devices to limit sulfur and nitrogen oxides also should help reduce mercury pollutants.

"We're still studying the proposed new rules and haven't yet determined all of the impact for us," Mr. Shipp said. "But the combination of our scrubbers and SCRs should capture 30 percent or so of the mercury from our stacks."

That would allow the federal utility to meet the new standards the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to comply with the Clean Air Act, Mr. Shipp said.

The new rules are much less stringent than those former EPA Director Carol Browner directed the agency to write in 2000. Ms. Browner directed that mercury be regulated as a toxic, hazardous substance requiring utilities to install "maximum achievable control technology" at each of nearly 500 coal-fired power plants.

After Bush took office, the utilities challenged the Browner policy in court. The lawsuit still is pending.

The latest EPA proposal would abandon that approach and allow a "cap-and-trade" plan in which companies would be allowed to buy and sell credits for their pollution reduction.

The new Bush proposal was criticized by a variety of environmental groups Thursday.

"Toxic mercury pollution from power plants is dangerous, widespread and largely preventable," said Jill Johnson, southeast field director for U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Ms. Johnson said TVA and other utilities should be required to install the best available pollution controls, which would reduce pollution by 90 percent.

In a study released Thursday, U.S. PIRG and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said TVA emitted more than 2,420 pounds of mercury into Tennessee's air in 2001. TVA ranked fourth among all utilities in the volume of mercury emissions in 2001.

Mr. Shipp said TVA's relatively high ranking reflects its size as the biggest government electric utility in the United States and one of the nation's biggest power utilities of any kind.

"We conduct a health risk assessment for EPA on all of our plants, and that is reviewed by a third party," Mr. Shipp said. "In every case, those health risk assessments have determined that there is no significant health risk for employees or for those living within a 50-kilometer area of the plant."

Mercury measured for the past 30 years in the water and land in the valley has declined even as power generation has climbed, Mr. Shipp said.

"Mercury is a persistent substance that affects the nervous system and is especially dangerous for children and pregnant women."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.