Illinois’ Mercury Pollution Reduction Rule
In December 2006, Illinois passed a best-in-the-nation mercury pollution reduction rule that requires coal plants to reduce mercury pollution by 90% starting in 2009. ELPC and our environmental/health coalition helped to design the rule and worked hard at every stage for its passage.
After leading the effort to enact the Illinois Mercury Pollution Reduction Rule – which included reduction standards for mercury, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide – ELPC has provided key legal and technical oversight of the Illinois EPA’s and Illinois Pollution Control Board’s enforcement of the mercury standards. ELPC attorneys also continue to monitor coal plant owners to make sure they comply fully with the standards, ensure that coal plant operators correctly install and optimize the new pollution reduction equipment, and provide input on each company’s required action plan for reducing mercury pollution.
In late 2008, coal plant owners began to request special variances that would alter the schedule away from the rule’s requirements. ELPC attorneys have discussed each proposed variance and adjusted standard the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, reviewed and researched the variances, and participated in subsequent proceedings before the Illinois Pollution Control Board.
We will continue to monitor each stage of the Illinois Mercury Pollution Reduction Rule as it is implemented.
Mercury Pollution Facts
Mercury pollution is toxic to children
- Mercury is a neurotoxin that passes through the placenta and poisons fetal brain development. Every day, thousands of developing fetuses, newborns and young children are exposed to mercury when pregnant and nursing women eat contaminated fish, or children eat fish themselves.
- Exposure to mercury in the early stages of life can cause permanent neurological and brain damage, including reduced cognitive abilities and other developmental problems.
- Up to 10 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age are estimated to have mercury levels high enough to put their developing children at increased risk for developmental problems.
Mercury pollution is poisoning Illinois lakes and rivers
- Coal plants produce 60 percent of the mercury pollution in Illinois. That pollution ends up in Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes, and in Illinois' inland rivers, lakes and streams. Mercury contamination then works its way up the food chain to poison fish that people eat.
- Fish in Lake Michigan and all Illinois waterways are contaminated with mercury. The Illinois Department of Public Health has issued “fish advisories” warning everyone – particularly pregnant women, women of childbearing age and children – to limit their consumption of fish from Illinois lakes, rivers and streams.
- Illinois ranks 4th for mercury hot spots, areas where the risk to public health is elevated.
The mercury pollution control rule will protect our children
- In 2006, Illinois enacted that nation’s strongest mercury pollution control standards to protect the health of future generations by reducing mercury pollution 90% from coal plants starting in 2009.
- The plan will fill a gap left by a new Bush Administration rule on mercury, which accomplishes too little too late. The federal rule calls for a 47% reduction in mercury pollution from coal plants by 2010.
Reducing mercury pollution from coal plants will pay health and economic dividends for years to come
- Stricter mercury pollution standards for coal plants will lower the mercury exposure of more than 100,000 women of childbearing age in Illinois whose blood mercury levels may exceed the federal recommended limit.
- Illinois is investing now to reduce mercury pollution from coal plants, protecting the health and well being of future generations and reduce the costs of mercury exposure that otherwise would burden the state’s economy for years to come.