By BILL PIELSTICKER

Monday, September 6, 2004

Anglers have had enough mercury in our fish. The Environmental Protection Agency must address this toxic problem soon.

More than a million anglers fish Wisconsin's lakes, streams and rivers each year, spending more than $1 billion annually on everything from fishing licenses, to bait and tackle, to boats and hotels, not to mention all the other indirect expenditures that make angling a boon for the state.

But fishing isn't just an economic benefit for Wisconsin's economy. It's a heritage we all cherish and want to protect. Locally caught fish makes a summer picnic complete and, for some, is an everyday staple meal.

Mercury falling from the air into lakes, streams and rivers ends up in everything from walleye to smallmouth bass. It also contaminates waterfowl. Eventually, it moves up the food chain into the folks who love to eat what they catch. Pregnant women and kids are particularly at risk since mercury is known to affect the nervous system, causing delays in walking, talking and brain development.

For most anglers, this isn't news. But to make our concerns heard loud and clear, Wisconsin Trout Unlimited has joined nearly 100 other Wisconsin sportsmen's groups, and more than 370 other groups nationwide, in support of a letter circulated by the National Wildlife Federation to EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt. We are urging him to re-think the current proposal to weaken and delay mercury reduction requirements from the largest unregulated source: coal- fired power plants.

In a recent National Wildlife Federation poll, 71% of hunters and anglers said power plants should be required to remove mercury pollution within 10 years.

The EPA is currently considering a plan to cut mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Such a proposal is long overdue. Unfortunately, this plan does too little, too late.

It's too little because it sets a weak initial mercury reduction of 30% by 2008, and then creates a cap-and-trade scheme that would allow dirty plants to keep polluting if they purchase pollution credits from newer, cleaner plants.

That plan might be great for communities near those newer and cleaner plants. But communities near dirty plants would see no improvement in the amount of mercury falling locally. Since many of our oldest plants sit right on our lakes and rivers, this is particularly bad news for Wisconsin outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen.

It's too late because it would be 2018 before power plants would have to meet a 70% mercury reduction requirement. Worse yet, according to the fine print contained in EPA's own estimates, we would see no real reduction in mercury pollution until 2025 or beyond.

Children going fishing for the first time this summer will have kids of their own before power plants would be required to make serious cuts in their mercury emissions.

Wisconsin sportsmen have already joined other groups to pressure our state leaders to adopt rules to reduce mercury pollution from our own state's power plants. Those rules were adopted this summer. While this is a good first step, there is still work to do.

To make real progress in cleaning up our lakes and streams, we need a strong federal regulation that will require deep cuts in mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants in neighboring states as well.

Advocates for a "go slow" approach overlook the fact that we have the technology today to drastically reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The time to rid the nation's power plants of mercury is now. Adopting strong national rules will begin to clean up our lakes, streams and fish, protect our economy and improve our children's health.

Bill Pielsticker is state council chairman of Wisconsin Trout Unlimited.