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_______________________________________________________

REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT

_______________________________________________________

PUBLIC HEARING

FOR

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR

HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANTS FROM COAL AND OIL-FIRED

ELECTRIC UTILITY STEAM GENERATING UNITS AND STANDARDS

OF PERFORMANCE FOR FOSSIL-FUEL-FIRED ELECTRIC UTILITY,

INDUSTRIAL-COMMERCIAL-INSTITUTIONAL, AND SMALL

INDUSTRIAL-COMMERCIAL-INSTITUTIONAL STEAM GENERATING

UNITS

CROWN PLAZA CHICAGO METRO

733 WEST MADISON STREET

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60611

24 MAY 2011
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1 MR. CLARK: Good morning and thank you for

2 attending this public hearing. This is one of three

3 hearings that we're holding around the country on this

4 proposed rule making.

5 We're looking to take comment on our

6 admission standards for mercury and other air toxics

7 from coal- and oil-fired power plants.

8 We've got another hearing that's being held

9 in Philadelphia today and then a hearing in Atlanta,

10 Georgia also this Thursday, May 26.

11 My name is Jeff Clark. I'm the Associate

12 Director for the Office of -- EPA's Office of Air

13 Quality Planning and Standards in Research Triangle

14 Park, North Carolina. I'm going to be chairing this

15 hearing and joining me here today is Ellen Kurlansky,

16 who is with EPA's Office of Policy Analysis and Review

17 in Washington, D.C. And next to Ellen is Nick Hutson

18 who is with the Office of Air Quality Planning and

19 Standards also in Research Triangle Park, North

20 Carolina. And then on the end is Bruce Sypniewski.

21 Bruce is the Deputy Director of the Air and Radiation

22 Division here in -- for EPA here in Chicago Regional

23 Office.

24 On March 16, of this year, the Environmental

25 Protection Agency proposed mercury and air toxic
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1 standards for coal- and oil-fired power plants. These

2 Clean Air Act standards would significantly reduce

3 emissions of toxic air pollutants. These pollutants

4 are also known as, sometimes known as air toxics or, or

5 and these are the kinds of pollutants that are listed

6 in the Clean Air Act; they are known to or suspected of

7 causing cancer or other serious health effects.

8 In addition, EPA has also proposed to revise

9 Clean Air Act standards, known as new source

10 performance standards, that would reduce emissions of

11 particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides --

12 and nitrogen oxides from new coal-fired power plants as

13 well.

14 Power plants emit mercury arsenic, chromium,

15 nickel, organic air toxics, acid gases and other

16 harmful air pollutants. They are the largest source of

17 mercury emissions into the air in the United States.

18 Once mercury from the air reaches the water,

19 microorganisms can change it into methyl mercury, a

20 highly toxic form that builds up in the environment and

21 fish. People are primarily exposed to mercury by

22 eating contaminated fish. Children's developing brains

23 are especially susceptible to damage from this

24 exposure. The effects include reductions in their IQ

25 and ability to learn.
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1 We estimate that by 2016, the proposed power

2 plant mercury and air toxics standards would prevent

3 between six thousand, eight hundred to seventeen

4 thousand premature deaths annually, as well as provide

5 many other health and environmental benefits. The

6 portion of these benefits that can be quantified total

7 more than fifty nine to a hundred and forty billion

8 dollars annually in the year 2016. The benefits far

9 outweigh the cost -- the estimated annual cost of ten

10 point nine billion dollars. Implementing these

11 standards would also create jobs for American workers

12 in building, installing, and operating equipment to

13 reduce health-threatening emissions.

14 One thing I wanted to note; since proposing

15 this rule, we've updated some of our mercury emissions

16 data used to develop the proposed standards based on

17 comment we've received. We do not expect the update,

18 which corrects a calculation error with a small amount

19 of data, to change the types of pollution controls that

20 are necessary to comply with the rule or its benefits

21 to the public health. We've made the data corrected --

22 the corrected data available for public review on our

23 website and in the docket that's assigned to this rule

24 making.

25 Currently, there are no existing federal
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1 requirements for power plants to limit their emissions

2 of toxic pollutants like mercury, arsenic and metals.

3 The EPA in our previous administration, prior

4 administration, finalized a rule to cut mercury

5 emission from power plants, but the D.C. Circuit Court

6 struck that rule down as illegal and required EPA to

7 develop standards that follow the law and science in

8 order to protect public health and the environment.

9 Today we are accepting oral comments on all

10 aspects of our proposal. Written transcripts for all

11 three of these hearings will be available as part of

12 the official record for this rule and EPA will consider

13 them as we move forward to complete a final rule in

14 November of this year. We are accepting written

15 comments for the proposed rule through July the 5 of

16 2011. There is a handout available in the registration

17 area that details information for submitting written

18 comments etcetera.

19 Okay. Now here's the way we'd like to run

20 the hearing today.

21 I'm going to call the speakers up in pairs of

22 two and -- to come up to the table in front of us.

23 I'll ask each of you to speak. When it's your turn to

24 speak, please state your name and your affiliation

25 before you begin your testimony. It will help the
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1 court reporter if you also spell your name and, and

2 actually let me just digress for a second and say the

3 most important guy in the room is Chris who is the

4 court reporter across the way there and if Chris

5 basically needs anything as far as, you know, better

6 audio or something like that, he's going to signal me

7 and we'll make adjustments as necessary.

8 In order to be -- we've got -- we are loaded

9 as far as speakers go. It doesn't look like it yet

10 here so far, but we, we've got a full day packed and,

11 and many speakers that have requested beyond that to

12 speak, so in order to be fair to everyone, we're asking

13 that you limit your testimony to five minutes and

14 remain at the microphone until both speakers have

15 completed the, their talks. At that point, we may ask

16 a question, a clarifying question. If, in addition to

17 the transcript of your testimony, you would also like

18 the full text of your written comments to be included

19 in the docket, please be sure and give a copy of the

20 written comments to the staff out at the registration

21 office -- registration table, rather -- sorry.

22 We've got a timekeeping system which is

23 generally works -- those of you that have testified

24 before have seen this. It's set for five minutes.

25 You'll have a green light for four minutes. When
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1 there's one minute left, a yellow light will come on

2 and then when the five minutes is up, a red light will,

3 will come on. Unfortunately in this case, this -- the

4 thing that we've got here, the time, is quite large and

5 almost intimidating, so we put it on the floor instead

6 of having it up here, but the speakers will be able to

7 see it, I think, so.

8 This hearing today is scheduled to go from

9 nine a.m. until eight p.m. tonight and certainly later

10 depending on the number of speakers. We will stay as

11 long as it takes to, to listen to folks through the

12 night. We will go on recess during a scheduled lunch

13 break from twelve thirty until two p.m. and a dinner

14 break from five p.m. to six thirty p.m. However, at

15 this point, we're already intending to shorten those

16 breaks because of the number of speakers that we have,

17 so that we'll have -- so people will have opportunities

18 to speak. So I, I think at this point, it's fair to

19 say that we will be -- we will break at twelve thirty.

20 We'll probably come back sooner than that, like one

21 thirty'ish or so, but we'll, we'll, we'll work on that

22 as we go through the day. We intend to stay until the

23 evening, as I said, until everyone finishes their

24 comments. If you would like to testify and you have

25 not yet registered, please do so outside with the folks
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1 at the table out there and we ask for your patients as

2 we proceed through the list of speakers because we have

3 quite a large of them and we appreciate so much you all

4 taking time out of your busy schedules to be here to

5 testify about this very important rule making today.

6 So again, thank you so much for being here

7 and we'd like to go ahead and get started.

8 Our first two speakers would be the Reverend

9 Doctor Clare Butterfield and Faith Bugel please.

10 Reverend Butterfield, if, if you're okay with that and

11 just want to be sure. We were having some audio issues

12 a little bit earlier, so just want to be sure that you

13 got the microphone up there to you, so thank you so

14 much.

15 REVEREND BUTTERFIELD: Good morning. Thank

16 you very much for the opportunity to be here.

17 My name is Reverend Clare Butterfield. I'm a

18 Unitarian Universalist Minister and the Director of

19 Faith in Place at our Illinois Interfaith Power and

20 Light Campaign. I'm here for those organizations and

21 our over seven hundred congregations that work with us.

22 I'm also a long time Chicago and Illinois resident and

23 a mother.

24 And I'm here today in support of the EPA's

25 proposed standards. I'm in support of the regulations
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1 because they protect the people of my home from toxic

2 air pollution particulates and especially mercury.

3 The toxins that these regulations are

4 designed to address are, impair the brain development

5 of our children and the unborn and are generally most

6 dangerous to the people in our society who are most in

7 need of our protection; pregnant women, children, and

8 the elderly. And in Chicago, those most affected by

9 these kinds of pollutants, including mercury until our

10 mercury rule was adopted, are also concentrated near

11 our two power plants in the City and most of those

12 people are low income and people of color. And you'll

13 hear today from people in those neighborhoods and

14 groups that work on lung health and about the specific

15 data on asthma events, premature deaths, and more and

16 affecting people who are particularly vulnerable

17 because they don't have the deep resources to protect

18 themselves.

19 Our faiths teach us to protect the widow and

20 the orphan, to care for the least among us. I want to

21 speak for the children who live near these plants who

22 would benefit from these regulations and who are

23 currently paying the highest price for our lack of

24 regulation. One of my own grown children lives in one

25 of those neighborhoods and I'm speaking for him too.
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1 As a society, we pay the price as well. None

2 of us can afford to have any of our young children to

3 be diminished intellectually because of a preventable

4 form of pollution. The cost of that is beyond our

5 calculation. These children are mine too; they belong

6 to all of us.

7 And in our State, every lake and river is

8 under mercury advisory. We can't eat the fish from our

9 own Lake Michigan except infrequently and of course,

10 those who are actually fishing from the lakes and

11 rivers in order to feed their families are most

12 impacted by the damage we've done.

13 You'll hear today that the costs of these

14 regulations will be the loss of jobs. Your own

15 analysis indicates that the costs of the health impacts

16 from these particulates is far higher than the cost of

17 implementation of the regulations. Putting the cost of

18 operating a responsible facility on those who earn the

19 profits from it will help to move our overall energy

20 market to cleaner and more efficient sources of power

21 and those new sources of power will generate jobs and

22 economic benefit.

23 The children who were born in Little Village

24 and Pilsen in the year that the EPA first determined

25 that coal-fired energy plant should be regulated under
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1 the Clean Air Act are now in the fourth grade. They're

2 waiting for us to do the right thing as a society.

3 We know that some electric utilities have

4 known that the day of EPA safeguards would come

5 eventually and they've already taken steps to install

6 the most up to date pollution controls and we commend

7 them. Other companies need to be required to level

8 that playing field and to do the right thing

9 themselves.

10 Thank you very much.

11 MR. CLARK: Thank you, Reverend Butterfield.

12 Ms. Bugel.

13 MS. BUGEL: Good morning. Excuse my throat

14 this morning. My name is Faith Bugel. I am a Senior

15 Attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

16 I have spent ten years at the Environmental Law and

17 Policy Center working mostly on issues related to clean

18 air and coal-fired power plants. I am also a mother.

19 I have three young children and I too am here to

20 testify in support of the rule.

21 To begin with, we are very -- we applaud EPA

22 in the proposed toxics role. This role brings

23 important reductions nationwide in mercury, other heavy

24 metal hazardous air pollutants and in toxics.

25 We do have one concern with the rule and
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1 that's that it does not move quickly enough. The EGU

2 MACT Rule is long overdue. In 1990, the

3 Clean Air Act Amendments envisioned the completion of

4 studies of hazardous air pollutants from electric

5 utility steam generating units or EGU's by 1994 and

6 that would be followed by the promulgation of emission

7 standards deemed appropriate and necessary.

8 Beginning in 1990, there were delays. It

9 took the agency ten years to conclude that mercury

10 limits for EGU's were appropriate and necessary. There

11 were -- that was followed by industry lawsuits, so both

12 U.S. EPA and industry have lead this rule to be

13 overdue.

14 In Illinois, we have had a different

15 experience and that's when the states began to take

16 action to fill the gaps at the federal level. A dozen

17 states passed regulations to control mercury emissions.

18 Eight of those states required significant reductions

19 in mercury emissions. One of these states was

20 Illinois.

21 Illinois -- you can look to the Illinois

22 experience instead setting strict mercury emission

23 standards as a way of informing our judgment on the

24 appropriateness of the federal rule and also on the

25 speed that the reductions are required. The Illinois
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1 required a point zero, zero, eight pound per gigawatt2 hour standard or a ninety percent reduction in mercury.

3 That is substantially similar to the federal rule, the

4 proposed rule.

5 The Illinois Pollution Control Board in

6 passing that rule needed to make a finding that the

7 mercury emission standard set was technically and

8 economically feasible and it made that finding, so all

9 the evidence showing that this rule, the federal

10 standard, is feasible was before the Illinois Pollution

11 Control Board and we can look to that record to

12 conclude that the federal standard is feasible and

13 achievable; both from a technical perspective and an

14 economic perspective.

15 In addition, we now have the Illinois recent

16 emission test reports of the companies that are

17 required to comply with that standard and those test

18 reports themselves also show that the standard set,

19 proposed by EPA, is also achievable. In fact, the test

20 demonstrate that the installation of currently

21 available pollution control systems, such as activated

22 carbon injection, can result in mercury emissions

23 reductions near ninety percent and emissions rates at

24 or below point zero, zero, eight pounds per gigawatt25 hour.
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1 In addition, in Illinois, we can look at the

2 experience of companies implementing this standard and

3 how they've fine tuned the equipment and worked out the

4 kinks. For approximately three -- two to three years,

5 they have been operating this equipment and they have

6 figured out the best way to do the installations to

7 achieve the standards. For instance, slight

8 modifications to the activated carbon injection system,

9 including relocating the injectors -- the injection

10 lances from downstream to upstream of the air heaters,

11 resulted in improved reductions of mercury and

12 companies meeting the standards.

13 And recent full scale field tests have also

14 shown the effectiveness of activated carbon injection

15 for reducing mercury emissions.

16 You will hear testimony from industry saying

17 that this is too costly, not practical, and not

18 achievable, but if we look at activated carbon

19 injections, especially compared to other pollution

20 control systems for coal plants, we can see that

21 there's a minimal capital cost of less than three

22 dollars per, per kilowatt hour. It can be retrofit

23 with little or no downtime. It's effective on both

24 major types of coal; bituminous and sub-bituminous and

25 it can achieve ninety percent removal and it can be
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1 integrated with other types of pollution controls to

2 enhance mercury capture and that's virtually every type

3 of pollution control for coal plants, including

4 electrostatic precipitators, fabric filters, and wet

5 and dry scrubbers.

6 So that -- we have the evidence that the

7 federal standard can be achieved.

8 On the, on the compliance schedule, we need

9 to look back at the delays and judge the

10 appropriateness of the compliance schedule in that

11 context. EPA is required to implement these standards

12 as expeditiously as practical. Three years is not

13 expeditious. U.S. EPA already notes that it would take

14 less than three years to install the equipment and that

15 it expects the utilities to do so promptly, so EPA

16 already knows that less than three years is achievable

17 and we also know that the delay has resulted in several

18 hundred tons of mercury being admitted into the

19 environment.

20 Finally, the federal standard is not a

21 surprise to industry. It's had dozen of years to know

22 that this was coming. The technology to achieve the

23 standard is available and in use, so we would recommend

24 either shortening the compliance period to less than

25 three years or setting an interim technology based
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1 standard that would kick in before the actual limits,

2 similar to the one in Illinois.

3 Thank you very much.

4 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Before you

5 guys go, any, any questions?

6 MS. KURLANSKY: Yeah, I do. Could you talk

7 just for a minute about that interim technology

8 standard and what that might look like?

