Environmentalists target Utah mercury emissions

The United States should be much more diligent about controlling mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants, and Utah should test for organic mercury in the food chain, according to the Sierra Club and two other groups.

During a noon press conference at the Capitol, the Sierra Club was joined by the Lakekeeper organization and the Sevier County Citizens for Clean Air and Water. The session covered a gamut of issues surrounding the toxic element, which is most dangerous when in the form of an organic compound called methylmercury.

Although none of the speakers said anyone here was dangerously overexposed to the material, they raised concerns that methylmercury could pose a hazard when ingested in food.

Mercury can be released as air pollution when coal is burned, with power plants contributing about 40 percent of U.S. mercury emissions, according to the speakers. In its airborne version, it is usually not considered a direct hazard, but when it gets into the food chain and becomes methylmercury, it can accumulate in animal tissues.

Especially likely for this accumulation are aquatic species like shellfish and fish. Methylmercury levels become higher moving up the food chain, concentrating more in large predator fish.

When methylmercury is ingested in too high quantities, according to Jeff Salt, executive director of Great Salt Lakekeeper, neurological and developmental effects can occur, including loss of sensory and cognitive ability, tremors, inability to walk and even death.

Developing fetuses are especially sensitive, he added.

The Great Salt Lake is a large terminal basin, he noted, draining rivers and streams in a region of about 35,000 miles. Mercury from coal-fired power plants and smelters in the region can make its way into the lake and other bodies of water.

During the press conference, concern was expressed that lake products might contain mercury. Speakers called for studies to clarify the situation.

Members of the organizations are proposing to establish a water quality and fish-sampling program, Salt said. The Utah Division of Water Quality is interested in helping to fund such a project, he added.

The monitoring effort will be modeled after a study by the U.S. Geological Survey, he said. Some streams east of the lake "have already come up with mercury hits" under the study, he added. "Each fish costs $100 to sample for just mercury alone."

Airborne mercury gets trapped in the watershed, then flushed into the streams, and it collects in the Great Salt Lake, he said.