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For years the Environment Protection Agency, or EPA, has been working to reduce the amount of pollution that's released by power plants. Now, a proposed plan would set a new standard for mercury and other toxic air chemicals. KSMU’s Adam Hammons talked with officials from the EPA and City Utilities of Springfield to see how the proposed changes would affect the Ozarks.
Over 20 years ago, amendments to the Clean Air Act required the EPA to put in place controls on toxic air pollutants. Since then, the agency has worked to reduce emissions but has never set a national standard for mercury and other toxic air pollutants. The proposed new rules would provide a national standard. It would also give utilities four years to update their facilities and make upgrades. The EPA hopes to prevent 91 percent of the mercury in coal from being released into the air. Karl Brooks is the regional administrator for the EPA and is based in Kansas City. He says the technology is already there for facilities to use.“We just have to make sure to follow what Congress’s intent was really almost 20 years ago and get some of the older, bigger coal plants to use American technology that’s already available on the market, install it, operate it and we’ll begin to see these cutbacks from mercury.”According to the EPA, power plants are the largest source of toxic air pollutants including mercury. They are also responsible for over half of the acid gas emissions in the U.S. Brooks says the reduction of mercury in the air would save thousands of lives. “We’ll probably save as many as 15-20,000 deaths each year. As many as 11,000 heart attacks will be prevented. It’s a really positive strong public health benefit.”Brooks also says a national standard would create many jobs through construction, engineering, and maintenance.Currently over half of all coal-fired power plants in the country use updated technologies that meet these proposed standards. Joel Alexander, a spokesperson for City Utilities, says Springfield’s plants already have mercury containment equipment. However, he says he doesn’t know if they will meet future standards. “Until we really get those new set regulations, we won’t really know what that means for either additions to the plant or upgrades, but we feel in really good shape right now.”Alexander says if City Utilities has to upgrade its plants, the utility will have to figure out how to pay for everything. He says that will ultimately go back to the consumer. The final standards are expected to be completed by this November. For KSMU News, I’m Adam Hammons.