9 REVEREND BUGEL: In Illinois, a -- there were

10 options written into the rule, so instead of the ninety

11 percent or point zero, zero, eight standard kicking in,

12 in 2009, companies could delay that to 2015, the same

13 as the federal standard and instead, inject the sorbent

14 at a specified rate and then if they were meeting that

15 injection rate, they would not be required to achieve

16 ninety percent or point zero, zero, eight. And what

17 that did was give them time to do the tinkering they

18 did; move the injection lances to figure out where is

19 the optimal site for mercury injection -- I'm sorry,

20 for carbon injection, that would achieve the lowest

21 mercury reductions and I think I might have in my notes

22 here what the injection rate is and -- but if I don't

23 have it in my notes, when I submit written comments, I

24 will make sure that it is in there. But it does, in

25 certain -- a certain pound injection rate.
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1 MR. CLARK: Uh-huh [affirmative].

2 MS. KURLANSKY: Thank you.

3 MR. CLARK: Okay. Thank you both very much.

4 I appreciate your testimony.

5 REVERENT BUGEL: Thank you.

6 MR. CLARK: Next two speakers Brian

7 Urbaszewski and I'm going to slaughter some of these

8 names. I apologize. Amy Trojecki, hopefully that's

9 roughly close. So, and, and you guys actually might

10 want to -- if you don't mind, spell your name for the

11 court reporter too and let me just say while you're

12 getting ready to go, Mr. Urbaszewski, you're -- feel

13 free to start. If you have -- even if you

14 preregistered, feel -- we'd appreciate it very much if

15 you'd check in at the desk and just let people know

16 that you're here if you are speaking later. Thank you.

17 So, yes sir.

18 MR. URBASZEWSKI: Thank you very much and

19 excellent pronunciation, by the way.

20 MR. CLARK: Well, it was phonetically done

21 for me in this case. It's close to Krzyzewski

22 , which we know from North Carolina where I

23 am, so.

24 MR. URBASZEWSKI: Yeah. Okay. My name is

25 Brian Urbaszewski. I am the Director of Environmental
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1 Health Programs for Respiratory Health Association of

2 Metropolitan Chicago, which is a one hundred year old

3 plus organization here in Chicago with a mission to

4 promote healthy lungs and fight lung disease through

5 research, advocacy, and education. So thank you for

6 allowing me to testify today.

7 Our position is that no one deserves to

8 breathe air pollution that will cause bodily harm. No

9 one should be permitted to emit air pollution into the

10 air in such an amount that will cause people to suffer

11 bodily harm. Unfortunately, that's not the case in

12 America today.

13 Every state now has fish consumption

14 advisories because of mercury contamination. In

15 Illinois, those advisories apply in every single body

16 of water in the state. Women from birth until

17 menopause, the first fifty years or more of their lives

18 are advised not to eat readily available, local fish

19 because they contain mercury. This is all because

20 corporations are now allowed to pump toxic air

21 pollution into the air without any repercussions.

22 Illinois has already taken action to limit

23 mercury from coal plants; the largest source of mercury

24 in Illinois. But unfortunately, we're still waiting

25 for EPA to control the mercury coming from power plants
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1 upwind.

2 We strongly support EPA's effort to control

3 power plant mercury emissions at the national level.

4 But this rule covers more than mercury and includes

5 acid gasses, acid gasses which are a threat to lung

6 health in particular. In fact, EPA notes that EGU's

7 are the largest sources of HAPs like acid gasses,

8 hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride.

9 The technology exists to drastically reduce

10 toxic acid gas emissions from coal power plant

11 emissions. The best technology, wet scrubbing, has

12 been operating in coal plants for literally decades.

13 There's no reason why power plants should not be

14 required to use this technology or similar technology

15 that gives the same benefits.

16 We encourage EPA to require the use of the

17 best and most effective solution for removing toxic

18 gasses. While there are other rules that may, if

19 finalized and implemented by EPA also result in the

20 reduction of such toxic acid gas emissions, there is no

21 guaranty that toxic reduction achieved through other

22 means as co-benefits will be permanent without

23 concurrent regulation under section one twelve.

24 We also support EPA's allowing SO2 to be used

25 as a surrogate for gauging toxic acid gas removal. We
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1 likewise agree with EPA's allowing the use of total PM

2 as a measure for the effectiveness of removing

3 non-metal -- non-mercury metals.

4 The proposal says that direct sorbent

5 injection works upstream of particulate controls, yet

6 in many cases, particularly controls -- I use the term

7 loosely -- are original fifty year old ESP equipment

8 faulted for allowing many opacity exceedances.

9 EPA's contention that the minimally

10 acceptable particulate control as fabric filters needs

11 to be kept, not only to minimize the emissions of toxic

12 heavy metals, but also to control the emissions that

13 are now occurring from plants that cannot even comply

14 with opacity standards from the 1970's. Utilizing

15 strategies, such as sorbent injection and carbon

16 injection upstream, upstream of ancient particulate

17 controls could be a recipe for making local direct PM

18 emissions worse. If DSI is allowed, it

19 should be only in conjunction with the installation of

20 fabric filters to limit direct PM emissions.

21 We also want to strongly support EPA's

22 start-up/shut-down malfunction emissions provisions.

23 Strict PM limits must apply at all times including

24 during SSM conditions, especially for cycling merchant

25 plants operating on the margin. Regardless, no coal
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1 plant should be allowed to hide behind an SSM exemption

2 excuse in order to avoid penalties for sloppy and dirty

3 operational practices that harm public health.

4 Coal power plants operating in Illinois have

5 violated opacity standards for years with hundreds of

6 opacity exceedances documented, self reported by the

7 company. Many of them were claimed as due to SSM

8 conditions. Those living in close proximity to coal

9 power plants, including many EJ communities

10 should not be subject to frequent toxic soot showers.

11 These requirements are long overdue and the

12 technology to solve these problems is readily

13 available. As such, we urge the EPA to continue with a

14 three year time line for implementation once the rule

15 is finalized. With any one year extensions only

16 decided on a strict and limited case by case basis. We

17 would also like to eventually see final title five

18 permits for the coal plants here in Illinois; there are

19 none, so we can work to enforce these and other clean

20 air act provisions.

21 Thank you very much.

22 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much and Amy, if

23 you could both spell and pronounce your last name, that

24 would be great.

25 MS. TROJECKI: Good morning. My name is Amy
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1 Trojecki; it's T-R-O-J-E-C-K-I. I am Regulatory

2 Strategy Manager with Exelon Corporation and I'm

3 pleased to provide you with Exelon's initial views on

4 EPA's proposed air toxics rule.

5 By way of background, Exelon Generation

6 Company, LLC owns and operates over twenty-five

7 thousand megawatts of nuclear coal-, wind-, hydro-, solar-,

8 gas-, and oil- fired generation comprising the nation's

9 fifth largest generation fleet.

10 Exelon Corporation supports the policy

11 objectives underlying EPA's proposed air toxics rule

12 and believes that the proposed rule is balanced,

13 reasonable, and long overdue. Like many other

14 companies in our sector, we have made investments in

15 clean generation because we have known for over twenty

16 years that the rules were coming.

17 The nation has both a significant need and

18 opportunity to move to cleaner sources of electric

19 generation. Rising health care costs and other costs

20 exacerbated by toxic air emissions make it imperative

21 to move towards cleaner generation.

22 The proposed rule will reduce risk to human

23 health and the environment while at the same time in

24 sending investment in a modern generation fleet that

25 will provide the basis for long term economic health
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1 for the nation and industry. It is a win/win

2 situation.

3 Some claim that the power industry is

4 monolithic and that we all think that EPA has run

5 amuck. This is simply not true. While some companies

6 want to delay the rules hoping to squeeze a few more

7 years of profit from plants that have no pollution

8 controls, many companies have already made pollution

9 control investments and are prepared to work with EPA.

10 The deadlines are no surprise to any of us.

11 Many plants have already installed advanced

12 pollution controls. For instance, sixty percent of the

13 nation's coal capacity has already been retrofit with

14 scrubbers for SO2. Among baseload coal units greater

15 than four hundred megawatts, seventy percent have

16 installed scrubbers. FERC Commissioner John Norris

17 said it best at the May 4 annual energy bar association

18 conference in Washington, D.C. This was not hatched

19 overnight. Despite this, some companies have chosen to

20 do little or nothing.

21 Now let me specifically address three issues

22 that often come up in this debate; reliability, timing,

23 and electricity prices.

24 First, nothing in this rule will jeopardize

25 the reliability of the electric system. PJM, the
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1 nation's largest integrated power operator, just

2 confirmed last week that its system has more than

3 enough electricity supply after the toxics rule takes

4 affect. In August, Sue Tierney, formerly the Assistant

5 Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy,

6 found that the industry is well positioned to respond

7 to EPA's proposed toxics rule without threatening

8 electric reliability. FERC and NERC have indicated

9 that the rule can be implemented without affecting

10 reliability.

11 If a plant -- excuse me -- is in a location

12 on the grid where it is needed for system reliability,

13 then it should get more time to operate to maintain

14 reliability while controls are installed. However, let

15 me make this clear and it is very important. If a unit

16 is needed for reliability and gets an extension, EPA

17 should condition that extension upon a commitment that

18 the unit will only operate when it is needed. As FERC

19 Commissioner, John Norris said, "There shouldn't be an

20 expectation to bend over backwards for folks who

21 haven't been attentive and address this issue already

22 or at least plan for this issue."

23 Second, the experts think that there is

24 enough time to comply between now and January 2015 when

25 the rule is expected to take effect. I commend to your
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1 reading, a detailed study prepared by URS Corporation,

2 a well respected engineering and design company, which

3 was released last month. URS concluded that pollution

4 control technologies to satisfy EPA's proposed

5 standards are available and can typically be installed

6 in less than three years, but the real proof is in the

7 pudding. We know we can install controls in three

8 years because many plants have already done it in that

9 time frame and if there are unique circumstances where

10 a plant requires more time to install controls, then

11 EPA already has said it will give that time.

12 Lastly, let me talk about electricity cost.

13 Adjusted for inflation, we expect that the price for

14 electric generation charged to customers in 2015 will

15 be less than or equal to the price charged in 2010 in

16 both Chicago and Philadelphia. The reason is simple.

17 While environmental costs may increase costs for

18 certain operators, fuel costs to run the gas-fired

19 plants on the system have tumbled driving electricity

20 prices down. Our nation's discovery of new natural gas

21 deposits from shale is the most significant event in

22 the electric generation business in the last

23 twenty-five years. It has ushered in a new era of low

24 prices that more than offset any increases for

25 environmental compliance in many parts of the country.
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1 Thank you for considering Exelon's initial

2 comments on the proposed toxics rule. We look forward

3 to submitting more detailed comments before the comment

4 period is over. I'm happy to answer any questions you

5 have.

6 MR. CLARK: Okay great. Any questions

7 from --

8 MS. KURLANSKY: I don't have a question, but

9 you mentioned the study that URS Corporation did and I

10 hope you'll submit that in your comments.

11 MS. TROJECKI: Yes, we do have a copy and

12 I'll give it to the people out front.

13 MS. KURLANSKY: Sounds great. Thank you.

14 MS. TROJECKI: Thank you.

15 MR. HUTSON: Yeah, I also -- you, you

16 mentioned, I don't know if it was a study or just

17 internal study that you did estimating the price of

18 electricity.

19 MS. TROJECKI: Yes.

20 MR. HUTSON: Is, is that also available?

21 MS. TROJECKI: That is our internal analysis.

22 We'll be submitting more about that in our written

23 detail.

24 MR. HUTSON: Thank you.

25 MS. TROJECKI: Thank you.
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1 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. Our

2 next two speakers, Mr. Ben Lowe and Ms. Verena Owen

3 please. Mr. Lowe.

4 MR. LOWE: Thank you. My name is Ben Lowe,

5 L-O-W-E. I'm from Glen Ellyn, Illinois. I'm here with

6 the Evangelical Environmental Network and I am an

7 evangelical Christian.

8 As Christians, we are called to protect life

9 and that includes the unborn. Jesus taught us to love

10 our neighbor and treat others as we would want to be

11 treated. Protecting the unborn and children from

12 mercury poisoning and air pollution, as the EPA's

13 mercury standard would do, is in keeping with Jesus'

14 commands.

15 Seven hundred thousand babies are born every

16 year in America with harmful levels of mercury in their

17 blood. Seven hundred thousand babies means one in

18 every six children are born with harmful levels of

19 mercury.

20 I understand that we live in a complicated

21 world, but this is not just ridiculous, it is also

22 morally wrong; it is sinful.

23 I love fishing and I live intentionally in a

24 low income community in DuPage County where a lot of my

25 poorer neighbors fish regularly to provide protein for
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1 their families. I remember catching a big carp in one

2 of our local rivers. I was getting ready to throw it

3 back when a man walked up and asked for it to feed his

4 family. I tried to explain that a fish this big was

5 full of toxins such as mercury which would hurt his

6 children. "It's okay," he said, "they need the food."

7 I ended up giving him the fish, but no it is not okay.

8 Not in my community, not in American, not anywhere.

9 Why can't our families eat the fish from our

10 own water without risking mercury poisoning? There are

11 now mercury catch warnings in all fifty states. Is

12 this the inheritance my generation and future

13 generations are being left with? No. Please stop it.

14 Who would try to rationalize cursing us with this? We

15 are not fooled.

16 We've now had two decades of bipartisan foot

17 dragging on the issue of mercury pollution. Industry

18 has known for over a decade that we are going to

19 regulate them. It is well past time to stop the

20 mercury poisoning of our unborn children and families.

21 As someone speaking from the Evangelical

22 Christian community, I'm grateful, very grateful that

23 the EPA has finally come out with this rule and I whole

24 heartedly support your efforts to protect life and

25 create a healthier country for me and my children to
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1 inherit.

2 God be with you. You have our prayers.

3 Thank you.

4 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Ms. Owen.

5 MS. OWEN: Good morning. My name is Verena

6 Owen. That's V-E-R-E-N-A, O-W-E-N. Good morning and a

7 warm welcome. We have been waiting for this for twenty

8 years, so we are delighted to be here.

9 I am here today to be part of the final

10 chapter of the air toxics emissions from power plants

11 are gone. Although uncontrolled coal-fired power

12 plants are the worst emitters of hazardous air

13 pollutant and other industries are already required to

14 clean up their act, power plants have had a free ride

15 for over two decades. It is time to close that

16 loophole and I really don't think that loophole

17 adequately describe what it is. It's more like a loop

18 traitor. It means that three hundred and eighty six

19 tons of toxic emissions, which is roughly equivalent to

20 a hundred and thirty thousand mid-size sedans, which

21 means that one of those things shoot out of a smoke

22 stack somewhere every four minutes in the United

23 States, are falling from the sky every year. This has

24 to stop.

25 Toxic mercury -- one of those pollutants is
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1 mercury and mercury pollution puts pregnant women at

2 risk for birth defects, including learning

3 disabilities, developmental disorders and lower IQ's.

4 I am the mother of four. I love my kids. One of them

5 has a severe learning disability, so I know first hand

6 what that means to a family and how it drains

7 resources, both financially and emotionally. So for

8 the sake of our families' health, we need to hold these

9 corporate polluters accountable.

10 And because I'm a bit of an overachiever, I

11 am also the volunteer leading of Sierra

12 Club's National Beyond Coal campaign. The Sierra Club

13 is the biggest and oldest environmental group in the

14 United States. We have one point four million members

15 and supporters and you will hear from a good number of

16 them today, I'm sure.

