We're looking forward to getting some fishing in with our romantic partner as the ice goes out. Sadly, one of the things that takes some enjoyment out of fishing here in Northeast South Dakota is the signs at boat landings and fishing piers that tell us to limit fish consumption since the waters are polluted with mercury.
In the Fargo Forum, Adam Willis reports in US coal plants slashed their mercury pollution. North Dakota accounts for a big share of what remains:
Over the last decade, power plants across the country have slashed the amount of mercury they release into the atmosphere. But of the electricity sector’s remaining mercury emissions, North Dakota’s fleet of coal-fired power plants contributes a disproportionate share.
Coal-burning facilities in North Dakota have cut their mercury emissions from more than 2,300 pounds in 2010 to 847 pounds in 2020, according to data supplied by the state Department of Environmental Quality. That mirrors a national trend, as some coal plants around the country have been replaced by natural gas and the rest have had to adapt to tighter environmental policies from the federal government.
While coal-fired power is no longer the country's largest source of mercury pollution , North Dakota plants dominate recent catalogs of the biggest mercury emitters in that sector. In 2020, North Dakota ranked second only to Texas in mercury emissions released by facilities regulated under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mercury and air toxics standards, according to agency data . And an analysis of the country's largest power producers, compiled last year by the consultancy Environmental Resources Management, showed that four of the country’s top six mercury-emitting coal plants were in North Dakota in 2019. Coal Creek Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in the state, ranked second.
Dave Glatt, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, said all six coal-fired power plants in North Dakota are in compliance with the EPA’s current mercury standards, and noted that while those plants may have high mercury emissions compared to facilities in other parts of the country, they account for a small cut of national totals, which include sources beyond the power sector. He added that emissions from North Dakota facilities are relatively high compared to other states in large part due to the low-grade coal, called lignite, that fuels the state’s power plants. Lignite contains higher concentrations of mercury than coals mined in most other parts of the country, and, as a result, is subject to a less stringent EPA standard. . . .
Was there something the Lignite Energy Council didn't tell us--or the Minnesota legislators who took $250 in 2020 and 2021 from the Lignite Energy Council Political Fund?
There's more at the Forum article:
The coal plant smokestacks that tower over the North Dakota prairie are designed to release pollutants high into the atmosphere, diffusing them over an area that can span thousands of miles.
Volumes of mercury emissions are minuscule compared to other pollutants like carbon dioxide, but small amounts can go a long way. Once released, the element can migrate into bodies of water both locally and in far away countries, building up in an ecosystem's food chain upon entering animal systems. A neurotoxin, the element becomes a hazard to people mainly through fish consumption, and it can be especially harmful to the brain development of children.
We suppose that's where some of the mercury in Northeast South Dakota's fishing waters originate. There's lots more about mercury in North Dakota waters in Willis' US coal plants slashed their mercury pollution. North Dakota accounts for a big share of what remains.
Map: 2020 state-by-state mercury emissions. Via Fargo Forum.
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