http://www.freep.com/news/weather/wrain17_20020517.htm

High mercury levels are found in rain samples

Metro-area tests had toxins exceeding EPA safe standards

May 17, 2002

BY DAN SHINE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The National Wildlife Federation wants Detroiters to think about this as a weekend of expected rainfall approaches the city: Those raindrops contain unsafe levels of mercury, a potentially potent neurotoxin that can harm people.

The environmental group took rain samples on six dates in April and May from an elementary school rooftop in southwest Detroit. Each sample exceeded what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe -- one sample by as much as 21 times and one as low as two times the standard.

Samples in Oakland, Kent, Grand Traverse and Muskegon counties will be tested in the coming months.

Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes Natural Resource Center said people shouldn't be concerned to be out in the rain.

"The danger lies in eating fish containing mercury," he said.

The most common sources of mercury pollution are coal-burning power plants and trash and medical waste incinerators, Buchsbaum said. Emissions from those facilities contain mercury which then mix with rain and fall into lakes, rivers and streams. It then moves up the food chain where it becomes more concentrated in large predator fish such as lake trout, salmon and walleye.

The state Department of Natural Resources puts out an advisory telling anglers to limit consumption of certain fish that may have high levels of mercury.

Similar testing of rain and snow in Macomb County in February and March also showed high levels of mercury. However, Buchsbaum said the problem of mercury in rain isn't limited to Macomb County and southwest Detroit.

"One smokestack can spew pollution over hundreds of square miles," Buchsbaum said.

DTE Energy, which operates several power plants in the state, has many programs in place, such as using low-sulfur coal to lower sulfur emissions and planting trees to catch carbon.

The coal industry said it reduced emissions nationwide by 21 percent in 1989-98 and technology to burn clean coal is advancing.

The National Wildlife Federation and several other state environmental groups are asking the state Department of Environmental Quality to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2010 and completely phase out mercury by 2020.

Contact DAN SHINE at 313-223-4554 or dshine@freepress.com.