17 One of my roles is to enable and empower our

18 activists all over the United States to work on issues

19 related to the full life cycle of coal from mining to

20 burning to coal ash disposal and I am still always

21 amazed how folks will step up to the plate one more

22 time when asked to help make sure that the air we

23 breathe and the water we drink and the land where we

24 get water, where we get our food from is safe, not only

25 for us, but for future generations.
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1 EPA administrator in her recent interview

2 said, "Environmentalism isn't a spectator sport. You

3 actually have to stand up and demand that we be

4 vigilant in protecting our air and water." I couldn't

5 agree more. But even I have been unprepared from the

6 response that we have gotten so far about this new air

7 toxics rule.

8 With the help of Sierra Club and our

9 wonderful coalition partners, already over three

10 hundred thousand people have taken action in support of

11 the rule; three hundred thousand people. So after

12 years of lawsuits and delays and political maneuvering

13 and delays and closed door deals and delays and at

14 least one clumsy attempt to redefine the law, none of

15 which, of course, benefitted the public, I am ecstatic

16 to see that this administration has the will to protect

17 public health and to take this long overdue rule across

18 the finish line. Bravo and you have our support.

19 Thank you.

20 MR. CLARK: Great. Thank you both very much.

21 Any questions from the panel?

22 MS. OWEN: Thank you.

23 MR. CLARK: Thank you both. Our next two

24 speakers, Mr. Peter Iwanowicz and Sarah Hodgdon,

25 hopefully that's correct. I'll ask you both to spell
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1 your name when you come up and let me just say for the

2 folks that have come in, the system that we have, that

3 we're operating here is, is -- because of that, we have

4 a very, very large number of people that will be

5 testifying over the course of the day and we're trying

6 to make things as fair as possible, try to hold

7 everyone to five minutes, so the lighting system down

8 on the floor here, you'll see has -- will give you a

9 green light until there's one minute left and a yellow

10 light and then at the end of five minutes, a red light

11 and we would ask you to finish up at the point. So, if

12 I am close Mr. Iwanowicz, hopefully.

13 MR. IWANOWICZ: Spot on. All these tough

14 slotted names for you this morning. Great job.

15 Good morning. My name is Peter Iwanowicz;

16 that's spelled I-W-A-N-O-W-I-C-Z. I'm Assistant Vice

17 President of National Policy and Advocacy for the

18 American Lung Association. Thank you for the

19 opportunity to share the Lung Association's views on

20 the proposed mercury and air toxics standard. We,

21 along with others, will supply technical comments

22 before the comment period closes July 8 -- oh I'm

23 sorry, July 5.

24 The American Lung Association is deeply

25 appreciative of the amount of time and energy that the
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1 U.S. EPA is putting into gathering comments from the

2 public today, as well as throughout the rest of the

3 comment period. All told, the public will have a

4 hundred and eleven days since that proposal was

5 announced on March 16, through the end of the comment

6 period, July 5. That's an extraordinary amount of time

7 that the public has had access to this proposal.

8 Before I provide an overview of the Lung

9 Association's support for the proposal, I want you to

10 tell a bit -- I want to, to learn a little bit of why

11 this issue is important and very deeply important to

12 me.

13 Air quality has certainly improved over the

14 last forty years since the enactment of the Clean Air

15 Act. For that I am thankful, I think we all are, but

16 more can and must be done to protect our kids. Nearly

17 twenty years ago, I began my first position with the

18 Lung Association providing asthma management programs

19 to elementary school children. I remember quite

20 vividly the eagerness for these kids and their parents

21 to learn more about how to manage this disease. I also

22 remember my first year as an advocacy staffer for the

23 Association and the power of knowing that it is within

24 our grasp to clean the air these kids were breathing.

25 Cleaner air meant that they could then manage their
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1 asthma without a hand tied behind their backs. Dirtier

2 air makes asthma management just all that more

3 difficult.

4 I, like many at today's hearing, have also

5 stayed up at night watching my daughter breathe and

6 struggle for breath and providing nebulizer treatments

7 to open her airways. Though the condition she has

8 needing treatment was only temporary, as a parent, you

9 and I know that you'll do anything at that very moment

10 to make it easier for your child to breathe.

11 The proposal to clean up toxics in power

12 plants is critical to public health and it's a measure

13 that's long overdue. Congress first required EPA to

14 clean up toxic air pollution from industries in the

15 Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The electric power

16 companies have successfully delayed having to comply

17 since then, but we heard this morning not all have, and

18 we commend companies like Exelon who have risen to the

19 occasion and have cleaned up their act ahead of time.

20 Some of the kids I taught in those asthma

21 management programs are now in their mid-twenties,

22 probably have their own kids. They've been waiting

23 now -- they have been waiting and now maybe their kids

24 are waiting. Yesterday, we took out a full page ad in

25 the Tribune and elsewhere across the country where we
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1 sort of equated exposing our kids to arsenic as if we

2 were sending them off to school with a vial of arsenic

3 in their lunch boxes. In the closer of the ad

4 essentially says, it's time for EPA to make sure all

5 power plants are cleaned up, so let's remember those

6 kids as we go through today and let's remember all the

7 stories you hear today about why we're here.

8 More than four hundred coal-fired power

9 plants located in forty-six states across the country

10 release in excess of three hundred and eighty-six

11 thousand tons of hazardous air pollutants into the air

12 each day. The wide range of uncontrolled pollutants

13 from these plants include toxic metals like mercury,

14 harmful pollutants like dioxin, chemicals known or

15 thought to cause cancer, like benzene and formaldehyde,

16 acid gasses; the proverbial witches brew.

17 Emissions threaten the health of people who

18 live near these plants as well as those who live

19 hundred miles away. People most at risk from the

20 health effects from breathing these hazardous air

21 pollutants include infants, children, teenagers, older

22 adults, pregnant women, people with asthma and other

23 lung diseases, people with cardiovascular disease,

24 diabetics, people with low incomes and healthy adults

25 who work or exercise outdoor. Quite a cross section of
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1 the country if you think about it.

2 This rule is literally a matter of life and

3 death. According to the agencies own analysis, in

4 2016, the implementation of these standards and

5 compliance with this rule will result each year in the

6 prevention of approximately seventeen thousand

7 premature deaths. Seventeen thousand premature deaths

8 is an unimaginable sum. Allow me to put it in

9 context. At the University of Chicago, there are

10 fourteen thousand students. The United Center seats

11 just over twenty thousand for a Bulls game.

12 The proposed sum -- the proposed clean up

13 requirements are based on pollution reductions achieved

14 by the cleanest facilities in the country, so no power

15 plant owner is being asked to achieve reductions that

16 other owners have not already achieved. In fact, many

17 power plants already have installed modern pollution

18 controls needed to comply. There are many widely used

19 and effective controls that fall into three main

20 groups; there's mercury control technology called

21 activated carbon injection which removes arsenic,

22 chromium, dioxin and other compounds. Technologies

23 that control other metals and fine particles including

24 bag houses and electrostatic precipitators and acid gas

25 controls which target the hydrogen chloride, hydrogen
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1 fluoride and also -- that also reduce sulfur dioxide

2 and other gasses. They include wet and dry scrubbers

3 and dry sorbent injection.

4 The technology is proven, it's readily

5 available and it's in place in many power plants across

6 the country already.

7 The Clean Air Act gives great flexibility to

8 comply with these standards. Some power companies may

9 decide to switch fuels to get their emissions levels

10 down to updated limits, others may decide to close

11 boilers entirely, no longer throwing good money after

12 bad. They may choose to combine approaches at some

13 plants, adding modern pollution control on some

14 boilers, switching to cleaner fuels on others and

15 shutting down some. Those decisions are up to the

16 owners. The power companies just have to finally

17 follow the law and meet standards on time to start

18 saving lives.

19 In closing, I urge you to finalize these

20 rules on or before the Court deadline of November 16,

21 2011. While some, including members of Congress have

22 asked for delay or are seeking to block implementation

23 of this rule, let us not forget that these rules are

24 about protecting health. There are no delays from

25 health impacts. There are no exemptions from asthma
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1 attacks. The time to act is now and I thank you.

2 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much.

3 MR. IWANOWICZ: I did want to note that I

4 think I stayed within five minutes, but your clock

5 was --

6 MR. CLARK: I know. Actually, right after I

7 made the speech about how this clock works, I forgot to

8 start it, so I -- thank you for that and, and Sarah,

9 I'll let you do the last name.

10 MS. HODGDON: Good morning. My name is Sarah

11 Hodgdon; S-A-R-A-H, H-O-D-G-D-O-N and I'm the Director

12 of Conservation for the Sierra Club, the nation's

13 oldest and largest environmental organization based in

14 San Francisco.

15 Sierra Club along with many public health and

16 environmental groups, has a long standing record of

17 support for strong clean air act standards, including

18 years of fighting in the courts to protect the public

19 from toxic pollution and today, on behalf of more than

20 one point four million members of Sierra Club, I speak

21 strongly in support of the proposed EPA standards to

22 reduce toxic mercury and other hazardous air pollutants

23 from coal and oil, oil fired power plants.

24 An overwhelming bipartisan majority in

25 Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990
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1 and directed EPA to regulate toxic air pollution from

2 major sources, yet today more than twenty years later,

3 there are still no national limits on the amount of

4 mercury and other hazardous air pollutants power plants

5 can spew into the air.

6 For decades, the power sector has fought

7 Clean Air Act requirements to reduce the toxic air

8 emissions from their facilities because power plants

9 are among the largest sources of toxic air emissions in

10 the United States. In 2009 alone, power plants

11 submitted more than a hundred and thirty-four thousand

12 pounds of mercury into the atmosphere. Scientists have

13 known for a long time that mercury is a potent

14 neurotoxin that builds up in certain types of fish

15 including tuna and swordfish.

16 Mercury pollution puts everyone who eats fish

17 at risk for harmful health effects. Pregnant women who

18 consume mercury contaminated fish put their children at

19 particular risk for brain damage and developmental

20 disabilities, including learning problems and lower

21 intelligence. EPA's own studies indicate that three

22 hundred thousand to seven hundred thousand babies are

23 born every year with dangerous levels of mercury in

24 their blood. The mercury problem is so widespread that

25 there are fish advisories against consuming types of
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1 fish due to mercury contamination in all fifty states.

2 With the technology available today, there is

3 no acceptable reason why a power plant should be

4 allowed to continue putting corporate profits ahead of

5 the health of our children. We therefore applaud EPA

6 for setting a standard that will reduce mercury

7 emissions from coal-fired power plants by over ninety

8 percent.

9 In addition to mercury, power plants emit

10 arsenic, lead, other heavy metals, dioxin and acid

11 gasses that also threaten public health and child

12 development. Even in small amounts, these extremely

13 harmful air pollutants are linked to health problems

14 such as cancer, heart disease, neurological damage,

15 birth defects, asthma attacks and even premature death.

16 Sierra Club will continue to pursue the most

17 stringent public health protections as required by the

18 Clean Air Act because communities across the country

19 deserve better.

20 By EPA's own estimates, the proposed

21 safeguards to reduce toxic air pollution from coal and

22 oil fired power plants will result in seventeen

23 thousand American lives saved every year, eleven

24 thousand heart attacks avoided, a hundred twenty

25 thousand cases of aggravated asthma attacks prevented
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1 and eight hundred and fifty thousand additional work

2 days that would have been lost. In other words,

3 without these strong protections, thousands of people

4 will continue to suffer every year. It is reckless and

5 irresponsible to allow dirty energy corporations to

6 continue putting their bottom lines before our

7 children's health.

8 By design, the Clean Air Act standards are

9 based on technology that is available and already in

10 use by power plants operating right here in the United

11 States. As we continue climbing out of the worst

12 recession in recent history, we should recognize that

13 the manufacture, installation and operation of

14 pollution control technology will help give the economy

15 a vital boost. Only federal Clean Air Act standards,

16 such as proposed by EPA, can provide consistent public

17 health and environmental safeguards needed to protect

18 communities.

19 In the short-term, we urge EPA to stand its

20 ground against industry pressure to weaken the proposed

21 standard. Ultimately, we must break away from our

22 dependence on dirty, polluting sources of energy like

23 coal and oil altogether and embrace a clean energy

24 future.

25 Thank you.
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1 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. I'll

2 ask if anyone on the panel has any questions? I guess

3 not. Thank you so much.

4 Next two speakers, Mr. Matt Dunne and Mary

5 Gade please.

6 MR. DUNNE: Good morning. Matthew Dunne,

7 Assistant Attorney General for the State of Illinois.

8 On behalf of Illinois Attorney General, Lisa

9 Madigan, I'd like to thank everyone present for the

10 opportunity to offer these comments in support of U.S.

11 EPA's proposed national standard for mercury pollution

12 from power plants.

13 In the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments,

14 Congress mandated that EPA control the emission of

15 toxic air pollutants, including mercury, from

16 significant sources. Since then, EPA has taken action

17 to reduce mercury emissions from many high emanating

18 sources, including over eighty categories of major

19 industrial sources. This proposed rule extends those

20 reductions to one of the largest mercury emitting

21 industrial sources, coal and oil fired power plants.

22 This is not to say that EPA has ignored the

23 1990 mandate of Congress to control such emissions.

24 On the contrary, EPA has taken significant action on

25 issue, but not always positive action. The 1990 Clean
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1 Air Act Amendments required EPA to report to Congress

2 on whether the emission of mercury from power plants

3 was harmful to human health or the environment. In

4 1998, EPA delivered to Congress the utility air toxic

5 study which found that a link does exist between

6 mercury emissions from power plants in the United

7 States and methyl mercury in fish and that mercury

8 emissions from electric generating units may add to

9 the existing environmental burden.

10 In December of 2000, eleven years ago, EPA

11 announced the finding that it was appropriate and

12 necessary to regulate coal and oil fired electric

13 utilities under Section one twelve of the Clean Air

14 Act. That finding triggered a requirement for EPA to

15 provide regulations to control these emissions of

16 hazardous air pollutants by December of 2003.

17 Unfortunately, the appropriate and necessary

18 determination was short lived. In 2005, EPA issued

19 the final Clean Air Mercury rule, CAMR. This

20 rule attempted to de-list electric generating units

21 from regulation under section one twelve of the Clean

22 Air Act by rescinding the appropriate and necessary

23 determination and replace it with an illegal and lax

24 cap and trade approach to regulating these toxic

25 emissions.
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1 Through Attorney General's efforts, through

2 Attorney General Madigan's efforts, Illinois

3 participated fully in a coalition of states and

4 environmental groups in filing with the D.C. Circuit

5 Court of Appeals a petition to review the CAMR.

6 Illinois also filed extensive comments in favor of

7 reconsideration of CAMR and questioned U.S. EPA's

8 authority at that time, to de-list the regulation of

9 hazardous emissions from power plants under Section one

10 twelve of the Clean Air Act. EPA ultimately denied

11 reconsideration of rule and the previous filed petition

12 for review proceeded in the Court of Appeals.

13 In December of 2008, the D.C. Circuit Court

14 of Appeals vacated the de-listing rule. Court held

15 that de-listing was unlawful. Section one twelve then

16 required EPA to regulate emissions of HAPs. Section

17 one twelve N requires EPA to regulate power plants

18 under Section one twelve when it concludes, as it has,

19 that doing so is appropriate and necessary. Over a

20 decade has been wasted in the failed attempt to set a

21 standard to protect the environment and public health

22 and especially the health of those most vulnerable;

23 pregnant women and children. That is why the State of

24 Illinois supports the EPA's pending air toxic rules.

25 When fully implemented, EPA's newly proposed power
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1 plant mercury and air toxics standards will provide

2 protection to those most vulnerable members of our

3 communities.

4 Attorney General Madigan has been a vigorous

5 proponent of clean coal technology which frankly is at

6 a significant economic disadvantage so long as existing

7 heavily polluting units are allowed to continue

8 operating without upgrading their pollution control

9 equipment.

10 Attorney General Madigan applauds this rule

11 and is ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with EPA in

12 the promulgation and implementation of these important

13 standards.

14 Thank you.

15 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much, Mr. Dunne.

