NC 8th in the country for mercury emissions, state working to decrease levels

Mercury emissions in North Carolina are among the highest in the nation, according to a report. And the state’s 25 coal-fired power plants are to blame.

But North Carolina is reducing its mercury output, and officials say the report is misleading.

Coal-fired power plants emitted 4,702 pounds of mercury in 2009, according to the report released by Environment North Carolina.

One Progress Energy-owned plant emitted 1,079 pounds alone, making it one of the nation’s 25 highest-polluting power plants.

The information in the report came from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which requires companies to update the data every year. But the numbers do not show the complete picture, said Tom Mather, spokesman for the air quality division of the N.C. Department for Environment and Natural Resources.

Much of the mercury reported never enters the atmosphere or water system because power plants are increasingly using technology to remove it, he said.

The bigger plants owned by companies like Duke Energy and Progress Energy use scrubbers, devices that remove pollutants and store them in coal ash ponds or landfills.

Though they are designed to remove other pollutants, scrubbers reduce mercury pollution by 80 to 90 percent, said Scott Sutton, a spokesman for Progress Energy.

Companies began installing scrubbers after the state passed the Clean Smokestacks Act in 2002, requiring power plants to have pollution controls by 2018. Both Duke and Progress will retire their older plants without scrubbers before then.

“What they are doing right now, especially in the bigger companies, is pretty state-of-the-art,” Mather said.

The law has been a definitive success, he said.

“What we’ve seen in North Carolina is that the mercury pollution numbers have gone down substantially,” Mather said.

They’ve gone down to less than half what Environment North Carolina reported. In 2009, mercury air pollution from coal-fired plants totaled 1912.6 pounds, Mather said.

When the act is fully implemented in 2018, the state predicts several air pollutants, including mercury, will be reduced by 88 percent.

“Our predictions are right on target, and, if anything, the reduction has been more than we expected,” he said.

But the EPA could make a new rule in March requiring even higher standards, modeled after the top-performing plants in the country, said Locky Stewart, federal field organizer with Environment North Carolina. Other plants would have to adopt the more advanced technology.

“The reason scrubbers aren’t enough is that mercury is such a potent toxin that we don’t want to take any risks,” he said.

Mercury stored in coal ash ponds often leaks into the water system, causing mercury poisoning for fish and eventually humans, he said.

Erin Culbert, spokeswoman for Duke Energy, said water pollution is a viable concern.

Most of Duke Energy’s coal ash ponds do not have a protective lining to prevent that from happening. They were built in the 1920’s when that was not required. But now the company has to get a waste water permit every five years — and never has any problems, Culbert said.

“We don’t have a mercury limit, per se, in our waste-water permit,” she said. “We have to provide a lot of information as to how well that water is being protected.”

The state has more high-hazard coal ash ponds than any other state in the country, according to a report by the EPA.

But Mather said air pollution prevention couldn’t be any better at this time.

“It’s an issue, but it’s something that has been addressed at a pretty high level in North Carolina.”

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