<html>
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)">
<style>
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoCommentText, li.MsoCommentText, div.MsoCommentText
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.Style1, li.Style1, div.Style1
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
punctuation-wrap:simple;
text-autospace:none;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;
color:blue;}
span.EmailStyle19
{font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:navy;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none none;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'><a
href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1531326,00.html">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1531326,00.html</a></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Sunday, Sep. 3, 2006</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Mercury Rising</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>The toxic metal isn't just in seafood. It's
showing up everywhere--and it's more dangerous than you think</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>By JEFFREY KLUGER</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Environmental poisons never play by the
rules. Just when you think you've got them figured out and rounded up, they
give you the slip. Get the lead out of gasoline, and it comes at you through
aging pipes. Bury waste and toxins in landfills, and they seep into
groundwater. Mercury, at least, we thought we understood. For all its toxic
power, as long as we avoided certain kinds of fish in which contamination
levels were particularly high, we'd be fine. And not even everyone had to be
careful, just children and women of childbearing age.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>But mercury is famously slippery stuff, and
a series of recent studies and surveys suggests that the potentially deadly
metal is nearly everywhere--and more dangerous than most of us appreciated.
Researchers testing birds in the Northeast have found creeping mercury levels
in the blood of more than 175 once clean species. Others have found the metal
for the first time in polar bears, bats, mink, otters, panthers and more.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Just as alarming are new discoveries about
unexpected sources of mercury contamination. While coal-fired power plants and
chemical factories are familiar culprits, a recent study reveals that wetlands
are mercury time bombs; if hit by wildfire, they release centuries' worth of
accumulated toxin in a single, sudden blaze. In addition, there's a growing
body of research that reveals the extent to which medium to high levels of
exposure to the metal can harm adults as well as children, causing a wide range
of ills--including fatigue, tremors, vision disorders and brain, kidney and
circulatory damage. All told, "the breadth of the problem has expanded
greatly," says biologist David Evers of the BioDiversity Research
Institute in </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>Gorham</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>, </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>Maine</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>. "It's far more prevalent and at higher levels than
considered even a couple years ago."</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Mercury has to work hard to do all the
damage it does. In its pure state, it is only moderately toxic because it
passes quickly through the body, leaving little to be absorbed. Not so the
mercury we pump into the skies. Smokestack mercury exists in either particle
form--which falls relatively quickly back to earth--or aerosol form, which can
travel anywhere around the globe. Either way, when it lands, trouble begins. </span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>On</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'> the ground or especially in the low-oxygen environment of
the oceans, mercury is consumed by bacteria that add a bit of carbon to convert
it to methylmercury, a metabolically stickier form that stays in the body a
long time. That is bad news for the food chain, since every time a bigger
animal eats a smaller animal, it consumes a heavy dose of its prey's mercury
load. That's why such large predatory fish as shark, swordfish, mackerel, tilefish
and albacore tuna are so heavily contaminated. Less publicized but still
problematic is toxic mercury vapor, which can be odorlessly emitted from
factories and dumps where batteries, fluorescent lamps, jewelry, paints,
electrical switches and other mercury-containing products are manufactured or
discarded.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>All that has been known for a while, but
the game changer was the recent study of Northeastern songbirds. A group headed
by Evers had been worried for some time that mercury's reach was greater than
it seemed, particularly in the Northeast, which is downwind from the power
plants of the </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>Midwest</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'> and </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>Canada</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>. Mercury from those plants' smokestacks could find plenty
of bacteria in water, leaves and sod to make the toxic conversion to
methylmercury. Netting 178 species of songbirds and testing their blood and
feathers, Evers found that all of them were indeed contaminated, some in
concentrations exceeding 0.1 parts per million. That doesn't sound like much,
but it's a lot higher than it ought to be, and it's surely on the rise. So far,
the toxin hasn't disrupted the birds' reproductive cycle, but researchers fear
that it will before long. What's more, if the birds are contaminated, so are
other animals that eat the same diet--not to mention predators that eat the
birds. Says Evers: "It creeps up the food chain and continues to
biomagnify as it goes."</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>The wetlands study darkened the picture further.
Marshes in </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>Alaska</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'> and northern </span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>Canada</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'> are natural sinks for mercury, which chemically adheres to
damp peat and readily converts to the methyl form. That is not a problem as
long as the mercury stays put. But increasingly frequent droughts--a likely consequence
of global warming--have led to increasingly frequent wildfires, causing
wetlands to release centuries' worth of collected mercury in one toxic breath.