16 Ms. Gade, former EPA Assistant Administrator. How are

17 you?

18 MS. GADE: Good morning. My name is Mary

19 Gade, it's spelled G-A-D-E and I'm currently President

20 of Gade Environmental Group, LLC. I too appreciate the

21 opportunity today to voice my strong support for EPA's

22 promulgation of the long overdue utility air toxics

23 rule. As the former Director of the Illinois EPA, and

24 as the former Regional Administrator of EPA's region

25 five office here in Chicago and as an environmental
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1 attorney in private practice representing companies

2 that will have to comply with these rules, I am well

3 qualified to testify to their critical importance for

4 both protection of the public's health, but also the

5 public's economic well being.

6 The utility air toxics rule will, for the

7 first time ever, set comprehensive federal limits on

8 hazardous air pollutants like mercury, arsenic, lead

9 and hydrochloric acid.

10 As people have said, companies have had ten

11 or more years warning that these regulations were

12 coming and the arguments being trotted out by

13 opponents, even at today's hearing I'm sure, are

14 nothing new. We've been hearing for years that

15 environmental regulations like this one will cause

16 businesses and jobs to flee the country. We've heard

17 that the lights are going to go out and that our energy

18 rates are going to go sky high. Yet, the repeated dire

19 warnings of economic catastrophe have never

20 materialized. In fact, quite the contrary, clean air

21 has been and will be a boon to this country's economy.

22 A recent study determined that Illinois might

23 see as much as fifteen billion dollars in investments

24 as companies install pollution controls, update their

25 plants, and build new ones all essential for our
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1 country's transition to a clean energy economy. That

2 fifteen billion dollar investment will bring with it

3 over a hundred and twenty thousand new jobs, a hundred

4 and twenty thousand new jobs for, for the next five

5 years in Illinois and over fifteen hundred permanent

6 jobs, so to me, it appears, that over the last forty

7 years, compliance with the Clean Air Act has proven to

8 be a better investment than trusting your money to

9 Warren Buffet.

10 For every one dollar spent in compliance

11 costs, some thirty dollars in economic benefit has been

12 realized. President George H. W. Bush updated the

13 Clean Air Act in 1990, nearly twenty years after its

14 creation. Now, twenty years later, we're due for

15 another update.

16 The most compelling reason to promulgate this

17 rule relates to health. Pollution from coal plants is

18 a major health threat in the Chicago area. An analysis

19 done by the Clean Air Task Force, a Boston based

20 environmental group, recently -- that was recently

21 released, showed that in the metropolitan area that

22 stretches around Lake Michigan from Kenosha to

23 Napierville through to Gary, three hundred and

24 forty-seven people die, five hundred and eighty-four

25 suffer heart attacks, and two hundred and sixty-four
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1 are admitted to emergency rooms each year from exposure

2 to air pollution. These are our friends, our

3 co-workers, our family members. These are real people.

4 The American Lung Association in a recent

5 state of the air report that came out several weeks

6 ago, gave Cook County, Illinois, an F for the number of

7 high ozone days in particulate pollution. Their data

8 shows that poor air quality here is contributing to

9 nearly three quarters of a million cases of asthma, two

10 million cases of cardiovascular disease and over a

11 quarter million cases of chronic bronchitis. I believe

12 that it's irresponsible for power companies not to make

13 sensible, relatively easy changes that these rules will

14 require. And companies can and will shut down power

15 plants if they need to. A good example is the State

16 Line power plant owned and operated by Dominion Power.

17 In a recent conference call with financial analysts,

18 Dominion executives announced that they had decided it

19 wasn't worth upgrading the plant to comply with the

20 federal clean air act. The plant emits more lung

21 damaging nitrogen dioxide than two other

22 [indecipherable] plants in Chicago and churns out more

23 smog forming sulfur dioxide and toxic mercury than the

24 decades old Fisk and Crawford plants.

25 As a result of the shutdown of Dominion,
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1 Chicagoans will now be breathing healthier and cleaner

2 air. Other companies in the Chicago area and across

3 the company can and will come to the same conclusions,

4 but by -- but these shutdowns of the oldest, poorest

5 performing plants has led some to say that taking

6 these plants and the power they produce offline, will

7 turn off our lights. They're wrong. Multiple studies

8 over the last twelve months have provided overwhelming

9 evidence that the nation's power grids of reliability

10 will not be harmed. A little over a week ago at the

11 PJM Regional Transmission Organization or

12 RTO held its annual Ford capacity auction to ensure

13 that there's sufficient electric generation capacity to

14 meet future, future demand. The thirteen state, PJM

15 RTO includes Illinois, Indian, Michigan, Ohio, among

16 others. It provides power to fifty-four million

17 customers. The results of that auction confirmed that

18 even with implementation of EPA's proposed rules, PJM

19 regional have ample electricity once those rules take

20 affect before or after January 2015.

21 EPA should look at these real world

22 commitments by power companies, by power providers and

23 with the huge economic sanctions for failure to meet

24 them and ignore the fear mongering by those who say

25 that the air toxics rule, along with other EPA
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1 regulations will turn out the lights. Study after

2 impartial study says it just isn't so.

3 In conclusion, the changes needed to these

4 power plants are not easy, but corporations can upgrade

5 their pollution controls and they can do it quickly and

6 cost effectively. At least sixty percent of coal-fired

7 plants have already done so.

8 Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I

9 urge EPA to implement the air toxics rule. It will

10 make the air cleaner, people healthier, our economy

11 stronger and it's about time. Thank you.

12 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. May I

13 ask if anyone has a question?

14 MS. KURLANSKY: Sure. Mary Gade, you

15 mentioned several studies and of course, we're going to

16 be very interested in seeing those, including the one

17 about the fifteen billion dollars of investment in

18 Illinois, which I'm not aware of, so.

19 MS. GADE: Yes, that comes from Charles

20 Rivers and Associate study and I'll be happy to provide

21 them in my written testimony.

22 MS. KURLANSKY: All right. Thank you.

23 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much.

24 Our next two speakers, Ms. Catie Krasner and

25 Mr. Steve Frenkel please. Ms. Krasner, if you could
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1 also spell your last name, that would be great.

2 MS. KRASNER: Okay. My name is Catie with a

3 C, Krasner, K-R-A-S-N-E-R. I'm a Field Organizer with

4 Environment Illinois.

5 Environment Illinois is a citizen based

6 advocacy group that works statewide and we are a part

7 of Environment America, which is a federation of

8 twenty-nine state advocacy groups. We've been active

9 in advancing state and federal policies to cut mercury

10 and air toxic emissions through federal and state

11 policies.

12 I'm here today to testify in strong support

13 of the EPA's proposed mercury and air toxics rule.

14 Once implemented, the rule will save as many as

15 seventeen thousand lives per year and prevent thousands

16 more hospital visits. It will also significantly cut

17 some of the most hazardous pollutants known to man,

18 such as mercury, lead and arsenic.

19 Coal-fired power plants are the single

20 largest source of mercury pollution, arsenic and acid

21 gasses in the United States. In addition, power plants

22 spew dozens of other toxic pollutants into the air

23 including chromium, nickel, lead and dioxins. They

24 emit hundreds of thousands of tons of these toxic air

25 pollutants into our air and water every year which are
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1 linked to cancer, heart disease, neurological damage,

2 learning disabilities, asthma attacks, and even

3 premature death.

4 Coal-fired power plants are responsible for

5 ninety-nine percent of all mercury emissions from the

6 power sector in the United States and account for

7 twenty-five percent of all toxic metal emissions in

8 the U.S.

9 Illinois has been among the nation's largest

10 emitters of mercury pollution according to the

11 Environment Illinois report, dirty energy assault on

12 our health mercury. In 2009, Illinois was the seventh

13 largest emitter by state. Consequently, the Department

14 of Public Health has issued fish consumption warnings

15 in all of our waterways as well as Lake Michigan.

16 Fortunately, with great public support,

17 Illinois has passed a law that will limit emissions by

18 ninety percent, but mercury pollution threatening our

19 health doesn't just come from Illinois.

20 Mercury is an especially potent and harmful

21 neurotoxin, even a gram size drop of mercury is enough

22 to contaminate an entire twenty acre pond. When coal

23 fired power plants emit mercury from their smoke

24 stacks, rain, dust and snow wash these particles out of

25 the air and into our waterways, onto our land, and
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1 eventually into the food chain.

2 Mercury poses a particular risk for children,

3 affecting their ability to walk, talk, write, and read.

4 In addition, mercury pollution is so widespread that as

5 many as one in six women of child bearing age has

6 enough mercury in her blood to pose risks to her child

7 should she become pregnant. Wildlife that is exposed

8 to mercury may die or depending on the level of

9 exposure, have reduced fertility or complete

10 reproductive failure. In the panther's case, the

11 Florida Panther Society found that chronic exposure to

12 mercury is likely contributing to the extinction of

13 this endangered animal.

14 Mercury and other toxic air pollutants were

15 first listed as hazardous air pollutants under the

16 Clean Air Act in 1990. Coal-fired power plants have

17 remained the single largest source of mercury, arsenic

18 and acid gasses in the United States since then and

19 coal companies have successfully fought requirements to

20 cut emissions from their facilities for more than two

21 decades.

22 Along with our affiliates in other states

23 across the country, we have helped to enact statewide

24 cuts in thirteen of the eighteen states with current

25 emission standards. Environment Illinois worked for
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1 four years on the Illinois mercury rule which began in

2 July of 2009 and that limits the mercury pollution from

3 coal-fired power plants in phase one, which goes

4 through December, 2012. It required the plants to

5 reduce mercury by ninety percent and this -- these cuts

6 will continue through phase two which begins in January

7 2012 -- 13, sorry. It is important to strengthen this

8 rule through a national rule.

9 Additionally, our federation of other state

10 groups, Environment America was one of the primary

11 litigants in the suit filed against the Bush

12 Administration EPA to repeal their mercury standard,

13 their legal mercury standard and EPA's currently

14 proposed mercury and air toxic standard, we are excited

15 about the strength of their reductions and estimated

16 health benefits from the rule. The rule will cut

17 mercury and air toxics from power plants by ninety-one

18 percent, prevent twelve thousand, two hundred

19 hospitalizations, and save up to seventeen thousand

20 lives annually once enacted. The EPA estimates the

21 health benefits associated with the rule will exceed

22 its costs by a factor of ten to one.

23 We applaud the administration for the

24 strength of the proposed standard as the administration

25 works to finalize the rule. We urge you to keep the
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1 mercury and air toxics rule as strong as the proposed

2 standard. Thank you for the opportunity to participate

3 in these proceedings.

4 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much.

5 Mr. Frenkel.

6 MR. FRENKEL: Good morning. My name is Steve

7 Frenkel, F-R-E-N-K-E-L and I'm a Midwest Director of

8 the Union of Concerned Scientists. UCS is the nation's

9 leading science based on profit working for a healthy

10 environment and a safer world.

11 On behalf of UCS' more than three hundred and

12 fifty thousand supporters, a network of more than

13 seventeen thousand scientists nationwide, we strongly

14 support EPA's efforts to regulate toxic air emissions

15 from goal and oil fired power plants under the Clean

16 Air Act.

17 This long awaited rule will go far towards

18 protecting public health from pollutants like mercury,

19 a dangerous neurotoxin that particularly threatens

20 infants and young children and from fine, fine

21 particulates that shorten the lives of thousands of

22 Americans annually.

23 Since its passage in 1990 -- 1970, the Clean

24 Air Act has not only delivered tremendous public health

25 benefits, but has proven to be a smart investment for
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1 America. In just 2010 alone, the Clean Air Act

2 generated net environmental and health benefits of one

3 point two trillion dollars by preventing premature

4 deaths and reducing other harmful effects of air

5 pollution. That's a return on investment of

6 twenty-five dollars for every one dollar spent on clean

7 air. These benefits will be even greater if, if EPA

8 adopts the proposed and long overdue air toxics rule.

9 This proposed rule is a welcome change from

10 the mercury rule put forth by the Bush administration

11 that the courts rejected for failing to protect public

12 health and the environment. In my former capacity as

13 Chief Policy Advisor of the Illinois EPA, I helped lead

14 a successful effort to adopt a state level mercury rule

15 that provided the protections of the federal proposed

16 rule failed to deliver. Within two years of the rules'

17 adoption, all affected Illinois power plants either

18 installed new mercury controls, or began using existing

19 push controls more effectively.

20 Today these coal-fired units are achieving

21 significant mercury reductions and on a path towards

22 meeting the ninety percent by 2015 reduction

23 requirement. Illinois experience shows that effective

24 technologies are available today to achieve significant

25 mercury reductions and UCS believes that all Americans
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1 deserve the safer protections and strongly support the

2 adoption of EPA's air toxics rule as drafted.

3 UCS agrees with EPA's analysis that the rule

4 will deliver significant public health protections and

5 generate net economic benefits while keeping our

6 electricity system reliable and affordable. EPA

7 predicts that most generators will retrofit their

8 plants in order to comply with the rule, while some

9 will choose to shut down their older, less efficient

10 units. This is not only an appropriate outcome, but a

11 desirable one that will deliver many co-benefits

12 including reduced carbon emissions.

13 We believe clean energy resources can readily

14 replace any generation capacity that may retire without

15 compromising electric system reliability or

16 affordability. This is particularly true given the

17 excess generation capacity already online today, which

18 gives the power grid the ability to absorb many coal

19 plant retirements. In other words, we've effectively

20 replaced much of the coal [indecipherable] that might

21 retire as result of this rule.

22 While the transmission to a clean energy

23 economy will take time, this rule will accelerate that

24 shift by forcing polluters to reduce the harm they

25 cause. We don't need to accept a power system
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1 dominated by goal burning power companies whose product

2 is harming their own customers by causing heart

3 attacks, lung disease, asthma, and the impairment of

4 children's developing nervous systems. We don't need

5 to choose between reliable power, clean air, and jobs.

6 The U.S. and the Midwest in particular has more than

7 enough clean energy resources to free us from this

8 false choice.

9 UCS' analysis found that renewable energy and

10 energy efficiency resources, combined with increase use

11 of natural gas and new investment in transmission could

12 replace about eighty-five percent of our coal capacity

13 over twenty years while boosting local economies,

14 creating jobs, and cutting utility bills. And we've

15 already started to reap the benefits of these clean

16 energy resources. Successful renewable energy and

17 energy efficiency standards in place in more than two

18 dozen states are investment in wind, solar,

19 [indecipherable] and other clean energy resources that

20 can be readily integrated into the grid.

21 EPA's proposed rule will further level the

22 playing field by forcing power producers to invest in

23 commercially available pollution controls.

24 Now owners of coal plants will argue that the

25 EPA rules will jeopardize reliability, even calling the
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1 rules a train wreck for their industry, but don't be

2 swayed by their doomsday predictions. Just like those

3 who prophesied that the world would end in a

4 conflagration last Saturday.

5 UCS believes that some power producers are

6 also spreading the false gospel of a coming reliability

7 crisis. Just as we all recklessly survived the May 21

8 doomsday event, the power grid will survive the

9 shut-down of dirty coal plants and other experts agree.

10 Those who come before me have mentioned reports by

11 Charles River Associates and others including Michael

12 Bradley and Associates that have found that even under

13 conservative assumptions and even if EPA imposed the

14 most strict requirements under the proposed rule that

15 the, they can be implemented without adversely

16 impacting electric system reliability. Charles River

17 and others have found that there are more than ample

18 reserve margins on the grid today.

19 So EPA's proposed rule will not cause a

20 reliability crisis and to further guaranty there isn't

21 one, we have many options to protect reliability. We

22 can use clean air natural gas plants more often, we can

23 build more renewable energy, invest in more energy

24 efficiency and we can reduce energy use during peak

25 demand periods. We can build more transmission and can
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1 rely on sophisticated regional power markets to help

2 manage load.

