The term "clean coal" is an oxymoron; even if the clean coal technologies do manage to "wash the coal" or bury carbon emissions deep in the ground, coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of mercury pollution in the U.S. And the mercury released pollutes the nation's water resources, posing a serious public health threat to the population.

However, given that coal is a fundamental form of energy in the U.S., and will be around for the foreseeable future, a hopeful first step has been taken to reduce mercury pollution. Starting next year, 11 coal fired power plants in Colorado will have to measure how much mercury they are emitting, with a view to eventually using the information to reduce mercury pollution. The goal of state regulators is to reduce mercury emissions in Colorado by 90% in the next 10 years.

According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) coal burning power plants account for the majority of man made mercury emissions worldwide. And in the U.S, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that these plants are the single largest source of mercury air pollution, accounting for roughly 40 percent of all mercury emissions nationwide. The non-profit, the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), estimates that the top 50 most-polluting power plants in the U.S. emitted 20 tons of the dangerous neurotoxin mercury into the nation’s air in 2007.

And mercury is certainly a ubiquitous toxin. Once in the atmosphere, up to 50 percent of the mercury from coal-fired power plants can travel up to 600 miles before it makes its way into the lakes and rivers, far from the original point of source. According to UNEP trace amounts of Mercury can be found in every individual living on earth today.

The consequences of mercury exposure can be deadly. Exposure over minimal levels has been associated with nervous system damage, brain damage, blindness, and damage to the kidneys, thyroid gland, and the immune system. Even very low levels of exposure can have severe impacts on human health.

However, the most seriously affected sectors of the population are newborn infants and unborn babies to which even very small levels of mercury can be toxic. Mercury in the mother can be transmitted through breast mile and then pass across the infant’s blood-brain barrier and can result in cognitive disorders and learning problems later in life. The Centers of Disease Control has found that roughly six percent of American women carry mercury concentrations at levels considered to put a fetus at risk of neurological damage.

Although it is widely accepted that coal-fired power plants emit toxic levels of mercury, little has been done to regulate mercury emissions. And it is not that regulating mercury is impossible. The EIP states that working remedies for mercury pollution are readily available. A recent EIP report outlines the ways in which mercury pollution can be reduced with existing technologies; it states that one specific technology, activated carbon injection, can achieve mercury reductions of 90 percent.

However, the EIP reports also states that the EPA has backed away from strict power plant regulation. And, in February 2008, a federal appeals court ruled that the EPA’s approach to power plant mercury violates the Clean Air Act. Even so, a federal rule to regulate mercury pollution was overturned earlier this year.

While progress in reducing mercury pollution has proved disappointing so far, the latest move in Colorado to monitor mercury emissions may be a step in the right direction. Paul Tourangeau, the state’s director of the air pollution control division, says that utilities will install mercury monitors inside power plants smoke stacks next year that will tell regulators how much mercury the plants release into the atmosphere.

Talking on Colorado Public Radio on Tuesday November 25^th, Tourangeau stated that, "The monitors will give us that baseline from which we can then really understand consistently what are the mercury emissions and then understand to what levels do they need to bring those emissions down to, by using control technologies that they are prepared to install."

This statement, however, strikes at the nub of the problem. Monitoring mercury levels is one thing but the real mark of progress will be what the power companies are willing to do to reduce mercury emissions. And, until policy changes are made to enforce these reductions we might be waiting a long time.

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