"There's mercury that's been accumulating since the dawn of the Industrial
Revolution," says ecosystems ecologist Merritt Turetsky of </span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>Michigan</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'> </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>State</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'> </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>University</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>, who has been studying the problem. "During droughts,
you get a meter-thick carpet of dry peat in some places, and all you need then
is a match. Lightning usually provides that."</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>As global mercury levels rise, more and
more species are being affected. A recent study by investigators at </span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>Denmark</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>'s Natural Environmental Research Institute showed that
mercury measurable in the fur of </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>Greenland</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'> polar bears is 11 times higher than it was in baseline
pelts preserved from as early as the 14th century. This fall the National
Wildlife Federation will release a survey of more than 65 recently published
studies showing elevated mercury in more than 40 species, many of which had
been thought to be in little danger. Some, including common loons and bald
eagles, are already showing signs of behavioral and reproductive changes
associated with mercury poisoning.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Cleaning up the mess is the responsibility
of the species that made it, and that job starts with coal. The 440 coal-fired
power plants in the </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>U.S.</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'> produce about 48 tons of mercury a
year--40% of the nation's total output, by some estimates. The Clinton
Administration did not attack the problem until its final year, when it issued
a proposal that would have required a 90% cut in power-plant mercury by 2008.
President George W. Bush has discarded the </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>Clinton</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'> rule in favor of a looser standard that would result in
only a 70% reduction by as late as 2025. What's more, Bush weakened the Clean
Air Act's new-source-review rule, which requires power-plant owners to install
the best available pollution controls when they make major upgrades that result
in increased emissions.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Lately, however, the courts have been
pushing back. In March a federal circuit court in Washington strengthened the
new-source-review requirements by refusing to sanction a loophole that the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had introduced, and last month a circuit
court in Chicago forbade a move by the Cinergy power corporation to measure its
pollution output hour to hour rather than year to year, because the hourly
standard often produces a lower, less accurate reading of emissions. In
November the U.S. Supreme Court will address the same measurement question in a
case out of </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>North Carolina</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>. All those battles technically address
smog and soot, not mercury, but where the first two go, the third follows.
"Power plants are the 800-lb. gorilla," says John Walke, a project
director with the National Resource Defense Council and a former attorney for
the EPA. "Their [mercury] output is extraordinary."</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>But while much of the environmental mercury
in the </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>U.S.</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'> comes from power plants, the other
dominant source is chlor-alkali plants, which manufacture chemicals used in
soaps, detergents and other products. More than 25% of the </span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>U.S.</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'> total blows in from overseas, particularly from
coal-gobbling countries like </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>China</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>. Illinois Senator Barack Obama has proposed two bills to
address those problems. </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>On</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>e requires the eight chlor-alkali plants in
the </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>U.S.</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'> that still use mercury to convert to a
less toxic alternative by 2012. The other calls for a ban on U.S. exports of
mercury starting in 2010--a significant move, since the U.S. sells as much as
300 tons of the metal a year, or 8% of the world's total. More than a dozen
state governments across the </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>U.S.</span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:
navy'> are getting ahead of </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>Washington</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'> with mercury controls of their own. Foreign governments
have also acted. "</span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>Europe</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>, </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>Canada</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>, </span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>Australia</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'> and </span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>Japan</span></font><font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'> have been reducing their use of mercury for five to 10
years," says Linda Greer, a member of the EPA's science advisory board.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>The good news is, once mercury is removed
from circulation, it needn't trouble us again. As long as it's held in
double-hulled containers and kept relatively cool to prevent evaporation, it is
largely inert. "It's my favorite chemical for what you can finally do with
it," says Greer. "It will sit placidly in a warehouse at under 70
degrees." It's a remarkably quiet end for a remarkably dangerous metal--an
end that can't be too soon in coming. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>With reporting by With reporting by Coco
Masters</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Deborah L. DeBiasi</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy;font-weight:bold'>Email:
dldebiasi@deq.virginia.gov</span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>WEB site address: </span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><a href="www.deq.virginia.gov"><font
size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>www.deq.virginia.gov</span></font></a></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Virginia</span></font><font size=2
color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Department</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'> of Environmental
Quality</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Office of Water Permit Programs</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management
Program</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Mail:
</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>P.O.
Box 10009</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
color:navy'>, </span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'>Richmond</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>, </span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>VA</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>23240-0009</span></font><font size=2
color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Location: </span></font><font size=2
color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>629 E. Main Street</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>, </span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Richmond</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>, </span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>VA</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>23219</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>PH: 804-698-4028</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>FAX: 804-698-4032</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>