3 So stand strong, stand by the science, stand

4 by your analysis, don't be swayed by scare tactics and

5 please don't delay and thank you for putting forth the

6 strong rule to protect public health and promote the

7 transition to a clean energy future. Thank you.

8 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. Any

9 questions from the panel.

10 MS. KURLANSKY: Just want to make sure I got

11 that -- you were talking about eighty-five percent

12 reduction of coal capacity --

13 MR. FRENKEL: Correct. Uh-huh [affirmative].

14 MS. KURLANSKY: -- over twenty years

15 nationally.

16 MR. FRENKEL: Correct.

17 MS. KURLANSKY: Is that [indecipherable]?

18 MR. FRENKEL: That's nationally.

19 MS. KURLANSKY: Nationally.

20 MR. FRENKEL: Uh-huh [affirmative].

21 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

22 MR. FRENKEL: Thank you.

23 MR. HUTSON: Is that study available?

24 MR. FRENKEL: Yes, we can provide it to you.

25 MR. HUTSON: Yeah, yeah. Thank you.
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1 MR. FRENKEL: Thank you.

2 MR. CLARK: Okay. Great. Next two speakers;

3 Mr. Jerry Mead-Lucero and Mr. Bill Kempiners. I'm sure

4 I blew that, so you'll fix me on that. Thank you.

5 In the meantime, let me just remind people

6 to, to -- even if you're, have already signed up to

7 speak, please be sure you check in at the desk and if

8 you guys know the drill on the five minute limitation,

9 so Mr. Mead-Lucero.

10 MR. MEAD-LUCERO: Okay. Hi, my name is Jerry

11 Mead-Lucero and I live in the Pilsen neighborhood in

12 Chicago's south side which is just a short distance

13 here from where you're at today. Pilsen is a Latino

14 immigrant working class neighborhood. It's been an

15 immigrant working class neighborhood for nearly a

16 hundred and fifty years and for a hundred years, it's

17 been home to the Fisk coal-fired power plant along with

18 the Crawford plant which is in our neighboring

19 neighborhood of Little Village. These two plants are

20 some of the worst polluters in the City and in the

21 State of Illinois, actually. A quick look at the EPA's

22 own TRI data reveals a rogue's gallery of

23 toxics that these plants produce; mercury, lead,

24 hydrochloric acid, barium, magnesium. You could go on.

25 And that doesn't even include like the particulate, the
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1 NOx and SO2 and the CO2 pollution which we're also

2 concerned about.

3 Pilsen is really grand central station for

4 pollutants. I mean, we have most of the major highways

5 in the City go through the neighborhood. We have the

6 rail yards that circle the neighborhood. We have a lot

7 of old buildings that have lead paint in them. We have

8 a number of other major polluters in the neighborhood

9 like H. Kramer and Company which is a major lead

10 pollution emitter in the neighborhood. But by far the

11 Fisk plant is our number one point source polluter and

12 given a neighborhood that already has such a

13 disproportionate impact of pollution sources, it's hard

14 to justify a plant like Fisk continuing to put out such

15 a high level of toxics into the atmosphere.

16 Recently an air monitor that we convinced the

17 Illinois EPA install in the neighborhood on the top of

18 an actually an elementary school, Perez Elementary

19 School, found elevated levels of lead pollution in our

20 air. So much so that the federal and the state EPA has

21 now gotten involved and they've actually brought the

22 State's Attorney General's office into the picture as

23 well. Now they believe that H. Kramer and Company,

24 this lead [indecipherable] that I said is a major lead

25 emitter, is probably the number one source of the
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1 problem, but if -- again, just looking at the EPA's own

2 data, we know that the second largest source of lead

3 contamination in our air in the neighborhood is, is the

4 Fisk Plant.

5 Pilsen is an unique place. I think it's the

6 greatest neighborhood in the country, that's at least

7 my bias, but it's, it's an old fashioned type of urban

8 working class neighborhood that you really don't see

9 much anymore or kind of, you know, a door step

10 community where people know each other very well,

11 where, you know, families have lived in the

12 neighborhood for generations in some cases. It's a

13 really, really unique and a really great place that

14 unfortunately you don't see very much anymore, but

15 we're also unique in another way, which is, you know,

16 we're the only city at this point in the country that

17 has two coal-fired power plants within its city borders

18 and the Fisk Plant in particular in Pilsen is -- has

19 the highest density of population living around a coal

20 plant of any, in the whole country. There are hundreds

21 of thousands of people that live within a mile of this

22 coal-fired power plant, so it's hard to imagine a

23 source of, of pollution that needs more stringent

24 regulation than the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power

25 plants do.
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1 So in light of this and for the sake of my

2 community, I hope that the EPA will enact the strictest

3 regulations as possible in regards to air toxics.

4 Thanks.

5 MR. KEMPINERS: Thank you. My name is Bill

6 Kempiners and that's spelled K-E-M-P-I-N-E-R-S and I'm

7 a resident of Springfield, Illinois. I'm a volunteer

8 board member for the American Lung Association of the

9 upper Midwest. I have volunteered with the Lung

10 Association for the past twenty-one years and currently

11 chair the nationwide assemblies advocacy committee. My

12 work with the Lung Association began during my tenure

13 as Director of Public Health for the State of Illinois,

14 a position I held from 1987 [sic] until 1984. I have

15 been an active volunteer with the Association since

16 1990 when I was a volunteer for the American Lung

17 Association state chapter.

18 I'm sixty-nine years old, a senior citizen.

19 Hard to believe, right? And although I walk frequently

20 for exercise, I am someone that is acutely aware that I

21 am in an at risk group for lung disease including

22 pneumonia, influenza and even COPD. As you could

23 imagine, the ability to breathe clean air is something

24 that is very important to me.

25 Today I'm here to testify in strong support
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1 for the mercury and air toxics standards. These

2 standards were first promises to the American people

3 more than twenty years ago when the Clean Air Act

4 Amendments of 1990. It is past time to begin the clean

5 up. The public, especially our children and future

6 generations should not have to breathe recognized and

7 possible carcinogens including formaldehyde and

8 benzene. We should not have to inhale metals or metal

9 like substances including lead, arsenic, nickel, and

10 other heavy metals. We should not need to inhale acid

11 gasses such as hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride.

12 My children and grandchildren don't need to eat fish

13 tainted with mercury.

14 Early this year, the American Lung

15 Association released a report entitled Toxic Air, the

16 Case for Cleaning up Coal-Fired Power Plants. The

17 report documents the serious health impacts of these

18 pollutants. Our report shows that more than four

19 hundred coal-fired power plants located in forty-six

20 states across the country release in excess of three

21 hundred and eighty-six thousand tons of hazardous air

22 pollutants into the air each day -- each year, I'm

23 sorry. Two such plants, one has already been

24 mentioned, is the Fisk Plant and the Crawford Plant

25 operated by Midwest Generation.
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1 Not all plants, as has been pointed out,

2 starting from -- are starting from scratch on pollution

3 clean up. Dynegy Energy Savannah Plant in Havana,

4 Illinois, installed the type of control technology to

5 reduce power plant mercury and toxic air pollution.

6 I understand that some, including members of

7 Congress have been calling for EPA not to clean up all

8 toxic pollutants from power plants or to delay the

9 proposal. The American Lung Association strongly

10 opposes any effort to weaken or delay the rule or

11 exempt any toxic pollutants from clean up.

12 The final rule must include the cleanup of

13 acid gasses; the highly irritating gasses including

14 hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride. They irritate

15 the skin and eyes and inhaling them could also irritate

16 the nose, throat and breathing passages. Dioxins and

17 furans, these pollutants are considered probably

18 carcinogens. Metals and met alloys, this wide ranging

19 list of metal and metal-like substances include

20 arsenic, antimony, vanadium, cadmium, chromium, nickel

21 and lead.

22 Lead damages the developing nervous system

23 and harms the ability of children to learn, remember,

24 and behave. The other metals in this group cause

25 cancer of the lung, bladder, kidneys, and skin. They
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1 can affect the nervous system, the cardiovascular

2 system, the skin, the respiratory system and the immune

3 system.

4 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are also

5 considered possible carcinogens. Volatile organic

6 compounds including benzene, a recognized carcinogen

7 and formaldehyde a probably carcinogen. And of course,

8 mercury is probably the most widely known of toxic air

9 pollutants. A distinction it earned in part because of

10 the harm it does to the brain, the nervous system, the

11 kidneys and the liver, but mercury's most egregious

12 damage, as has already been pointed out by previous

13 people testimony, is to children from before they are

14 born causing neurological and developmental birth

15 defects.

16 Reducing emissions of these hazardous air

17 pollutants will also cut emissions of other harmful

18 pollutants. The same equipment needed to clean up the

19 eighty-four hazardous emissions, also lowers other

20 harmful air pollutants including sulfur dioxide, fine

21 particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides. Each of these

22 three makes breathing difficult, causes asthma attacks,

23 and increases the risk of emergency room and hospital

24 visits.

25 Finally, cleaning up these toxins saves lives
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1 and reduces disease. According to your agency's

2 analysis and others have cited these figures, but I'm

3 going to repeat them because they're important.

4 Cleaning up these toxic emissions will result by 2016

5 in the annual benefits, saving seventeen thousand lives

6 each year, preventing eleven thousand heart attacks

7 each year, preventing a hundred and twenty thousand

8 asthma attacks each year, eliminating twelve thousand,

9 two hundred hospitalizations and emergency room visits

10 each year and adding eight hundred and fifty thousand

11 days when people don't miss work each year.

12 Today's proposal is about saving those lives

13 and preventing disease. We implore the EPA to move

14 ahead and finalize this rule on or before the court

15 ordered deadline of November 16, 2011. Each day of

16 delay harms health and shortens lives. Thank you for

17 this opportunity.

18 MR. CLARK: Thank you both. Jerry, actually,

19 I have just a quick question for you. I was -- the

20 name of the elementary school where the monitors are?

21 MR. MEAD-LUCERO: Perez Elementary School is

22 where the air monitor is located and actually they have

23 since added one to the [indecipherable] High School as

24 well to try to better track where the source of the

25 lead was coming from. And I meant to mention too
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1 earlier that when I was talking about the Fisk Plant

2 being in such a densely populated neighborhood, it's

3 literally across the street from a city park and

4 there's three schools within three blocks of the

5 facility, so -- and lots and lots of housing, so you're

6 talking about a very densely populated area.

7 MR. CLARK: Okay. And just one more time,

8 the name of the elementary school?

9 MR. MEAD-LUCERO: Okay. Perez Elementary

10 School.

11 MR. CLARK: Perez. Okay.

12 MR. MEAD-LUCERO: Man -- I think it's -- the

13 full name is like Manuel Perez Elementary School, yeah

14 and [indecipherable] high school also has one now.

15 MR. HUTSON: Those monitors are from Illinois

16 EPA or U.S. EPA?

17 MR. MEAD-LUCERO: Illinois EPA is the one

18 that established them I believe, yeah.

19 MR. HUTSON: Okay.

20 MR. MEAD-LUCERO: But both, but both the U.S.

21 and Illinois are investigating it at this point, so.

22 MR. CLARK: Okay. Great. Thank you guys

23 both very much. Next two speakers, Ms. Jennifer

24 Johnson-Monberg and Lyman Welch.

25 MS. MONBERG: [Indecipherable].
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1 MR. CLARK: Oh no, but -- the only thing we

2 need to do is, is have the microphone held up so that

3 the court reporter can be, and the audience can be sure

4 and hear you.

5 MS. MONBERG: Okay. I'll make sure to --

6 MR. CLARK: Okay.

7 MS. MONBERG: -- to speak loudly.

8 MR. CLARK: What we could do is one of us

9 could actually hold the mic up for her or --

10 MS. MONBERG: Can we move this up?

11 MR. CLARK: I think it's both of them, so it

12 might take a bit of -- We can just --

13 MS. MONBERG: Okay. Thank you. All right.

14 MR. CLARK: Okay. Hang on just one second.

15 MS. MONBERG: Sure.

16 MR. CLARK: We'll work this out. Why don't

17 we just go over there and have one of us hold that.

18 MS. MONBERG: All right.

19 MR. CLARK: Okay. Thank you.

20 MS. MONBERG: Sorry about that.

21 MR. CLARK: That's okay.

22 MS. MONBERG: I thought I would be standing

23 anyway.

24 My name is Jennifer Monberg and this is

25 Ethan, he's nine months old. We live here in Chicago
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1 about ten blocks north of the Fisk Power Plant. In

2 fact, I can see the smoke stack from my street.

3 When the wind blows from the south, I can

4 smell the difference and sometimes it distinctly smells

5 like pollution, usually at night or if there's a lot of

6 haze.

7 Coal-fired power plants emit pollution that

8 causes asthma and other respiratory ailments and people

9 often speak in terms of hospital visits and asthma

10 attacks, but I'm here to talk about how even non-life

11 threatening asthma can affect a person's life and

12 implore you to clean up Fisk and Crawford as well as

13 other coal-fired power plants.

14 I grew up in the Chicago area, almost as

15 early as I can remember, I have had asthma. Not so bad

16 as to send me to the hospital like my younger brother,

17 but bad enough so that I could never run, never played

18 sports, never was an active kid. Growing up, I always

19 thought that I was just not athletic. No one really

20 believed me when I said I couldn't breathe when I ran.

21 They just thought I was lazy. Some -- since I didn't

22 have asthma attacks that sent me to the hospital, I was

23 told to suck it up, that it was my fault. I was

24 considered a nerd in school and was always towards the

25 last one picked in gym class. I grew up thinking
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1 something was wrong with me as a person. I never

2 exercised and kept to myself.

3 In 2005, I moved to Bloomington, Indiana, to

4 attend law school. It was the first time I had lived a

5 significant distance away from industry. As if by

6 magic, my symptoms began to disappear. I cannot tell

7 you how life changing it is after twenty-four years to

8 be able to feel what it is like to finally be able to

9 take a full deep breath. It was amazing. I felt

10 better and could even think more clearly.

11 My husband liked running and was training for

12 the Indy mini marathon. He finally convinced me to

13 start exercising. I was frankly scared of exercise by

14 this time, but when I started to exercise, started to

15 run, I found it was not difficult. I could, I could

16 run. It wasn't that I was lazy. It was just up until

17 this point, I couldn't breathe. This realization was

18 incredible and changed my life.

19 I had been offered a job outside of Chicago,

20 but my father was diagnosed with stage four cancer, so

21 I returned. I thought that maybe I had grown out of my

22 asthma, but such was not the case. In fact, my

23 symptoms not only returned with vengeance, but became

24 worse than before I had left. The coughing generally

25 starts in October and lasts until April. There are
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1 times when I will spend an hour or more at night

2 coughing. Sometimes it's bad enough that I lose my

3 voice.

4 In 2008, the year we moved to Little Italy,

5 ten blocks from Fisk, if only I had known. The cough

6 lasted on average about an hour a night in October, but

7 then progressed to two hours a night and then three.

8 By January, I was spending half the night coughing. I

9 finally went to the doctor and it turned out that I had

10 pneumonia for the last three months. I asked whether

11 it was bacterial or viral and he said it wasn't -- it,

12 it -- he didn't know, that it was simply the result of

13 the fact that my lungs couldn't keep up with the

14 accumulation of fluid. I've had -- since then, I've

15 had pneumonia a second time and is now something I have

16 to watch for every year from October through April.

17 If my husband is able to find a job outside

18 of Chicago, somewhere with less pollution, we move --

19 he doesn't like pollution either. We may move simply

20 for my health. This would mean giving -- moving away

21 from most job opportunities for me as I'm licensed only

22 in Illinois and Indiana and we'd be moving away from

23 all of our family on both sides. Ethan here, should

24 not have to choose between breathing and a job. Ethan

25 should not have to choose between breathing and family.
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1 Ethan should not have to wait twenty-four years before

2 feeling what it is like to finally be able to take a

3 deep breath or to feel what it's like to be able to

4 run. Ethan should not have to live in the shadow of

5 pollution or to have his self esteem or his abilities

6 defined by the fact that he can't breathe.

