ADK Files Legal Brief Challenging EPA’s

Weakening of Federal Mercury Regulations

For Immediate Release:

Contact:
Neil Woodworth (518) 668-4447 ext. 0 or ext. 13
Leah Walker Casey (518) 810-0532

The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) filed a brief today in a landmark lawsuit now being heard in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. ADK joins more than a dozen states, leading medical, health care and public health groups, along with several prominent national environmental advocacy groups to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR).

“Two recent studies have linked coal-fired power plants to mercury “hotspots” in the Adirondacks and Catskills,” said Neil Woodworth, Executive Director of the Adirondack Mountain Club. “Mercury contamination of our wilderness ecosystems is deeply troubling to those who treasure the call of the loon, the free spirited play of otters and the music of songbirds as part of their outdoor experience.”

In the brief, ADK asserts that the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) is an illegal attempt to weaken the strict mercury emission controls set forth in the Clean Air Act. Congress in enacting the Clean Air Act provided for strict limits on mercury emissions through the installation of maximum achievable control technology (MACT), which Congress made applicable to all coal-burning power plants. By contrast, the EPA administrative rule challenged in this lawsuit would delay for two decades the elimination of airborne mercury emissions as a source of mercury toxins in the Northeast. Furthermore, the contested rule would allow many of the worst polluters to buy “pollution rights” continuing to release mercury up their smokestacks, perpetuating mercury hot spots in New York and the Northeast.

The Adirondacks and Catskills are located downwind of numerous coal-burning power plants, whose mercury emissions contribute significantly to mercury pollution in these regions. A 2007 independent study by Charles Driscoll and the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation estimated that mercury emissions from US coal-fired power plants are responsible for 40 percent to 65 percent of mercury deposition in the Northeast.

Current levels of mercury deposition in the Northeast are four to six times higher than the levels recorded in 1900. Ninety-six percent of the lakes in the Adirondack region and forty percent of the lakes in New Hampshire and Vermont exceed the recommended EPA action level for methyl mercury in fish. High mercury levels in fish from six reservoirs in the Catskills have prompted advisories that infants, children under the age of 15, and women of childbearing age should not eat any fish from these reservoirs. Further, mercury is present in two-thirds of Adirondack loons at levels that negatively impact their reproductive capacity, posing a significant risk to their survival.

ADK is represented in the lawsuit by Neil Woodworth and Leah Walker Casey, Edward Laird and Susanna Martin of the Albany law firm of Carter, Conboy, Case, Blackmore, Maloney & Laird, P.C.

The Adirondack Mountain Club is a member-directed, non-profit organization devoted to the protection and responsible recreational use of New York State’s Forest Preserve and other wild lands and waters throughout the state. ADK has over 30,000 members with 26 chapters in New York State and New Jersey. To view the brief please visit www.adk.org.

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Read ADK's Brief