Say No to Mercury Rising!

mercury Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin linked to severe birth defects, including learning disabilities, delayed onset of walking and talking, and cerebral palsy. And it concentrates as it goes up the food chain, from water bugs to small fish to big fish to humans. This means we get the worst of it!

Today mercury is on the verge of reaching severely high levels in the Ohio River - a source of drinking water for nearly 3 million people. In 2010, we helped generate close to 12,000 comments directed to the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) opposing a new waiver that industries can use to get around rules created to keep increasing amounts of mercury out of our waters. We unfortunately lost this battle, but we are still fighting the war.

We recently learned that one of the largest dischargers of industrial mercury in the nation - PPG Industries - has filed for this waiver. If it goes through, they will avoid a 90 percent cut in the mercury being dumped into the Ohio River!

Please be a voice on behalf of the river and tell ORSANCO, Commissioner Bruce Scott, and Governor Beshear (by clicking his name below) that we want our families protected from the harmful effects of mercury.

Act NOW to protect our waterways by submitting this comment form. Thank you for taking action! kwa_ppgvariance_comments.pdf

Attachments:

KWA PPG Variance Comments 12/14/2011

Comment Form: *

Dear ORSANCO Commissioners, Commissioner Committee Members, Commissioner Bruce Scott, and Governor Steve Beshear,

As a resident of Kentucky and the Ohio River Basin, my family and I deserve as much protection from mercury as those living near the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay.

I believe it is irresponsible to grant a variance to PPG Industries for their mixing zone at their Natrium plant, especially considering reports that reveal 800 miles of the Ohio River are polluted for mercury and over 13 million pounds of Ohio River fish are consumed every year. Commercial fisheries account for a substantial portion of that amount, and they ship their fish as far as Chicago, Cleveland, and Memphis. Recreational fishing accounts for 1.3 million pounds of fish consumption, and that's with only a 51% awareness level of fish consumption advisories among active users.

I am specifically concerned with several elements of PPG's application that appear flawed including:

Their methods for fish tissue testing, including use of blue gill, a fish known to accumulate very little mercury;
Their argument that granting this variance will not result in the impairment of fish consumption designated uses of the Ohio River in the future;
Their claim that granting this variance will only affect West Virginia, and no other downstream states;
Their claim that they have reduced their mercury discharges to the lowest possible level, after having been given several years to come into compliance; and
Their request for the variance to be renewed for any subsequent permit.

Granting this variance would open the door for dozens of other industries to continue polluting the Ohio River with mercury. When does it end? Ultimately, this will lead to future impairment of the Ohio River, which will have significant ramifications for public health.

Your responsibility is to protect public health and I ask that you do everything in your power to prevent the granting of this variance request.

Thank you for your leadership on this issue. I look forward to your response.

Respectfully submitted,

First Name: *

Last Name: *

Email: *

Address 1 : *

Address 2 :

City : *

State: *

Say No to Mercury Rising!

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