7 This is not the future I want for my son.

8 Please take this historic opportunity to clean up the

9 power plants built decades before we were born. No one

10 should have to choose between breathing and life.

11 Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you

12 today.

13 MR. CLARK: Thank you both. Thank Ethan as

14 well. Thanks.

15 MS. MONBERG: If you don't have any

16 questions, I might [indecipherable] so that --

17 MR. CLARK: Yeah. You're good, you're good

18 to go.

19 MS. MONBERG: Okay. Thank you.

20 MR. CLARK: Yeah. Thank you, thank you,

21 Jennifer. Mr. Welch.

22 MR. WELCH: Good morning. My name is Lyman

23 Welch. I'm the Weather Quality Program Manager at the

24 Alliance for the Great Lakes and my name is spelled

25 L-Y-M-A-N, last name is W-E-L-C-H.
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1 The Alliance for the Great Lakes is a

2 non-profit organization working to protect and restore

3 the world's largest fresh water resource. We have over

4 ten thousand volunteers working around the Great Lakes.

5 Sources of mercury and other toxic air

6 pollutants known to threaten the health of Great Lakes

7 wildlife and the people who eat fish from these waters

8 must be addressed to prevent further harm. The EPA's

9 proposed new mercury and air toxics standards will help

10 protect the people and wildlife that suffer from the

11 serious effects of toxic air pollutants in our Great

12 Lakes, including mercury poisoning.

13 Fortunately, we have the means to control

14 mercury and other toxic air pollution. Pollution

15 control technologies proven to cut harmful emissions of

16 mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gasses are

17 widely available, yet history has shown the need to

18 adopt rules requiring the use of these control

19 technologies as industry has generally not installed

20 them voluntarily.

21 Toxic air pollutants are not just a concern

22 for air quality. Air deposition is the primary source

23 of mercury in the Great Lakes. The EPA recognizes coal

24 fired power plants as the largest remaining source of

25 airborne mercury emissions in the United States.
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1 Mercury released into the air by industrial sources is

2 carried by precipitation into the Great Lakes and other

3 surface waters. Once in the water, mercury can be

4 converted into methyl mercury, which bio accumulates in

5 large quantities in top predators such as trout,

6 salmon, fish eating gulls, and people. People who eat

7 Great Lakes fish are at risk. Most fish consumption

8 advisories are because of mercury contamination.

9 A potent neurotoxin, exposure to mercury

10 through methyl mercury can have grave effects,

11 particularly on children and fetal development during

12 pregnancy. Mercury exposure has been linked to nervous

13 system, kidney, and liver damage, as well as impaired

14 childhood development. Long term eating of mercury

15 contaminated fish has been associated with deafness,

16 blindness and death.

17 Adopting this proposed rule will reduce the

18 amount of toxic pollutants emitting into the air,

19 including mercury. Requiring installation of these

20 pollution control technologies will help to keep our

21 Great Lakes a source of drinking water, recreation and

22 jobs for millions clean and thriving for generations.

23 Please adopt a strong mercury rule to protect

24 our Great Lakes and the people who depend on them.

25 Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today.
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1 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Any

2 questions? I guess not. Thank you so much.

3 Next two speakers, Ms. Erica Dornfield --

4 Dornfeld rather and Michael T.W. Carey.

5 And while they're getting organized, just a

6 reminder for, for new folks who have come into the

7 room, both please check in at the desk even if you are

8 signed up to speak, if you haven't checked in already

9 and we do have a timing system here that is measuring

10 time pretty much -- we're trying to hold folks to five

11 minutes if we can because of all of the speakers that

12 we have over the course of the next many, many hours.

13 Ms. Dornfield, Dornfeld.

14 MS. DORNFELD: Good morning and thank you to

15 the EPA for proposing these new emissions standards.

16 My name is Erica Dornfeld, spelled D-O-R-N-F-E-L-D and

17 I'm here today as a divinity student at the University

18 of Chicago and a current youth environmental educator

19 with Faith in Place.

20 On July 1, I'm taking fifteen students

21 fishing on the Chicago River. These eight and nine

22 year olds from the uptown neighborhood are mostly one

23 generation away from a farm in Nigeria or the coast of

24 Togo or Ethiopia. Perhaps their parents fished for

25 food or recreation back in Africa, but these kids are
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1 Chicago bred if not born. July will be their first or

2 maybe second fishing experience.

3 Last July when I took some of these same

4 students fishing, we first had an orientation from the

5 Chicago Park District. Before we baited our hooks, we

6 learned how to recognize the state fish of Illinois,

7 the blue gill just in case we were lucky enough to

8 catch one. Then, we learned that these fish often have

9 bad chemicals in them and we aren't allowed to eat any

10 that we might catch. At their looks of slight shock

11 and bewilderment, I was reminded of that old saying if

12 you catch a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a

13 man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime. That old wisdom

14 fails us here today, or rather it fails them. Teaching

15 them to fish means making them sick.

16 Some of these kids come from very large

17 families. They've only had a banana for dinner at

18 times and that banana was a donation. And I must tell

19 them that for some people, fishing can be a good steady

20 source of food, but not for them. And this leads to

21 questions of how and why mercury is in these fish and

22 why that's a problem. Yet, I can't be sure that they

23 won't use their newfound skill to someday to provide a

24 little extra protein for their families.

25 So what will these children really learn when
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1 we go fishing this July on the Chicago River? They

2 will learn that not only does the river's health not

3 matter to their city or to their country, but neither

4 does their own.

5 As an environmental educator, I try to

6 empower youth to action, to care for their natural

7 surroundings. Indeed, they must act because their

8 health is at risk, but as a future faith leader, I

9 question the moral import that third graders bear the

10 brunt of this pollution while still trying to fight it

11 because those with unlimited resources to do so, have

12 so far dragged their heels. The EPA should act. The

13 coal companies emitting should act. Those with the

14 time, power, and indeed commission to reduce toxic

15 heavy metals from the air and water should act.

16 These children's families struggle to support

17 them with low wage jobs. They go to under-funded

18 schools, cope with gang violence, all while trying to

19 master the fine art of fractions.

20 I urge the EPA to act swiftly and thoroughly

21 to make sure that they aren't also dealing with the

22 well documented health effects of mercury poisoning.

23 Thank you again for proposing these new

24 performance standards so that these youth can develop

25 fully and live long. Mercury does not belong in our
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1 air, our waters, our state fish, current or future

2 third graders growing bodies. Please help ensure that

3 at least that statement remains true and then those old

4 words of learning how to fish can again be real words

5 of wisdom. Thank you.

6 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Mr. Carey.

7 MR. CAREY: Thank you. My name is Mike

8 Carey, C-A-R-E-Y. I am President of the Ohio Coal

9 Association. I am here to testify on behalf of the

10 more than ninety coal producing and associate members

11 in Ohio against the U.S. EPA's most recent assault on

12 the American Coal Industry; the proposed utility MACT.

13 Despite the failed flaws that permeate this

14 proposed rule, EPA continues to race forward to

15 finalize yet another bad regulation that will force

16 hundreds of coal-fired power plants to be eliminated or

17 possibly fuel switch to other sources.

18 This proposed utility MACT is only the latest

19 in a series of these rule makings promulgated by the

20 U.S. EPA to directly focus on the coal industry. By

21 focusing on the coal industry, we are focusing on the

22 hundreds of thousands of coal men and women that go

23 into the mines everyday to provide for their families.

24 In fact, Penn State University cited just a few years

25 ago, for every one coal job, there are up to eleven
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1 spin off jobs. Not to mention the amount of the

2 millions of people that rely on the coal -- the

3 electricity that coal provides them. For generations,

4 coal has powered our utility boilers, it has fueled our

5 steel mills and manufacturing facilities and supported

6 the growth of hundreds of industries dependent upon the

7 low cost, reliable source of electricity.

8 The proposed utility MACT provides still more

9 evidence that the administration has aligned itself

10 with the vision of zero coal future [indecipherable] by

11 some of the environmental movement. In fact, some of

12 the testimony was already heard today by the

13 possibility of the elimination of eighty-five percent

14 of the coal-fired burning facilities. And some of the

15 more outrageous counts of this, we can see that if

16 eighty-five percent of the coal-fired power generation

17 is eliminated by 2030 or 2014, that means eighty

18 percent of the United States domestic coal reserves

19 would be limited.

20 Every dollar that is spent on purchasing coal

21 minded America is by Americans and another dollar for

22 domestic energy. Compliance with the utility MACT will

23 cost the electric generating industry billions of

24 dollars. The EPA itself estimates that the cost of

25 compliance will be ten point nine billion dollars.
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1 This number, obscenely high grossly underestimates and

2 distorts the total cost of compliance when considered

3 in conjunction with the host of other regulations that

4 the EPA has actually issued. Representatives Upton and

5 Whitfield, along with Senator Inhofe sent a letter to

6 Administrator Jackson just one week ago, asking to

7 demonstrate the cumulative cost of compliance with

8 these regulations. The fact is they could exceed up to

9 three hundred billion dollars by 2015. To put this

10 number into some perspective, three hundred billion

11 dollars would exceed the 2008 gross domestic product of

12 thirty-six of the fifty states according to the U.S.

13 census. These compliance costs will increase the cost

14 of electricity to industry, commercial and ultimately

15 to residential users and will have negatively impact

16 the reliability of our nation's electric grid.

17 Turning back on the coal, on the coal

18 directly, EPA bias against coal, against our

19 Appalachian coal regions and particularly against Ohio,

20 but coal is not only found in Ohio. Coal is found in

21 West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky and

22 also in many other parts of the United States.

23 For instance, the proposed utility MACT, EPA

24 actually suggests that re-powering a power plant from

25 coal to gas would be considered installation of control
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1 equipment. In no circumstances should construction of

2 a natural gas unit replacing a coal-fired unit be

3 considered potential control on coal-fired unit. Even

4 more directly, EPA proposes that the most stringent

5 emission levels on power plants using high heat content

6 coals. That is bituminous coals. That's Ohio coals,

7 Pennsylvania coal, West Virginia coal, Illinois coal.

8 Time and time again, the EPA has targeted our

9 region and we find this unacceptable. When the Ohio

10 coal knows that the EPA self imposed a final rule date

11 of November or November 2011 via settlement with

12 several environmental groups, Ohio coal also knows that

13 EPA has the authority to request an extension of time.

14 EPA should do so immediately and withdraw this flawed

15 rule.

16 I want to thank you for the opportunity to

17 testify. We look forward to submitting more detailed

18 comments for the record at a later date. Thank you.

19 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. Let me

20 ask if any questions. The Penn State Study that you

21 mentioned, I, I don't know if we've got or not, but I

22 assume that you'll make that available as part of

23 your --

24 MR. CAREY: I will make that available.

25 MR. CLARK: Okay.
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1 MR. CAREY: Yes.

2 MR. CLARK: All right. Great. Thank you.

3 MR. CAREY: Thank you.

4 MR. CLARK: Our next two speakers, Mr. Matt

5 Most and Mr. Michael Hogue please. Good morning,

6 Mr. Most.

7 MR. MOST: My name is Matthew Most. I'm Vice

8 President of Environmental Policy for Encana and

9 Natural Gas Incorporated and Most is M-O-S-T.

10 Encana is a North American energy company

11 with its headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, and its U.S.

12 headquarters in Denver, Colorado. One hundred percent

13 of our natural gas production and reserves are located

14 in North America. Forty percent produced in Canada and

15 sixty percent in the United States.

16 We're the second largest producer of natural

17 gas in North America with a twenty-five year drilling

18 inventory of over twenty-three thousand locations and

19 that's just proven reserves. We have twice that in

20 probable and possible reserves.

21 Our mission is to establish natural gas as

22 the foundation of North America's energy portfolio. We

23 believe natural gas will be abundant and affordable in

24 the future and it improves emissions in many instances.

25 Having been a reliable and domestic solution for years.
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1 Natural gas is a clean fuel addressing many

2 environmental challenges. For example, compared with

3 coal-fired electricity generation, natural gas reduces

4 emissions of carbon dioxide by fifty-five to sixty-five

5 percent, carbon monoxide by ninety percent, sulfur

6 dioxide by ninety-nine percent, nitrogen oxide by

7 eighty to ninety percent, particulate matter by

8 ninety-nine percent and importantly for today's

9 hearing, mercury by one hundred percent.

10 Natural gas needs to be an integral part of

11 the solution to the mercury hazardous air pollutant

12 challenge. We're concerned with several preamble

13 statements in the proposed rule questioning the

14 abundance, availability, and affordability of natural

15 gas. For example, one of the quotes in the preamble

16 states its supplies of natural gas may not be adequate

17 and that the coal to gas option is not cost effective.

18 Our written comments will provide some detail

19 insight on those statements, but today first for

20 abundance, in fact we want to point out that natural

21 gas resources in the United States have doubled in the

22 last five years and what's changed our business is our

23 technology to drill long horizontal laterals and

24 contact more reservoir rock that contains natural gas.

25 Three to four years ago to drill a well ten
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1 thousand feet vertically, then drill a seventy --

2 hundred and fifty foot horizontal lateral would have

3 been an accomplishment. Today, we would drill that

4 same well and then drill ten thousand feet horizontally

5 resulting in a well producing eight times the gas

6 volume and six to ten times -- six to eight times the

7 reserve.

8 Over the past three years, we've seen a

9 significant increase in reserves. An estimated one

10 hundred year supply of current production or if we use

11 thirty percent more natural gas, about seventy years of

12 supply domestically.

13 A common misunderstanding is that coal is a

14 cheaper fuel source than gas when it's used for power

15 generation. An important point is that when you adjust

16 for the fact that gas generation is more efficient and

17 uses less heat to produce the same megawatt hour, it

18 is -- turns to be highly competitive. However, when

19 you also factor in efficiencies and the value of

20 emissions, for example CO2, natural gas realizes a

21 distinct advantage.

22 Natural gas also has a major advantage in

23 construction cost and time lines. New natural gas

24 power generation capacity cost as little to twenty to

25 thirty percent to build as coal or nuclear resources
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1 and can be built in about half the time.

2 Another misconception is that projected coal

3 unit retirements will cause reliability problems. In

4 fact, on a national basis, capacity margins are very

5 healthy growing annually since 2005 to twenty-two

6 percent in 2009 according to the Energy Information

7 Administration.

8 The proposed rule provides adequate time and

9 flexibility to allow construction of new generation

10 where required and existing oversight bodies are in

11 place to ensure a smooth transition to new generation

12 resources.

13 Thank you for the opportunity to comment on

14 the mercury and hazardous air pollutant proposed rule.

15 Encana will be submitting written comments and

16 detailing the abundance, affordability, and

17 availability of natural gas as a solution under the

18 rule. Thank you.

19 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Mr. Hogue.

20 DR. HOGUE: Thank you for the opportunity to

21 testify on these proposed new standards for mercury and

22 air toxics. My name is Dr. Michael Hogue, H-O-G-U-E.

23 I'm a Professor of theology at a local seminary, the

24 author of two books on religion and the environment and

25 numerous articles on the same topics. I have been a
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1 past faculty coordinator for student religious

2 environmental group. I am a volunteer at Faith in

3 Place, a member of the Chicago Clean Power Coalition

4 and a Unitarian Universalist and Episcopal lay leader.

5 I'm also the father of three young children; one of

6 whom was born with a severe congenital heart defect

7 that makes her especially vulnerable to respiratory

8 illness. My wife and her brother, who have lived here

9 in Chicago all of their lives, are also among the many

10 Chicagoans with environmentally related respiratory

11 illnesses.

