Nearly four years ago, North Carolina legislators passed the Clean Smokestacks Act, at the time the strongest legislation adopted by any state to clean up soot and smog-forming air pollution from coal-fired power plants. This was an important and necessary first step in reducing harmful air pollution from power plants in North Carolina.

But Clean Smokestacks left some important unfinished business -- including what to do about mercury pollution from those power plants.

Debate has boiled down to a simple but vitally important equation: Does North Carolina protect higher profits for electric utilities or does it protect the health of our children?

On March 10, the state Environmental Management Commission proposed its answer, and while industry stockholders should feel safe, those concerned about children's health should be worried.

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Mercury is a dangerous toxin that permanently harms the developing brains and central nervous systems of 300,000 to 600,000 children in the nation every year. Coal-fired power plants are by far the largest sources of mercury air pollution in the U.S., and with 14 such plants North Carolina ranks among the 10 states with the highest mercury emissions from power plants.

Recent EPA studies reveal that most of the mercury pollution emitted from local power plants -- about 70 percent -- deposits in nearby water bodies, where in North Carolina it is quickly converted to its most toxic form by numerous blackwater rivers and wetlands. As a result, several species of fish in North Carolina waters east of Interstate 85, and off our coast, are unsafe to eat due to mercury contamination, particularly for pregnant women and young children. And this risk is real, as a recent UNC-Asheville study reported that one in five North Carolina women of child-bearing age who were tested carry potentially unsafe levels of mercury in their bodies.

The bottom line is this: our mercury pollution problem is serious, it is homegrown and it requires solutions at home.

There are effective and affordable solutions that won't result in significant increases in utility bills. Technology exists to eliminate about 90 percent or more of the mercury pollution from coal-fired power plant emissions. Unlike many other pollution technologies, mercury controls are relatively simple and relatively cheap. For consumers this means an estimated increase of between 33 cents and 77 cents per month in their utility bills -- a small price to pay for the health and well-being of tens of thousands of children.

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Other states have recognized the seriousness of the mercury threat and have taken strong steps. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Wisconsin and New Jersey have enacted laws that require mercury pollution reductions of 80 to 95 percent between 2006 and 2015. Illinois, Pennsylvania and Maryland have announced plans to require 90 percent reductions in the next four to six years. And even though it is home to one of the largest electric utilities in the country, Georgia's environmental agency recently proposed a plan to require 80 to 85 percent reductions of mercury pollution from the power plants by 2010, with a 90 percent reduction required by 2015.

Instead of following the lead of these states, North Carolina is resting on the laurels of the Clean Smokestacks Act, ignoring the fact that even though some mercury reductions will occur as a byproduct of mandated soot and smog controls, the act doesn't require any mercury reductions at all.

Inexplicably, in its proposed mercury rule, the state has abandoned the cornerstone of the Smokestacks Act regime -- requiring North Carolina power plants to achieve actual pollution reductions from sources within the state. Instead, the proposal allows utilities to buy their way out of installing pollution controls by purchasing "pollution credits." Through buying the ability to pollute, big polluters can avoid reducing mercury pollution and continue to emit high levels of mercury far into the future.

A smarter solution would be to require deep mercury reductions at the biggest sources of pollution. But the state's proposal requires mercury reductions only from the smallest emitters -- and it doesn't even require reductions from those sources until as late as 2023.

Simply put, the state's proposal does too little too late to adequately protect the health of people in North Carolina.

Every day, North Carolina residents suffer the costs of mercury pollution. Health and developmental problems in our children persist; our commercial, recreational and subsistence fishing industries face mounting threats; and mercury fish advisories increasingly cover more water bodies and fish species. The technology to reduce mercury emissions exists, it is effective, it is affordable and it should be the state's top priority. Citizens deserve these protections and the state should require nothing less.

(John Suttles is a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.)

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