I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Michigan’s 19 coal-fired power plants will need to install technology to reduce mercury emissions by 2015, according to new rules finalized this week.
Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin and coal burning power plants are the main source of mercury in the environment. The Michigan Department of Community Health has issued fish consumption advisories for all of Michigan’s inland lakes due to mercury contamination.
A 2003 report by Great Lakes state environmental agencies found that Michigan power plants release 3,316 pounds of mercury into the environment each year.
That report stated that reducing mercury emissions is a priority because of the possibility of exposure through fish consumption. It went on to state that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that 300,000 children are born each year to women whose methylmercury exposure is above that believed to be safe.
In an announcement this week, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said that starting in 2015, all coal-fired electric-generating units (EGUs) must meet a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions.
“Existing coal-fired EGUs will choose one of three options in order to comply with the emission limits,” the department announced, “and any new EGU will be required to meet best available control requirements for mercury.”
“The existing plants need time to retrofit their equipment,” DEQ spokesman Bob McCann said via e-mail when asked why the new rules go into effect in 2015, “If [the new regulations] went into effect right now they’d all be out of compliance.”
Environmental groups voiced support for the new regulations.
“Since power plants are the largest source of Michigan’s mercury emissions, this rule will have a significant impact,” Mike Shriberg of the Ecology Center said in a statement, “Unfortunately, given the ill-advised loopholes and offramps, DEQ estimates that the actual reductions will be more like 77%. Regardless, reducing 3,000 pounds of this potent neurotoxin is a groundbreaking step toward a cleaner, healthier state.”
Michigan is the 19th state to limit mercury emissions from coal plants.
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