12 I strongly endorse the EPA's proposed mercury

13 and air toxics standards; standards which will also

14 limit the emission of fine particulate matter. I would

15 like to use the bulk of my time to explain why this is

16 important to me.

17 But before I do let me first of all say that

18 I reject the assertion of those who oppose these

19 standards, that their implementation would lead to a

20 loss of jobs. From all that I have read and from

21 testimony offered already today, this is a false

22 assertion for two reasons.

23 First, oil and coal based energy corporations

24 continue to make massive profits even after

25 retrofitting for compliance with past regulatory
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1 regimes, thus if there is a loss of jobs due to the

2 cost of complying with new regulations, it will only be

3 because energy industry executives refuse to use some

4 of their surplus capital to upgrade their plants.

5 It is fundamentally disingenuous and

6 manipulative to turn this into a jobs issue as one of

7 our recent speakers suggested. It is a cynical ploy

8 that takes advantage of workers, reducing them to pawns

9 in a game. If those who labor in the energy industry

10 should be angry at anyone, it should be the managers

11 and executives who are using them as mere means to the

12 only end that matters to them; corporate profit.

13 The second reason that the jobs assertion is

14 false is that the regulation of dirty energy is a

15 necessary part of a transition to a more sustainable

16 economy and to the job creating markets of green

17 energy. The future of the energy industry and of a

18 whole new job sector is in clean energy. This is where

19 new jobs will be created. The U.S. economy will fall

20 very quickly behind in the global marketplace if it

21 doesn't catch up with other countries whose energy

22 policies are more sustainable. The shift to green

23 energy cannot be entirely grass roots. The raising of

24 consciousness is part of the work and incremental local

25 and state based legislation is also necessary, but the
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1 demand for renewable energy, which will draw the

2 research and development and refinement of renewable

3 energy sources needs in part to be shaped by energy

4 policy and regulation at the federal level. If

5 Congress can't or won't do it, and if it falls under

6 the purview of the EPA's responsibility, then the EPA

7 becomes a critical player in the work of reshaping our

8 energy economy to become more humane, more sustainable,

9 more ecologically and economically responsible.

10 I've just offered comments critical of the

11 response of some oil and coal industry representatives

12 to the EPA's proposed regulations. Now, I would like

13 to offer some constructive comments.

14 I am committed to an understanding of justice

15 as solidarity. Justice as solidarity is about a way of

16 being in relationships that honors the worth and

17 dignity of all persons and living beings. It is a way

18 of being in a relationship that seeks to preserve and

19 to the extent possible, to enhance the conditions of

20 shared flourishing.

21 Justice as solidarity extends beyond the

22 present to include the future. It extends beyond

23 humanity to include non-humans as well. It is a

24 fundamentally ecological justice principal. From the

25 teachings of my religious traditions and through reason
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1 and experience, I've come to understand that justice as

2 solidarity grants special concern to the most

3 vulnerable among us, human and non-human, and also to

4 the broader ecological patterns and processes that

5 sustain life.

6 Justice as solidarity assumes that no

7 individual living thing exists in isolation, but

8 instead through relationships and these relationships

9 include not only those between the forms of life, human

10 and more than human, but also between life and the

11 broader ecologies of water and land and air.

12 In order then to act justly in solidarity

13 with the most vulnerable, young children, the poor and

14 those without political voice, it's imperative that we

15 do all that we can to preserve and when possible, to

16 enhance the ecological conditions conducive to

17 flourishing.

18 Clean air and water are among the most

19 fundamental conditions necessary to the flourishing of

20 all forms of life. Without clean air and water, the

21 very possibility of life, not to mention healthy,

22 flourishing life, is compromised.

23 Since it has been established that coal and

24 oil burning power plants are responsible for half of

25 our nation's mercury and acid gas emissions and a
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1 quarter of our nation's toxic metal emissions and since

2 the presence of these toxins in our environment has

3 been shown to cause cancer and to cause neurological

4 damage, not to mention the harm that it is caused to

5 other forms of animal and plant life, it is our human

6 moral duty and the EPA's governmentally appointed duty

7 to provide mercury, air toxics and fine particulate

8 standards for our country's power plants.

9 And since it is well known that our coal

10 burning power plants emit high levels of fine

11 particulate matter into our air and since this fine

12 particulate matter has been linked to numerous

13 respiratory related deaths and illnesses of which my

14 own family suffers, it is our moral duty and the EPA's

15 governmentally appointed duty to establish and monitor

16 standards that limit the fine particulate emissions.

17 Establishing and regulating standards for the

18 emissions of mercury, air toxics and fine particulate

19 matter in face of the evidence of the harm they cause

20 is a basic moral responsibility. It is also an

21 economically wise thing to do since it will provide

22 reasons for further research and development into the

23 clean energy industries that will drive the future of

24 the global economy.

25 Please know that on these matters, I do not
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1 speak only for myself, but also for my family and for

2 the hundreds of students and people of faith with whom

3 I have worked over the years and who have expressed to

4 me their concerns for cleaner and safer environment.

5 Thank you.

6 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you both. Any

7 questions for either? No? Okay. Thank you.

8 Our next two speakers, Matthew Soerens and

9 Jerome Stone please. And again, we are trying to ask

10 that everyone stay to, to five minutes if possible so

11 we can be sure we are able to get everybody in, so

12 Mr. Soerens. If you could spell your name also.

13 MR. SOERENS: Sure. My name is Matthew

14 Soerens, S-O-E-R-E-N-S and I'm from Glen Ellyn,

15 Illinois.

16 I'm here, not on behalf of an organization or

17 an industry, but just as a citizen and as an

18 Evangelical Christian. My faith is what motivates me

19 to take a half day off of work and come voice my

20 support for these proposed, proposed regulations.

21 As a Christian, I believe that human life is

22 sacred and it is because I believe in the dignity of

23 each human being that I'm very concerned with research

24 that finds that one in six babies born in this country

25 have unhealthy levels of mercury in their blood, which
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1 can cause a whole range of serious health problems that

2 you've already heard about from some of the other

3 people testifying.

4 I'm also about to get married in about three

5 weeks and, which is exciting and so for the first time

6 in my life, I'm thinking about having a family and

7 having kids, which is very exciting and also a little

8 bit intimidating. There's a whole number of factors

9 that, of course, you can't control with bringing human

10 life into this world, but one of the things we should

11 be able to control as a society is the amount of

12 mercury that would be in my kids' blood and in any

13 other child's blood.

14 And that comes through the air and the water

15 into the fish that we might eat, so I'm -- I think

16 that's something that's very important that we, that we

17 limit and I'm actually really startled and disturbed to

18 find out that we have that much mercury in, in fish for

19 example and that's already affecting health. I

20 understand why industries that make their profit from,

21 from coal-fired power plants or other industries would

22 be concerned with these regulations, but I think it's

23 the job of the government to look out for the common

24 good and to protect human life wherever possible.

25 So I don't have too much to say, but I guess
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1 I want to encourage you to please support these

2 regulations.

3 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Mr. Stone.

4 MR. STONE: My name is Jerome Stone, that's

5 spelled S-T-O-N-E. I'm a former United Church of

6 Christ Minister and Professor [indecipherable] of

7 Philosophy and Former Chair of the Department of

8 Philosophy at William Brady Harper College in Palatine,

9 Illinois, where I taught environmental ethics.

10 I hold in my hands a calculator and a picture

11 of my grandchildren. They could be your children or

12 grandchildren. Now a calculator is useful in cost

13 benefit analysis. But the worth of children cannot be

14 determined by a calculator. We cannot ignore cost

15 benefit analysis, but if life is sacred, we need more

16 than a calculator. We need jobs, but we also need

17 health.

18 There's an elementary principal and

19 scientific methodology that says that correlation does

20 not prove causation. True enough. However, there's

21 also an important principal in environmental ethics.

22 When the stakes are high, we can't always take the time

23 to establish airtight proof of causation. When

24 children's health is threatened, the stakes are high.

25 Delaying action when children's lives are at stake is
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1 irresponsible. After all, when the preliminary studies

2 connecting smoking and lung cancer first came in, the

3 tobacco companies pointed out that correlation does not

4 prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that smoking causes

5 lung cancer, yet right at that point, many doctors gave

6 up smoking. Why? Because they knew the stakes were

7 high.

8 Ladies and gentlemen, the sky is not falling.

9 But toxic substances are being discharged. I hold in

10 my hand a calculator and a picture of my grandchildren.

11 Cost benefit analysis and the health of the coming

12 generations. If life is sacred, we need more than a

13 calculator. We need, in short, strong national toxic

14 waste regulations. Thank you.

15 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much.

16 Doesn't look like we have any questions, so we will

17 move on to the next two speakers; Cathy Woollums and

18 Lin Kaatz Chary please.

19 MS. WOOLLUMS: Good morning.

20 MR. CLARK: Good morning.

21 MS. WOOLLUMS: My name is Cathy Woollums,

22 W-O-O-L-L-U-M-S. I'm a Senior Vice President of

23 Environmental Services with Mid American Energy

24 Holdings Company. Mid American is a global energy

25 services provider serving almost six point nine
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1 customers worldwide. I'm also a parent. I live with

2 my two sons two miles away from a coal-fired plant.

3 I'm here today on behalf of Mid American

4 Energy Company's two electricity supplying companies,

5 Mid American Energy and PacificCorp. They serve

6 electricity customers in California, Oregon,

7 Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa

8 and Illinois. We supply those customers through a

9 variety of resources including wind, hydro, natural

10 gas, geothermal, nuclear, and coal. Mid American is

11 the largest regulated utility owner of wind generation

12 in the United States.

13 On behalf of two of Mid American's operating

14 entities, Mid American Energy and Pacific Corp., I

15 appreciate the opportunity to comment today on the

16 proposed Utility HAPs MACT. We will be submitting more

17 extensive written comments prior to the July 5 close of

18 the comment period.

19 Today I'd like to focus on three aspects of

20 the proposed rule; achievement of the mercury limits,

21 use of particulate matter continuous emission monitors

22 or CEMS and the relationship between the timing and

23 compliance requirements and the cost of implementation.

24 Relating to mercury limits and performance

25 criteria. Mid American brings a perspective based on
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1 actual performance of installed equipment. Our Walter

2 Scott Junior Energy Center unit four was one of the

3 first facilities in the country to actively control

4 mercury emissions. Utilizing sub-bituminous coal

5 source from the power river basin, and equipped with

6 a full suite of controls, including a scrubber, bag

7 house, selective catalytic reduction, and activated

8 carbon injection, the facility commenced commercial

9 operation in mid-2007. After a case by case MACT

10 review for mercury, Walter Scott unit four was

11 expected to achieve a mercury emission rate of one

12 point seven pounds per trillion Btu; approximately

13 an eighty-three percent reduction after activated

14 carbon injection.

15 Stack testing and monitoring data from the

16 facility has demonstrated significant variability in

17 mercury emissions suggesting that the averaging period

18 for the applicable emission limit is critical to any

19 final rule.

20 Likewise our stack testing measurements were

21 not well correlated with the mercury continuous

22 emission monitors. With the monitors consistently

23 reporting twenty to twenty-five percent higher

24 emissions than those measured through actual stack

25 testing. Stack testing conducted between 2007 and 2010
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1 suggested that the performance of the activated carbon

2 injection system, even at an eighty-three percent

3 removal efficiency, may prove challenging on a long

4 term basis and additional methods to reduce emissions

5 may need to be pursued.

6 Ironically, Mid Americans mercury control

7 experience at the new Walter Scott Energy Center unit

8 four is in sharp contrast to one of its other

9 facilities that's fifty years old. The Carbon plant in

10 Price, Utah, utilizes bituminous Utah coal at its two

11 units that became operational in 1954 and 1957.

12 Equipped only with electrostatic precipitators, the

13 carbon plant typically achieves a mercury emission

14 level below one pound per trillion Btu. While there

15 are several reasons for the difference in the mercury

16 emissions between a new well controlled unit and a

17 fifty year old facility, the primary distinguishing

18 factor lies in the coal itself.

19 As EPA finalizes the MACT, we urge you to

20 consider the fact, the coal from the Powder River Basin

21 and other areas exhibit characteristics similar to

22 lignite and that mercury is primarily elemental and

23 more difficult to collect, suggesting that further

24 sub-categorization may be appropriate.

25 Likewise, we believe it's important for EPA
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1 to examine the basis on which of the determination of

2 the best performing sources has been made prior to

3 finalizing the rule.

4 Regarding to the, regarding the issue of PM

5 CEMS, we do express concerns about the functionality of

6 that equipment that has largely only been deployed

7 through consent decrees under new source review

8 requirements and, and largely has off ramps. Our

9 experience with CEMS, plus SO2 and mercury suggest that

10 there's a lot that needs to be worked through as we

11 consider moving forward with those as a compliance

12 mechanism.

13 Lastly, while our plants will ensure that

14 we're in compliance with the final rule, we believe

15 that the short time frame between the final ruling and

16 compliance date will increase costs for electricity

17 customers. The impact will be greatest on some of the

18 smaller, older facilities that may, in fact, be located

19 in key transmission grid areas that provide voltage

20 support that can't be addressed within the specified

21 time frame. As such, please consider carefully the

22 options for some of those facilities relative to the

23 impact on availability, reliability and cost.

24 Thank you for the opportunity.

25 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Ms. Chary,
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1 please.

2 DR. CHARY: Morning. My name is Dr. Lin

3 Kaatz Chary and my name is spelled L-I-N, K-A-A-T-Z,

4 and third name, no hyphen, C-H-A-R-Y. And I am the

5 Executive Director and Founder of Indiana Toxics

6 Action. I live in Gary, Indiana, and I also teach at

7 Indiana University where I teach labor in the

8 environment and labor in global warming and I have a

9 PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago School

10 of Public Health in Public Health with a lot of

11 emphasis on epidemiology.

12 I really appreciate the opportunity to come

13 here today and chat with you, but I have to say that --

14 I better move my book here -- I have to say that in

15 some respects, it feels like been there, done that.

16 I've been around for a long time working on these

17 issues and the same arguments -- I'm still reeling from

18 the coal representative's arguments a little bit

19 earlier.

20 If you had been here in the 1970's when the

21 Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act were passed, if

22 you had been here later with the Toxic Substances

23 Control Act (TOSCA) and the Resource Conservation and

24 Recovery Act (RCRA) and all the different laws, we

25 could have written the same script. We don't even need
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1 to sit here. We could just take recordings from those

2 meetings and play them back and you would be hearing

3 exactly the same thing. And you look over the history

4 as was mentioned earlier, jobs have not been lost.

5 The world has not come to an end because there are

6 regulations. And leaving it up to the companies

7 themselves has not achieved the goals that we're trying

8 to, to go for.

9 So what I want to say is, the science is

10 there, the technology is there. What are we waiting

11 for? I raised my daughter under the philosophy that

12 there are many things in life that we can't control and

13 we've seen that tragically just recently in Joplin with

14 the tornadoes and many other natural disasters. We

15 can't control those things, but we can control other

16 things and the choice is up to us whether or not we

17 choose to do that.

18 And the kinds of tragedies that come from

19 not -- from making -- even if, if you don't do

20 something, that's a choice and the results of that are

21 on all of us if we don't pass these regulations, which

22 we know. We don't have to argue about the science

23 anymore or the technology or the cost for that matter.

24 I mean this is probably heretical to most people, but

25 we should be paying higher costs for this kind of
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1 stuff, for getting these regulations because they're

2 expensive and the cost in health care and other kinds

3 of costs that can't even be measured are not included

4 in the cost benefit analysis of the coal

5 representatives and others.

