Sierra Club Takes Stand on Mercury Pollution

Pittsburgh Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak teamed up with the Sierra Club to push for the Environmental Protection Agency regulating mercury pollution. Rudiak, and other council members and staff submitted hair samples as part of a nationwide program by the Sierra Club to raise awareness about the dangers of mercury. The element is a neurotoxin that can be detected in human hair.

Rudiak says coal-fired power plants are the main source. "They release things like mercury and arsenic into the air. And these pollutants actually rain down into our lakes and our streams. And they are eaten by fish, which consequently, we eat as well."

Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, Executive Director of Women for a Healthy Environment, says mercury is know to pose health risks. "Mercury at high levels may damage the brain, kidneys and the nervous system. Mercury in the mother's body passes to the fetus via the placenta. According to the CDC and the EPA, at least one in twelve and as many as one in six American women have enough mercury in their bodies to possibly put a baby at risk."

The EPA is considering enacting tighter regulations for mercury and other air toxins. The Sierra Club and PennFuture will be sending a bus of people to Philadelphia on May 24th to for public testimony. The Sierra Club pressed the state to begin regulating mercury in 2006, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that it needed to be done nationally.

Stuck Barge Carrying Flammable Coal Oil

About 1,100 students of the Sto-Rox School District were evacuated by police because of one of the barges stuck at the train bridge near Neville Island is carrying flammable coal tar oil with the chemical benzene.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Alanna McGovern says the current on the Ohio River broke some of the wires connecting the barges to a towing vessel this morning. "the current then took the four barges down to the back channel of Neville Island when they came to rest on the railroad bridge."

Of the three other barges that broke loose this morning, one carrying steel coils sank, another carrying coal passed by and an empty barge is also stuck.

McGovern says that the barge has a double hull and does not appear to have been breached. She says that the coast Guard is working with the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety to free the barges.

DOE Want to Partner With Pgh Businesses & Schools

Representatives of small businesses and universities in the Pittsburgh area met Thursday with the Deputy Secretary of Energy to discuss efforts to receive federal investment and win contracts with the department. The discussions were held at the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Energy Technology Lab in the South Hills. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman says the department awarded $7.7 billion in contracts in 2010 to small businesses and these Business Opportunity Sessions are important..... "For us in Washington to have the understanding of what it takes to provide the programs that will end up in people's homes, in cars, in factories...all the places where energy gets used, we need to talk to people who are doing the thinking, coming up with the innovations, who are going to make the next breakthrough." Poneman hopes some of those breakthroughs are in the areas of clean coal technology... "We need to look at the pre and post combustion. We need to build plants that do this and use advanced pulverization and other specific technology or more efficient combustion that will use at the clean coal side." But at the same time he says they are working locally on carbon capture and sequestration.... "We have to do the testing of the various geologies for testing sequestration to make sure it can be done economically and effectively. It's hard" Poneman says they want to make it a commercially viable enterprise in the next ten years. However, the department is also working locally with Carnegie Mellon University on further developments in renewable energies. The deputy secretary said he looks at Pittsburgh as a place of "tremendous resources and tremendous academic depth not only from all the great universities in this area that have teamed with us but also having the intellectual firepower of the national lab."

Power Plants Emitting Mercury Pollution, Says New Report

Coal-fired power plants in Southwestern Pennsylvania emit some of the highest quantities of mercury in the country, according to a report.

Advocacy group Penn Environment released a report highlighting the public health and environmental threats posed by mercury pollution from power plants.

Erika Staaf, from Penn Environment says one of the worst offenders is in Armstrong County.

"RRI Energy’s Keystone Power Plant, now called Gennon Energy in Shelockta, just about an hour from here emits more than 2,100 pounds of mercury every year. That’s the most in Pennsylvania and the second most in the country," she said.

Using federal emissions data, they found that two plants in Indiana and Cambria county are ranked fourth and eighth.

Power plants in Pennsylvania emitted 15,000 pounds of mercury pollution in 2009, the last year for which data was available.

Mercury, a neurotoxin can result in learning disabilities, developmental disorders and reproductive failure.

The EPA is set to propose a standard to limit mercury and other toxic air pollutions from power plants in March.

Coal Ash Hearing In Pittsburgh

A public hearing concerning coal ash regulation is being held in downtown Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed national regulations about the disposal and management of coal ash from coal fired power plants.

