There are almost 500 coal-fired power plants belching 33 tons of mercury annually into America’s air. A single solitary gram of the toxin or just a 70th of a teaspoon is enough to poison a 25-acre lake, so that its fish are no longer safe to eat. There are fish consumption advisories posted in all 50 states. Advisory or not, people - especially those lacking other means - will fish and enjoy their catch when hunger calls.
Some of Mercury’s known maladies include, neurological damage, kidney damage, liver failure and fatal heart disease. It has been linked with autism, dyslexia, blindness and uncontrolled aggression. Exposure to tiny amounts during pregnancy can cause mental retardation and lower IQ’s in children.
That’s not even the whole story. The toxic brew of coal mining and its waste products includes a slew of other poisons and heavy metals. There’s arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, iron, lead, manganese, selenium and thallium making coal the largest source of water pollution in the United States based on toxicity. The coal industry causes more pollution than the other nine top polluting industries combined. In the past, coal has received a free pass from the clean air and water acts. The Environmental Protection Agency is poised with new enforcement power as big money and the fossil fuel industry are working to take it away.
Coal - like other fossil fuels - played an important role in keeping people warm, moving them around and developing the modern world. Be thankful and remember those who have worked in those dangerous industries, but don’t let vested interests and big money cover up the devastation. Fossil time is over and clean renewables are on their way.
Source: Waterkeeper Alliance, www.waterkeeper.org