Letter: Mercury must be cleaned up now

Monday, Oct. 18, 2004 | 9:13 a.m.

The Associated Press reported on Thursday that American Indians are "adding their voices" to the uproar around the delayed proposal to clean up mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest industrial source of mercury pollution, accounting for 41 percent of total U.S. mercury emissions. The pollution from these plants ends up in our lakes and rivers, and in the fish we eat. The American Indians the AP was quoting are concerned because these power plants are contaminating the fish they use to feed their families.

But mercury is not just a concern to subsistence fishers. Mercury is a concern to women of childbearing age and to all young children, since this toxic poison can harm developing nervous systems and cause speech impediments and motor skill problems.

The fact that American Indians have to "add their voices" to the thousands of others around the nation calling for strict reductions in mercury from coal-fired power plants should be enough to persuade the Bush administration to do the right thing and clean these plants up.

BRAD JOHNSON Editor's note: Brad Johnson, based in Phoenix, is the Western States Field Associate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.