The ash is the byproduct of coal and is disposed in liquid form at large surface impoundments and in solid form at landfills. It can leak into water and waft through the air. The residuals contain mercury, cadmium and arsenic.

The EPA has put forward two proposals regarding the disposal of coal ash. One would be a program of federally enforceable requirements for its management and disposal. The other option would allow the EPA to set performance standards for waste management facilities and would be enforced primarily through citizen suits. Under both approaches coal ash would be able to be recycled as a component of a product such as concrete.

Representatives from the EPA have hosted public hearings around the country. On Tuesday they were in Pittsburgh.

“We breathe, we walk in it, it’s on our clothes it’s on our body hair and even on our cars parked in the parking lot,“ said Herman Marshman Jr., President of a utility workers union, he works for First Energy in Midland. He was among dozens of speakers who spoke on Tuesday morning. He urged the EPA to make a choice that would benefit citizens and the environment first. "Everyone is responsible the EPA, the DEP, the community, the employers of these utilities, I’m not advocating either or, I just want everybody to make the right decision."

Two years ago, an impoundment holding coal ash in Kingston, Tennessee broke open and caused a massive spill that displaced people and caused serious environmental damage.

EPA Coal Ash Hearing Tuesday

Over the last few weeks the US Department of Environmental Protection has been holding a series of field hearings on regulations that cover coal ash pits. The pits are often found near power plants. The ash, mixed with water, is dumped into ponds to dry. The slurry contains high levels of several toxic chemicals and elements. Environmentalists argue that many of the pits are leaking into nearby waterways and into wells in the area. The EPA over the years has issued guidelines and standards for the ash ponds and has a long list of standards when it comes to acceptable toxin levels in ground and surface water. Many power companies argue that those regulations are enough but many environmentalists argue that the regulations to do not go far enough. In most instances it is up to the state where the power plant resides to monitor and regulate the ponds. A recent study from a group of environmental organizations finds some states are lax in their enforcement duties. Those groups have been using the hearings to call for the Federal Government to take over the regulation of the retention ponds.
The Pittsburgh EPA hearing will be held Tuesday Sept 21 at the Omni Hotel downtown. Three sessions will be held. One in the morning, another in the afternoon and a third session will be held in the evening. The first session is to begin at 10am and the last will conclude at 9pm. The other start and end times will float. Each speaker will be given 3 minutes. While all speaking slots in Pittsburgh have been filled the DEP may allow for extra speakers at the end of each session.

Coal-fired Power Plants Still Problematic

The Clean Air Task Force has released a study showing that reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants saves lives and reduces health care costs, but there are still 13,000 deaths a year attributable to fine particle pollution.

The report says more than 1300 Pennsylvanians will die from power plant pollution this year—more deaths than any other state. Myron Arnowitt, state director of Clean Water Action, says Pittsburgh is surrounded by coal-burning power plants, and Southwestern Pennsylvania has some of the highest levels of soot in the air--leaving it out of compliance with the Clean Air Act.

He says coal is not as cheap as the industry claims because of the extra health care costs accrued by people who've had heart attacks, asthma attacks, etc.--some of whom are uninsured.

Arnowitt says hundreds of scientific studies have shown that people exposed to various levels of soot in the air will suffer certain percentages of heart attacks, asthma, chronic bronchitis and premature deaths.

"The Toll from Coal" report

Local Union Rallies for Clean Coal

The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 154, who build and maintain coal-fired power plants, held a rally during morning rush hour near their offices on Banksville Road to raise awareness for clean coal technology.

President Barack Obama called for "rapid commercial development and deployment of clean coal technologies" in a presidential memorandum on February 3, 2010, and the Department of Energy is investing billions to study and implement such technologies. Earlier this month, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu awarded $1 Billion for the world's first coal-fueled, near-zero emissions power plant to be built in Illinois.

But Raymond Ventrone, the Boilermakers' business manager, says although organized labor put the Obama administration into office, Vice President Joe Biden failed to mention coal at the National Building Trades Conference in April, which made Ventrone question the administration's commitment to coal, which he says is so important in Pennsylvania.

Ventrone says almost 1,000 members at this morning's rally got their message out, but if they don't get the reaction they're looking for, they'll take their concerns to Washington.