Re: Mercury: a reality check

[Marc_F_Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:32:41 GMT, nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston) wrote in
message  <46708b2d.62016312@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>From the EPA at...
>
>http://www.epa.gov/oar/mercuryrule/basic.htmhttp://www.epa.gov/oar/mercuryrule/basic.htm
>
>"Mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants comes from mercury in coal,
>which is released when the coal is burned. While coal-fired power plants are
>the largest remaining source of human-generated mercury emissions in the
>United States, they contribute very little to the global mercury pool.
>Recent estimates of annual total global mercury emissions from all sources
>-- both natural and human-generated -- range from roughly 4,400 to 7,500
>tons per year. Human-caused U.S. mercury emissions are estimated to account
>for roughly 3 percent of the global total, and U.S. coal-fired power plants
>are estimated to account for only about 1 percent."

Dave Houston *starts* yet another off-topic thread on mercury/CFLs.

Comp.home.automation has devolved into the Fox News of groups, forums and
boards on the internet dealing with home automation.

Reality check indeed. Dave searches for a quote on the internet that can be
misinterpreted to mean that mercury from coal fired plants are a small
problem in the US.

The global surface area is 510065600 km^2
The US surface area is 9161923 km^2
So the US is less than 2% of the land mass.

But according to the quote, US human sources  _alone_ account for 3% Global
_total_  which includes human and natural.  So the total US emissions ( human
+ natural) is greater than 3% (but we can't know how much greater from the
numbers provided).

Even with what we are provided, we know that US is _still_ a mercury hotspot
despite the misleading statistics presented to make the US look good because
US > 2% of area.

The real "reality check" is that 40% of  mercury emissions and most of the
current biologically mobile mercury released into the environment in the US
today comes from coal.

And that there were 3,221 fish advisories in 2004 including the entire state
of Kentucky where Dave lives.

Globally there are important sources of anthropogenic mercury that are not
tolerated in North America. For example, mercury is boiled off in vast
amounts for gold refining in South America.

So the global total is not what matters to US children (to use BobbyG's point
of concern).

>BTW, existing law calls for a 70% reduction in mercury emissions from US
>power plants over the next few years which means that mercury emissions from
>US coal-fired power plants will be about 0.03% of the total.

"BTW", USEPA under the Clinton administration determined that mercury
emissions had to be reduced and was to issue *final* regulations by Dec 2004.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/b1ac27bf9339f1c28525701c005e2edf
/cd30963685856f30852569b5005ee740!OpenDocument

The regs were scuttled by the Shrub administration. And they would and will
take years to put in place now under the best of circumstances.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dave Houston *starts* yet another off-topic thread on mercury/CFLs.

Comp.home.automation has devolved into the Fox News of groups, forums and
boards on the internet dealing with home automation.


... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org