An informal hearing was held by U.S. Rep. Tom Allen Monday.
AUGUSTA – Environmentalists, doctors, fisherman and mothers said Monday that mercury pollution is hurting Maine residents and wildlife. And experts warned that a Bush administration proposal will make the problem worse.
Speakers at an informal hearing here held by U.S. Rep. Tom Allen warned:
• Mercury pollution is directly attributable to a decline in the loon population in Maine.
• Maine bald eagles have the lowest reproductive rate in the nation.
• Maine has among the worst mercury pollution problem in the country: Every river, lake and stream carries public warnings to limit fish consumption due to mercury.
• Studies indicate that 10 to 20 percent of women of childbearing age in Maine have blood levels of mercury considered too high for the safety of a developing fetus. The Maine numbers mirror the national rate. Exposure to mercury puts babies at risk of brain damage, learning disabilities and motor skill deficits.
Speakers at the hearing said the biggest culprit is the 1,100 coal-fired utility plants in the Midwest whose stacks spew mercury pollution that ends up in Maine because of wind patterns.
Allen told listeners that now more than ever, Maine needs the help promised by Congress when it passed the Clean Act Act in 1990. But a Bush administration plan would turn back the clock in two ways, he said.
It would give older Midwestern plants more years – maybe decades – before they have to stop polluting. And it would soften how mercury pollution is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency, allowing “credits” to be bought and sold by polluters.
Standing in front of a large, wooden green fish with the red words “Unsafe to eat” painted over it, Allen said the administration’s proposals are wrong, harmful to Maine and “illegal under the Clean Air Act.”
The EPA is taking public comment on the proposals until April 15. Allen said he requested a hearing be held in Maine, but the EPA refused. So he staged the informal hearing at the State House, promising to deliver testimony to Washington, D.C.
Many of the at least 50 people in attendance had plenty to say Monday. “The EPA motto is ‘Protecting human health, safeguarding the environment,'” observed Marjorie Monteleon, whose two sons work in the fishing industry on Mount Desert Island. “I wonder when they’re going to do that? Only lawsuits seem to wake them up.”
Dr. Jim Maier, a Scarborough psychiatrist who has treated many youngsters with learning disabilities, said the situation is similar to Maine keeping close track of all its child sex predators, but then the federal government allowing other states to send their sexual predators here.
Instead of “No Child Left Behind,” the Bush administration’s motto should be: “No child left unexposed to toxics,” Maier complained.
Dr. Lani Graham, former director of Maine’s Bureau of Health, said she got a call about 10 years ago from a park worker who told her a fish in a pond in Acadia National Park had tested high for mercury. The worker asked if the pond should be posted.
That discovery, Graham said, eventually led to extensive testing of Maine’s waterways and fish consumption warnings being placed on inland water bodies. Graham called that period the most discouraging time for her. It’s vital, she said, that EPA “scrap these proposals and return to the Clean Air Act as written.”
If the EPA does not withdraw its proposal, Attorney General Steven Rowe said he and other states will sue the administration for violating the Clean Air Act.
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