EPA Sued for Allowing Mercury Pollution 900 Times Safe Level (selenium 4000 times above safe levels)

EPA Sued for Allowing Mercury Pollution 900 Times Safe Level

Accused of failing to properly regulate the discharge of toxic metals by power plants into waterways, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being sued by two environmental organizations. The Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club allege that the EPA has allowed mercury to be released at levels that are 900 times above what is considered safe. Allegations regarding the release of selenium are even greater—4,000 times above health-safety levels.

The plaintiffs claim the EPA has never set national standards to limit toxic-metal discharges from power plants. Their objective is to force federal regulators to adopt “long overdue regulations” concerning dangerous pollutants dumped by coal-fired plants into nearby bodies of water.

Power plants that use coal generate 130 million tons of coal ash, scrubber sludge and other combustion residues a year. These plants released two million pounds of metals and metal compounds into surrounding waters in 2008 alone, according to the environmental lawsuit. In addition to mercury and selenium, these include arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium and lead.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/EPA_Sued_for_Allowing_Mercury_Pollution_900_Times_Safe_Level_101112

As long as people are told that the mercury level is high, they can choose whether or not to drink the water. Or move somewhere else. Anything more is just nanny state intrusion.

You are for the govt banning everything we do and making us sign permission slips would be good for us.

I love how people cannot argue the simple basics so they just toss out something like you wrote.

Should consenting adults be allowed to have a beer and smoke together?

Should they be allowed to drive cars that throw out harmful fumes (yes, of course, because you do that too so it is ok).

I am all for intelligent regulation, but nanny staters are stupid people who are also control freaks (kind of like people of an overly religious nature who want to please their god by controlling others, but in this case the god is money and/or their own desire to make the world in their own personal image because they feel superior).

I.e., "I know it when I see it."

I am sure you are for banning gays in the military and abortion right? No? then you must be against all regulation and a libertarian then.

See how that works?

I'm just having fun exploring the hypocrisy in yours.

Sorry, but you can't move away from the toxins.

There is literally not a stream in the U.S. that isn't toxified with mercury.

As we who are engaged in this struggle for our literal survival like to remind people: "We're ALL downstream." You are, too, whether you acknowledge it or not.

Because of mercury, every woman of child-bearing age in the U.S. who gives birth will do so to a child with an up to 10 point IQ deficit. That's what mercury does. A study of breast milk a few years back found elements of ROCKET FUEL in samples from New Jersey to Arizona. How's a newborn going to "move somewhere else?" Pray, do tell.

But of course, it's not just the mercury. It's the selenium, the arsenic, the barium, the cadmium and on and on. Do please tell me how a person can "move somewhere else" away from that if they don't even know they're soaking in it.

There's none so blind as those who will not see.

Apply this tag to my original post: :sarcasm:

:sarcasm:

But I get your point. And, yes, sarcasm pretty much always needed.

...until the water people are forced to decide whether to drink or not is something like the columbia river.

I'd personally choose the good water and tell the power plant to move. We'd live longer and happier lives. But unless I have a 'nanny state' standing up for me and my neighbors we personally can't go up against a rich power company. That's why the state is good for us.

What irks me about stories like this is that the names of the affected communities are withheld and only the most general data about the toxins is made available to us. So with what information are we allowed to make the informed choice you advocate?

:sarcasm:

Oy.