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Executive Summary
Toxic mercury, largely emitted from coalburning power plants,
is polluting waterways, contaminating the fish we eat, and posing a serious threat
to public health. State and tribal health departments issue fish consumption advisories
in order to warn people to limit or avoid consumption of contaminated fish species
from local rivers, lakes, and other waterbodies. This report details the active
fish consumption advisories issued by the states in 2003 due to mercury pollution
in local waterways and finds that fish in a large percentage of America’s lakes,
rivers, and coastal waters are not safe for unlimited consumption. Mercury
is a dangerous toxic metal, especially for children. Exposure to mercury can cause
attention and language deficits, impaired memory, and impaired visual and motor
function in children. Scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
estimate that one in six women of childbearing age in the U.S. has levels of mercury
in her blood sufficiently high to put 630,000 of the four million babies born
each year at risk of health problems due to mercury exposure. Our
analysis of EPA data on state fish consumption advisories reveals that mercury
advisories cover a greater area than ever before. In 2003, 44 states had active
mercury consumption advisories for local waterways compared with only 27 states
in 1993 and 39 states in 1997. This is a 63% increase in 11 years. The precipitous
increase in mercury advisories over the last decade demonstrates that mercury
is pervasive in our environment. As EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt has said, “The
more waters we monitor, the more we find mercury....” * Statewide
Advisories
More and more states are issuing statewide advisories, or
advisories covering all of their inland freshwater lakes and/or rivers for at
least one species of fish. In 2003, 21 states issued statewide advisories for
their inland lakes and/or rivers (Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky,
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North
Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont,
Washington, and Wisconsin). New to this list are Montana and Washington, which
for the first time in 2003 issued statewide advisories for all inland waterways,
and Wisconsin, which added a statewide advisory on all of its rivers. Advisories
on Our Lakes
A growing number of our nation’s lakes are under mercury
advisory. In 2003: •
Active mercury advisories covered at least 13.1 million acres of lakes (including
statewide advisories), or 32% of all lake acres. The number of lake acres under
advisory for mercury increased by 6%, up from at least 12.4 million acres in 2002.
• Ten states (Arizona, California, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska,
New York, South Dakota, and Washington) increased the extent of their lakes under
advisory. • Nine
states (Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi,
North Dakota, and South Carolina) issued additional consumption restrictions for
their lakes, strengthening advisories already in place by adding a new fish to
the advisory, warning more people to limit their fish consumption, or advising
people to eat less of the fish under advisory.
• Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have mercury advisories covering the Great
Lakes and connecting waterways. These advisories cover 2,334 miles of Great Lake
coasts and connecting rivers and estuaries on Lake Erie, Lake Superior, Lake Huron
and Lake Michigan. Advisories
on Our Rivers
States are issuing advisories covering more and more miles
of our rivers. In 2003: •
Active mercury advisories covered at least 767,000 miles of river (including statewide
advisories), or 22% of all river miles. The number of river miles under advisory
for mercury increased by 67%, up from at least 458,000 miles in 2002. •
Nine states (California, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, South
Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin) increased the extent of their rivers under
advisory. • Eight
states (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio,
and South Carolina) issued additional consumption restrictions for their rivers,
strengthening advisories already in place. Advisories
on Our Coasts
Much of our nation’s coastline is covered by fish consumption
advisories for mercury. In 2003: •
Hawaii issued a statewide advisory covering all 930 miles of its coast; in total,
16,569 miles of our nation’s coastlines were covered by mercury advisories in
2003. • Fish
consumption advisories for mercury and other contaminants cover more than 70%
of the coastal waters of the contiguous 48 states. EPA estimates that 92% of the
Atlantic coast and 100% of the Gulf coast was under advisory in 2003. •
Twelve states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Texas) have issued
statewide mercury advisories for their entire coastal areas for at least one species
of fish. In Maine, a tribal advisory for mercury covers all fish and lobster along
the state’s coast. •
Six states (California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Washington)
have issued specific estuarine advisories for mercury. Public
Lands under Advisory
A number of our country’s public lands, which include
some of the most scenic and wild places in the U.S., also have fish consumption
advisories for mercury. Not including waterways under statewide advisories on
publicly protected lands, Arkansas, New Jersey, and Florida have specific fish
consumption advisories that apply to waters in national parks, wildlife refuges,
and reserves. Massachusetts has a fishing advisory that applies to a river in
a national heritage corridor. Florida and Kentucky also have advisories on state-protected
lands. Threat
to Recreational Fishing
Mercury contamination threatens recreational
fishing, a time-honored American pastime that is vital to our national and state
economies. Studies indicate that fish consumption advisories cause many anglers
to reduce the number of days they fish, choose other locations to fish, and take
fewer overall fishing trips. Even a small dent in the recreational fishing industry
could mean large economic losses. According to the American Sportfishing Association
and the National Fish and Wildlife Service, $35.6 billion in expenditures in 2001.
Of all the money spent on fishing, close to $28 billion was spent in states that
have active fish consumption advisories for mercury.
Addressing the Problem at the Source
To protect public health, preserve
a critical part of our diet, and ensure the survival of an important American
pastime, we need to dramatically cut the amount of mercury released into our environment
by reducing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Power plants are the
only major mercury polluters yet to be regulated under federal clean air standards.
As a result, they are responsible for the lion’s share of U.S. mercury emissions.
The Clean Air
Act requires each and every power plant, within three years, to reduce mercury
and other hazardous air pollutants to levels attainable under a “maximum achievable
control technology” (MACT) standard – requiring reductions to levels currently
achieved by the best performing plants. Using existing technologies, power plants
can reduce mercury emissions by at least 90%. This would bring power plant mercury
emissions down from nearly 50 tons per year to roughly five tons per year by 2008.
Unfortunately,
in January 2004, the Bush administration issued a proposal that would not come
close to achieving the maximum reductions in mercury emissions required by the
Clean Air Act and necessary to protect public health. The Bush administration’s
proposal abandons the MACT approach, enabling power plants to emit six to seven
times more mercury emissions than allowed under the Clean Air Act over the next
decade. This means that the Bush administration’s plan postpones meaningful mercury
reductions until 2018, at the earliest. Moreover, the proposal allows facilities
to buy mercury pollution credits from facilities located far away instead of reducing
their own emissions, thus increasing the risk of creating and exacerbating “toxic
hotspots,” or areas with high levels of mercury deposition. The
Bush administration should abandon its mercury-trading proposal and faithfully
implement the Clean Air Act by finalizing a MACT rule that reduces mercury emissions
from power plants by at least 90% from existing levels by 2008. *
Michael Janofsky, “E.P.A. Says Mercury Taints Fish Across U.S.,” New York Times,
25 August 2004.
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