MERCURY IN CENTRAL PARK LAKE FROM COAL

["jenday1" <jenday1@EMAIL.MSN.COM>]

I saw this on another list server I get, and thought some of our readers

would find it of interest.

-- John



John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

3050 Traymore Lane

Bowie, MD 20715-2024

jenday1@email.msn.com (H)



----- Original Message -----

From: "ArcaMax" <ezines@arcamax.com>

To: <jenday1@email.msn.com>

Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 9:53 AM

Subject: ArcaMax Science News for Wednesday August 15, 2001

. . .



  MERCURY IN CENTRAL PARK LAKE FROM COAL

  While the debate rages over the nation's energy future, including

the potential increase in the number of coal-burning power plants,

researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, N.Y. have

linked coal plant emissions to toxic levels of mercury. The RPI study

shows that the level of mercury in sediment at the bottom of New York

City's Central Park Lake is at least 10 times the amount found in some

industrial areas. "The atmospheric input of mercury to the sediments

is the highest I have ever seen," says Richard Bopp. The findings are

significant in light of this year's power shortages in California and

the ensuing controversy over coal-burning power plants. A recent

report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicted that the

emission of hazardous air pollutants by coal-fired utilities would

increase 10 percent to 30 percent by the year 2010. Bopp's team

studied core samples of lake sediment dating back to the 1860s and

after consulting records of coal consumption in the city, Bopp

concludes that domestic coal-fired stoves, furnaces and power plants

left the toxic residue.

. . .

--

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.





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