Mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants

The EPA has already issued regulatory requirements for municipal waste combustors, medical waste incinerators and hazardous waste combustors. Yet coal fired power plants not only remain uncontrolled, they account for a larger and larger share of mercury emissions as other source categories meet their obligations to reduce their mercury releases. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA was required to finalize a maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rale for mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by December 20, 2002. Clean Air Act 7412(n)l)(A) provides that EPA... 

If this development continues, there is little doubt that more regional problems will appear. Incidents of "red tide" are reported from the North Sea area. This is an over-growth of toxic algae which follows excessive deposition of nitrates by precipitation and kills the fish. Watersoluble mercury compounds in the atmosphere, partly due to emissions from coal-fired power plants and partly due to an oxidation of the natural mercury vapour, have resulted in a serious contamination of freshwater fish in Scandinavia. Already fish from many lakes cannot be marketed in Sweden, because the mercury content exceeds 1 mg/kg. 

In October of 2011, 25 states urged a federal court to require that the USEPA delay implementing the rule on emission of Mercury and other pollutants from (coal-fired) power plants by at least a year, as the changes will be too costly. Gardnery, T. Reuters. Monday, October 10, 2011. Available at http //www.reuters. com/article/2011/10/ll/us-25-states-urge-court-to-make-us-epa-d-idUSTRE79A0E520111011. Accessed July 1, 2013. 

Reductions in U.S. mercuiy emissions from medical and municipal waste incinerators and other industrial sectors have already occurred. Additional emission reductions from some coal-fired power plants have also already begun as co-benefits from technologies used to control SO2 and NO emissions. These mercury emissions from power plants are, however, expected to be reduced further over the next few decades. Meanwhile, changes in mercuiy emissions in other parts of the world may also affect some U.S. ecosystems. 

Mercury emission from electric utilities is the largest uncontrolled source of mercury release into the atmosphere, and globally it accounts for up to 59% of the total annual atmospheric loading of mercury from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Coal-fired power plants are now considered the greatest source of environmental mercury in the U.S., and the only significant source that continues... 

The total amount of mercury release to the atmosphere from anthropogenic and natural sources each year is estimated to be 5,500 tons [2]. Coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) are one the largest (about 60 tons per year in the U.S.) anthropogenic sources of vapor phase mercury emissions. The concentration of mercury in flue gases generated by CFPPs typically is 1 to 10 pg/m. ... 

Mass disti ibution of mercuiy across different CUBs has been reported by Lee et al. [SCSI]. This study revealed that over 1% of mercuiy from coal burning is associated with bottom ash, 60% with fly ash, 6% with gypsum and 15-34% is emitted to the atmosphere. Meij et al. [52] reported that for some coal-fired power stations in the Netherlands the mercury is generally partitioned as 25% emitted to the atmosphere and -50% is trapped in fly ash and -25% is trapped in the FGD plant. Other studies have reported emissions of 90% or more of mercury in flue gases to the atmosphere [38,53-54],... 

Environmental Protection Agency, National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, From Coal- and Oil-Fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units and Standards of Performance for Fossil-Fuel-Fired Electric Utility, Industrial-Commercial-Institutional, and Small Industrial-Commercial-Institutional Steam Generatirtg Units, 76 Fed. Reg. 23,399 (2011) EPA Finalizes Rule to Reduce Mercury, Air Toxics Emissions From Power Plants, 42 BNA Env. Rept. 2877 (2011) Amy Harder, Mercurial, National Journal, September 17, 2011, at 54 (Obama Speech). 

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