New law protects families and the environment; saves taxpayer money The Maine House and Senate have voted to support a new, first-in-the-nation, law to help reduce mercury pollution by requiring compact fluorescent light bulb manufacturers to share the costs and responsibility for recycling their mercury-containing bulbs. Governor Baldacci is expected to sign Maine’s bill soon. Read More
Mercury Pollution
Bush EPA Power Plant Mercury Rule Dead
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case, NRCM was Among Plaintiffs Washington, D.C. – The United States Supreme Court this morning issued an order declining to consider overturning a decision that invalidated a Bush-era rule that would have allowed dangerously high levels of mercury pollution from power plants to persist – the program would not Read More
Maine Leaders Call for Tougher Mercury Limits
By John Richardson, staff writer Portland Press Herald news story Members of Maine’s congressional delegation are calling for tougher limits on mercury emissions and the establishment of a monitoring program in response to new evidence of heavily contaminated “hot spots” in Maine and other Northeastern states. Researchers who spent three years testing yellow perch and Read More
Mercury “Hot Spots” Found
By Lindsay Tice, Staff Writer Sun Journal news story The upper Androscoggin and upper Kennebec rivers are “hot spots” for mercury pollution, according to two studies published this month in BioScience, a peer-review journal. The studies identified five northeastern regions with high mercury levels in fish and birds. The hot spots include the Adirondack Mountain Read More
Leaden Pace of Mercury Rules Pollutes Maine
Lewiston Sun Journal editorial Mythologically speaking, the god Mercury screamed along from place to place, his speed secured from winged footwear. The element named for the fleet Roman deity of trade and travel also moves swiftly, cutting a swath through the atmosphere, rivers, lakes and bloodstreams of Maine, its people, and its wildlife. Yet while Read More
Mercury Study Overdue
Bangor Daily News editorial While mercury-contaminated soil is being removed from the former HoltraChem plant in Orrington, a former owner of the plant has long fought studying, let alone cleaning up, possible mercury contamination of the Penobscot River. The longer the mercury is in the river, the more it can spread through ecosystems stretching to Read More
Court: HoltraChem Owner Must Pay for Studies
By Kevin Miller Bangor Daily News news story A federal appeals court has ordered the former owner of the HoltraChem plant to pay for detailed studies of mercury pollution in the Penobscot River downstream from the contaminated Orrington site. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rejected Mallinckrodt Inc.’s appeal of a court-mandated environmental Read More
Vt. Researchers Rebut EPA Theory on Mercury Pollution Fallout
By the Associated Press Sun Journal news story UNDERHILL, Vt. (AP) – Environmental Protection Agency computer models, developed as the federal agency prepared emission rules for coal-fired power plants, showed that no mercury from their stacks would fall on Vermont. But it does, say scientists working at the Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill. Eric Read More
Extent of Mercury Pollution More Widespread, Report Shows
Maine Wildlife Ranging from Loons to Otters to Bald Eagles at Risk National Wildlife Federation * Natural Resources Council of Maine PORTLAND – Mercury pollution is making its way into nearly every habitat in the U.S., exposing countless species of wildlife to potentially harmful levels of mercury, a new report from the National Wildlife Federation Read More
