Clean Air Mercury Rule

Sometimes, the risk to the public does not come from the area where the public resides. An example is the migration of mercury from coal-fired plants in the Midwest being carried into the atmosphere and deposited into lakes the Northeast. The mercury converts to methyl mercury and then bioaccumulates and eventually concentrates in fish in those lakes. This results in the issuance of fish consumption advisories in the affected areas. In developing the Clean Air Mercury Rule, the U.S. EPA modeled the location of mercury deposition using a spatially explicit air quality model to assess the magnitude of fish contamination and a behavioral model to assess population consumption patterns of these fish. EPA reported monetized benefits from implementing the Clean Air Mercury Rule, measured as decreases in IQ. 

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