STAFF REPORT

Officials in Maine and six other Northeastern states are hoping a never-before-used provision of the Clean Water Act will force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to control mercury emissions from power plants outside the region.

David Littell, commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said Tuesday that the provision, which requires the EPA to craft agreements to resolve multistate pollution issues, triggers a mandatory process for the EPA to control the atmospheric deposition of mercury that makes fish throughout the Northeast unsafe to eat.

"We've filed scientifically rigorous cleanup plans that have been endorsed by the EPA, but there is still no credible work to make our fish safe to eat," Littell said. "This petition is another avenue to keep dirty power plants' feet to the fire."

The six New England states joined New York in filing the petition, which cites a section of the Clean Water Act that requires the EPA administrator to respond by convening a management conference that includes all the states that are a significant source of the mercury in Northeast waters.

The provision further requires the EPA to develop an agreement to reduce pollution levels and improve water quality in New England and New York.

The Northeast has more than 10,000 lakes, ponds and reservoirs, and more than 46,000 miles of river where fish are unsafe to eat because of atmospheric mercury contamination, according to regional officials.

The Northeast states have worked to eliminate their source of mercury since 1998. Studies show the majority of the mercury in the states' waters now comes from out-of-region sources such as coal-fired power plants, whose mercury emissions drift into the region on air currents and then fall as rain directly into waterways or as runoff.

"In the four years from 1998 to 2002, we have reduced our own mercury pollution by 74 percent and more reductions have been made since then," said Andrew Fisk, director of the Bureau of Land and Water Quality for the Maine DEP. "All Northeast states have emissions controls on our utilities that meet our plan's requirements for out-of-region sources. If it can be done in our states, it can be done in other states. We are asking for a stringent federal program that would require just that."

The seven states have worked together before. They were among 16 states to sue the federal government in 2006 over the legality the EPA's Clean Air Mercury Rule, which would have limited mercury reductions to 70 percent and delayed those reductions until 2018.

The Northeast states submitted to the EPA a clean up plan for mercury contaminated water in 2007.

The EPA approved the plan last year and earlier this year the states prevailed in federal appeals court when the EPA's Clean Air Mercury Rule was declared invalid.

"We look forward to sitting down at the table with the EPA to develop an agreement," Littell said. "The goals are clear, and the technology needed to meet them is available. Let's get to work so that our fish are safe to eat."