NAFTA Secretariat Deems U.S. Mercury Emissions Worth Investigating

The Secretariat will prepare a factual record in connection with the submission if the Council, by a two-thirds vote, instructs it to do so. The Council, the CEC's governing body, is composed of the top environment officials of Canada, Mexico and the United States. The submission was filed with the CEC Secretariat on September 20, 2004 by the Sierra Legal Defence Fund and Waterkeeper Alliance, on behalf of Friends of the Earth Canada, Friends of the Earth-US, Earthroots, Centre for Environmentally Sustainable Development, Great Lakes United, Pollution Probe, Waterkeeper Alliance, and the Sierra Club. “Under President [George W.] Bush, the EPA has become simply a taxpayer funded industry lobbyist group, working hard every day to strip environmental protections from the American people,” said Scott Edwards, legal director of Waterkeeper Alliance. The submitters claim that emissions from power plants in 10 states - Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia - represent almost 60 percent of U.S. mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants and that the alleged failure to enforce the Clean Water Act in those 10 states is "reflective of the broader problem in the U.S." http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2005/2005-12-14-01.asp

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