Where'd we put that mercury, again?

Awesome, just awesome...

Under prodding from environmental groups, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking another look at a handful of U.S. chemical plants that cannot account for as much as 65 tons of mercury they may be releasing into the environment each year.

"Why should I care?" you may ask? Here's why:

Mercury is a powerful airborne neurotoxin that can penetrate the food chain and damage the brains and nervous systems of children and fetuses.

And somehow, chlorine manufacturers cannot account for 65 tons of the stuff. This is on top of the 48 tons of mercury that coal burning power plants emit each year, all of which is supposedly safe. So safe in fact, the EPA issued a report in February. What'd it say?

A new government analysis nearly doubled the estimate of the number of newborn children at risk for health problems because of unsafe mercury levels in their blood. Environmental Protection Agency scientists said yesterday that new research had shown that 630,000 U.S. newborns had unsafe levels of mercury in their blood in 1999-2000.

But again, perfectly safe. This unaccounted 65 tons, claims the chlorine industry (sorry to switch tracks again), is all deposits in the pipes. Just like at HoltraChem in Bangor Maine:

State officials concluded that mercury not only permeated the plant, but had seeped into a river. They began a huge cleanup that has lasted years and cost millions of dollars.

"There's certainly mercury in the groundwater . . . [and] in the soil," said Stacy Ladner of Maine's Department of Environmental Protection.

Despite an extensive cleanup, state officials have not recovered more than 33 tons of mercury that was unaccounted for in the plant's operation, even after draining the pipes.

Prompting the action, eighteen letters from Senators to EPA administrator Mike Leavitt. This guy's on our side, right? Well, maybe not. Leavitt used to be a governor of Utah,and his record is as spotless as his state's enviromental records:

He has staunchly supported the infamous "Legacy Highway," a highly controversial project that threatens wetlands along the Great Salt Lake. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Legacy Highway Project, because the planner's failed to consider less harmful alternatives and for ignoring obvious harmful impacts on Utah's environment and wildlife.

In the most recent EPA report on Clean Water Act enforcement for major sources, Utah tied for last place with Ohio and Tennessee for performance in six key environmental indicators.

According to the 2001 EPA Toxic Release Inventory, Utah has the second highest volume of toxic chemical releases in the nation.
Under Governor Leavitt, water quality monitoring in Utah is well behind the national average for testing streams and rivers for water quality. The vast majority of Utah waters are not even monitored, according to EPA's most recent state water quality report.

Frequently the federal EPA had to step in to enforce rules that Leavitt failed to. Leavitt also made numerous attempts to leave the public out of key decisions, such as mining protected lands and paving national parks, going so far as to threaten a lawsuit against the US government.

"Governor Leavitt has consistently acted to open Utah’s most spectacular wild public lands to development, especially oil and gas," said [Earthjustice Denver attorney Jim] Angell. "He’s also consistently acted on behalf of offroad vehicle interests which have degraded thousands of square miles of Utah’s once pristine wild lands. Finally, he’s consistently acted to degrade Utah’s environment out of the public eye with a heavy emphasis on secret dealings that exclude public participation."

Read about these cases more in depth here.

If only I'd been here sooner, we could have started a petition or a letter writing campaign. Now, all we can do is express our concerns and urge him to take stronger actions in the future, which hopefully will last him just six more months. Until then, write to:

Mike Leavitt c/o
Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460

Or call him at (202) 272-0167. Of course, he'll prolly be out a federal cleanup site helping out, but it's worth a shot.