By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer

The state's top environmental official is afraid that new federal rules intended to control poisonous mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants will hurt Ohio worse than western states, which burn a different type of coal.

The Buckeye State is among the three leading mercury emitters in the nation, along with Texas and Pennsylvania.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Christopher Jones said in a June 25 letter to the federal EPA that the new federal rules need to tighten regulations for mercury emissions from industrial sources, as well as power plants. He also said the proposed rule is flawed because it would allow higher mercury emissions from western coal, which has higher concentrations of mercury and is more difficult to burn cleanly.

That will put coal produced in Ohio, and the energy plants that use Ohio coal, at a disadvantage, he said.

"An actual consequence of the proposed rule could be an excess of mercury emissions occurring through fuel switching," the letter says. "We recommend that U.S. EPA establish mercury emissions limits that are independent of the type of coal fired."

OEPA spokeswoman Linda Oros said allowing higher mercury emissions levels for western coal doesn't make sense.

"If you do that, the incentive will be to use western coal, and that will cause emissions to go up," she said.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, particularly devastating to developing brains in children and fetuses, which can be exposed to the chemical through their mother's blood. Mercury can lead to a variety of abnormalities, such as delayed onset of walking and talking, along with delays and deficits in learning ability.

The U.S. EPA says that 8 percent of the women of childbearing age in the United States have levels of mercury in their blood that exceed what the agency considers safe. Humans are exposed to mercury primarily through eating fish.

Glen Brand, Midwest representative for the Sierra Club, said the conflict between the two environmental protection agencies is beside the point because mercury could be reduced much more quickly by simply enforcing the Clean Air Act.

"We could clean up mercury by 90 percent in four years under the Clean Air Act as it stands," Brand said.

Federal officials say that if the mercury plan is approved it would cap emissions at 26 tons in 2010 and 15 tons in 2018, down from a current total of 48 tons.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com