6 So actually, I was really, I was really done

7 in by the gentleman's discussion. I thought it was

8 staggering to hear him defend his -- that in this, you

9 know, in this way, in this day and age. The coal

10 industry -- I'm, I'm curious as to what he thinks good

11 regulations would be. He talked about bad regulations.

12 And I mean, the reality is that they're completely

13 stuck in the nineteenth century.

14 And why would EPA be biased against coal.

15 That's absolutely -- that's really a ridiculous

16 argument and to frame it that way is a real indication

17 of how they see the world, rather than framing it in a

18 way of the EPA doing its job which is to protect the

19 American public and be its advocate in, in holding up

20 the intent of Congress when they made the Clean Air Act

21 and the Clean Water Act and based it on health based

22 standards, not whether or not it was good for the coal

23 industry, which is, I believe -- I might be wrong --

24 one of the industries which receives quite a bit of

25 subsidies from the United States, even though it's a
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1 multi-billion dollar industry. If we spend some of

2 that money on looking at clean energy and investing in

3 other alternatives, we'd be a lot farther along.

4 So, to me the -- without, you know,

5 disrespect anybody who's testified, really this

6 discussion, this argument is over. We should be moving

7 on. We should accept the information that we have and

8 the loss of anyone's job is a tragedy. We all know

9 that especially in this economy. So it's our

10 obligation to acknowledge this and respond

11 appropriately promoting and, promoting research and

12 development using approaches such as green chemistry

13 and it's twelve principles will, in fact, benefit the

14 market, producing energy in ways that reduce waste,

15 increase efficiency and therefore reduce costs.

16 So, I'm -- with my last ten seconds, in

17 saying, just imagine where we would be at today if this

18 regulation had been promulgated twenty years ago when

19 it was first proposed. I guarantee you that if we were

20 sitting in this room today, we wouldn't be talking

21 about the same things and if we want to talk about cost

22 benefit analysis, how many lives would have been saved?

23 How many illnesses prevented? So, let's leave this

24 behind and move on to innovative job creating, health

25 protective ways of generating energy. It's not really
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1 a complicated choice.

2 Thank you very much.

3 MR. CLARK: Okay. Thank you very much. Ask

4 if -- do you have -- no, no. I guess we don't. I

5 guess we're good, so thank you both so much.

6 Okay. Next two speakers; Dawn Nothwehr and

7 Helen Binns please.

8 DR. NOTHWEHR: Good morning.

9 MR. CLARK: Good morning.

10 DR. NOTHWEHR: And thank you for the

11 opportunity to comment this morning. My name is Dawn

12 M. Nothwehr, it's D-A-W-N and last name is

13 N-O-T-H-W-E-H-R. I'm a Franciscan Sister and Professor

14 of Catholic Theological Ethics at Catholic Theological

15 Union, the largest Roman Catholic graduate school of

16 Theology and Ministry in North America. I am also the

17 Director of the Certificate and Healthcare Emission

18 Leadership Program at the Catholic Theological Union.

19 I teach courses in environmental ethics and I've also

20 published books and articles on various environmental

21 topics.

22 I speak in full support of the proposal for

23 the reduction of toxic air pollutants from the power

24 plants, specifically the reduction from the emissions

25 from new and existing coal and oil fueled electric
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1 utilities generating units.

2 In 2004, with Dr. Silvia Hood Washington of

3 UIC, I coauthored Struggles for Environmental Justice

4 and Health in Chicago and African American and Catholic

5 Perspective. That book deals with the health impact of

6 PCB's, lead and mercury and the poor air quality in

7 Chicago, particularly the harm done by those toxins on

8 the poor; especially children, the elderly and pregnant

9 women who tend to live in the most highly polluted

10 areas of the city.

11 The scientific data is clear that Cook

12 County, Illinois has one of the highest asthma

13 mortality rates with most deaths occurring in the City

14 of Chicago. Coal burning power plants are one of the

15 most egregious sources of mercury toxins. This is a

16 moral issue.

17 As Catholics, we share the belief with other

18 peoples of faith that we are called to be stewards of

19 God's creation and to actively participate in

20 sustaining creation by caring for our children and

21 their physical environment. We believe that every

22 person possesses a fundamental dignity that comes from

23 God. In our view, human life deserves full respect and

24 protection at every stage and in every condition. We

25 defend the right of children to live with dignity and
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1 to realize the bright promise and opportunity of

2 childhood. We are particularly concerned that the most

3 vulnerable among us, the powerless and children, are

4 most often directly the ones who bear the burden and

5 suffer disproportionately from the harmful

6 environmental effects of toxins.

7 Though its, it extends -- through its

8 extensive experience in providing healthcare and social

9 services to many children and families, particularly

10 among the poor, Catholics are concerned that the poor

11 and the vulnerable often remain unaware of the harmful

12 effects of mercury as well as other toxins. As you

13 know, the ability of children's bodies to cope with

14 mercury and other harmful substances is significant

15 less than that of adults. When pregnant women are

16 exposed to mercury and other toxins, unborn children

17 face neurological development from environmental

18 exposure to toxins such as mercury. According to

19 public health experts, neurological damage caused by

20 mercury exposure is irreversible. Children's futures

21 could be undermined by the release of harmful toxins

22 like mercury in our environment.

23 Among Chicago's prime polluters are the Fisk

24 and Crawford coal-fired power plants. Fisk started

25 generating electricity in 1903 and was rebuilt in 1959.
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1 Crawford's latest turbines were installed in 1958 and

2 1961. Pollution from those two coal-fired plants cost

3 neighboring communities a hundred and twenty-seven

4 million dollars per year in hidden health damages

5 according to the report released in October of 2010 by

6 the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

7 Nationally, coal-fired power plants are the

8 leading cause of global warming and pollution in the

9 United States. The Fisk and Crawford plants are two of

10 Chicago's largest contributors to climate change. In

11 2007, they emitted nearly five million metric tons of

12 carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

13 In his world day of peace message in 2010,

14 Pope Benedict the sixteenth insisted and I quote, "To

15 protect the environment and to safeguard natural

16 resources and climate, there is a need to act in

17 accordance with clearly defined rules, while at the

18 same time taking into due account the solidarity we owe

19 those living in the poorer areas of the world and to

20 future generations." Unquote.

21 Further, guided by their 2001 statement

22 global climate change, a plea for dialogue, prudence

23 and the common good, the United States Catholic Bishops

24 promote prudent action based on solid scientific

25 evidence while placing needs of the poor and the
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1 vulnerable at the center of environmental legislation.

2 The proposed rule would reduce emissions, the

3 toxic pollutions from power plants, specifically the

4 reduction of emissions from new and existing coal and

5 oil fuel, the electric utility steam generating units

6 and this is an important step in bringing about

7 environmental justice and bringing it to a practical

8 reality.

9 Thank you very much.

10 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Ms. Binns.

11 DR. BINNS: I am Dr. Helen Binns, spelled

12 B-I-N-N-S. I am a pediatrician at Children's Memorial

13 Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern

14 University.

15 I'm here today representing the American

16 Academy of Pediatrics, which is a non-profit,

17 professional organization of more than sixty thousand

18 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical

19 sub-specialists and pediatric surgical sub-specialists

20 dedicated to the health, safety, and well being of

21 infants, children, adolescents and young adults. We

22 are proud to have a long history supporting the work of

23 the EPA and cleaning up the air we breathe.

24 Polluted air makes people sick, particularly

25 infants and young children. Toxins in the air, which
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1 can further accumulate in our water and food supply

2 cause numerous health effects. These include damage to

3 the developing fetus and child, respiratory problems,

4 particularly asthma exacerbations and heart disease.

5 Our children and communities bear the

6 consequences for our polluted air in the form of

7 illness, hospitalizations, increased susceptibility to

8 diseases and reduced abilities and skills.

9 Our current federal standards requiring power

10 plants to limit emission of hazardous air pollutants

11 are weak and outdated. The American Academy of

12 Pediatrics supports stronger regulatory efforts to

13 limit air pollution.

14 Mercury emissions are of particular concern

15 since they accumulate in the water and food supply.

16 Mercury is released into the air from the fossil fuels

17 and then deposited in the water where living things

18 convert it to methyl mercury, which is a particularly

19 toxic form. Children can be exposed in utero and from

20 eating the contaminated fish that may come from these

21 waterways. States have already issued many warnings

22 about eating fish from contaminated waters and health

23 concerns have led to advising more limited intake of

24 certain types of fish, particularly by children and

25 pregnant women.
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1 Methyl mercury is toxic to the developing

2 brain of the fetus and young child. In utero,

3 exposures to levels of mercury which can be obtained

4 through exposures to fish, have been associated with

5 effects on memory, attention and language.

6 Importantly, mercury is concentrated in the fetus.

7 Fetal mercury levels are about a hundred and seventy

8 percent of maternal levels.

9 Fish provide an important nutrient source of

10 Docosahexaenoic Acid or DHA which is an essential omega

11 three fatty acid. DHA is important for healthy

12 pregnancies and studies also suggest that DHA in fetal

13 life and early childhood has positive long term impacts

14 on children's brain development.

15 Improving our air quality can lead to

16 lowering mercury contamination of fish and this is an

17 important public health goal.

18 Fine particulates are known to increase

19 respiratory symptoms and contribute to a range of other

20 disorders. In children in particularly, those with

21 asthma, days of increased air pollution levels are

22 associated with increased asthma symptoms and asthma

23 exacerbations. Other studies in adults link air

24 pollution to all-cause mortality and respiratory

25 related mortality.
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1 American people have been waiting for many

2 years for this important rule and we cannot afford

3 further delays. In 1990 the Clean Air Act Amendments

4 raised the need to assess power plant emissions. Ten

5 years later, in 2000, the EPA determined it was

6 appropriate and necessary that these hazardous air

7 pollutants, particularly mercury emissions, be reduced.

8 Now eleven years later, we still have yet to take

9 appropriate action.

10 The EPA -- the American Academy of Pediatrics

11 fully supports EPA's new standards for reducing toxic

12 air pollutants from power plants. These vital

13 standards will reduce emissions of mercury and other

14 toxic pollutants.

15 We -- the AAP supports using the standard of

16 maximum achievable control technology to obtain these

17 reasonable goals. We also support requiring the

18 implementation of this technology within three years as

19 proposed under the rule.

20 While some may argue that this rule will

21 impose costs upon power plants, the AAP would respond

22 that the high cost of pollution are currently being

23 born by our children and other vulnerable populations.

24 This rule will lead to cleaner air and better health

25 for millions of American children and families. The
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1 AAP looks forward to the prompt implementation of these

2 standards.

3 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. Any

4 questions for? Thank you.

5 Okay. Our next two speakers, Nancy

6 Bultinck -- hopefully that's close -- and Jim

7 Ginderske. Both good candidates to spell your name

8 for the court reporter.

9 MS. BULTINCK: My name is Nancy, spelling of

10 last name is B, as in boy -U-L-T, as in Tom, -I-N-C-K.

11 I do live in the City of Chicago and I'm a great

12 advocate for the American Respiratory Association of

13 Greater Chicago.

14 Unfortunately, I am inflicted with COPD,

15 otherwise known as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary

16 Disease. Not only that, I have a family history of

17 asthmatic [indecipherable]. My mother is ninety and

18 has it, I have sisters and nieces and nephews as well.

19 I don't understand all these

20 [indecipherable], but I do know that they are very

21 dangerous. I know that bus fumes alone put me out. I

22 should be sitting here with my oxygen on. I'm too

23 embarrassed to go out with it. I keep it at home and I

24 keep it a secret.

25 I'm begging you to please do something to
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1 clean up the air. The better the clean air we have,

2 the better life I have and I -- I mean, I'm up for a

3 transplant as it is. If I was to get another lung

4 transplant, I certainly would like to live a healthier

5 life and of course even better breathing life as well.

6 That's really all I have to say. I could go

7 on about my graduate degrees, but I don't think you

8 want to hear about that. I'm here for the cause.

9 MR. CLARK: Okay.

10 MS. BULTINCK: Thank you.

11 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Mr. Ginderske.

12 MR. GINDERSKE: I am Jim Ginderske, it's

13 G-I-N-D-E-R-S-K-E and I'm with the -- I'm the Director

14 of the Group Neighbors for a Healthy Rogers Park.

15 For many reasons we support strongly

16 increased limits and oversight of toxic emissions. In

17 a comprehensive health needs assessment we conducted

18 several years ago, we learned that our community has a

19 higher than average percentage of children now

20 afflicted with asthma, especially among our Hispanic

21 and African American residents. These results are

22 consistent with findings by other researchers. Asthma

23 events, of course, are often triggered by poor air

24 quality.

25 Air quality in Chicago has long been impacted
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1 by emissions from coal-fired power plants, which were

2 built generations ago before science understood and

3 technology was developed to counteract the emissions

4 hazards.

5 However, debating whether each instance of

6 childhood asthma or other ailments are entirely due to

7 one or another source of toxic emission misses the

8 point in this case. The fact is that no one outside

9 the industries that profit from these emissions and

10 their paid consultants seriously contends that this

11 situation is not harmful. The real -- the only real

12 dilemma is how much longer to delay coming to terms

13 with this known public health emergency.

14 We are presented by the coal industry with a

15 false choice; either accept their absurd claims that

16 obscene -- that obsolete plants are safe or cower

17 before their threats to fire union employees if forced

18 to stop polluting our cities. Sadly, this tactic isn't

19 new. Recall the day when the CEO's of America's

20 tobacco companies swore under oath before Congress that

21 they were unaware that cigarette smoking causes ill

22 effects on health. Those men are rightly viewed today

23 as relics of a twisted moral ethic.

24 We know that burning thousands of tons of

25 coal in a densely populated urban setting absent
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1 meaningful controls on the products of that emission is

2 harmful. Setting aside the ample scientific evidence,

3 it is simple common sense.

4 Years ago, I worked for Commonwealth Edison

5 making me a proud member of local fifteen of the IBEW

6 . I remember pitched battles with our

7 management over safety issues, not just for ourselves,

8 but for our friends and neighbors in the communities

9 where we lived and worked. When I see union brothers

10 and sisters gathered in support of a management that

11 commands them to choose between poisoning our children

12 or starving their families, I am shocked that any of us

13 would accept that essential falsehood. We were always

14 better than that. We knew better than to believe the

15 people who would endanger our lives rather than

16 properly maintain equipment or properly -- or demand

17 our help to cover their negligence when things

18 inevitably went wrong.

19 How many IBEW members can really say that a

20 seven year old child being rushed to an emergency room

21 after waking up terrified and unable to breathe is

22 someone -- is a person that we would not under any

23 other circumstances move heaven and earth to aid. I

24 know we would. I know we did and if this is no longer

25 that IBEW, then brothers and sisters, how far we done
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1 fell.

2 To be clear, IBEW people stand fast in the

3 harshest conditions and do incredibly dangerous work

4 every single day. They are the reason the ventilators

5 at that hospital have the electricity needed to help

6 that desperate child. Groups like mine and the Sierra

7 Club honor that commitment deeply. We have best

8 tasked, all of us here today, with righting something

9 that is tremendously harmful to our community. Each of

10 us has a role to play. Like the IBEW, we come from

11 working families. Like the IBEW, we are willing to

12 sacrifice and work hard to build a better

13 infrastructure. The odd man out here are the few

14 corporations that know that remains a few dollars that

15 can be carved out of the lungs of this city's children.

16 Let those of us who live in this community,

17 IBEW and Sierra Club, Neighbors for a Healthy Rogers

18 Park and Local fifteen stand together against such

19 predatory forces.

20 You will hear from many interests today. The

21 question I would ask, the one that cuts through all the

22 competing claims about science and safety and jobs and

23 progress is this; what should the future of energy look

24 like? What should the future of energy look like?

25 Should we license and build more coal-fired plants
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1 identical to the ones now operating in Chicago? If the

2 answer is no, then the reasons for that must be

3 pollution related and if that's the case, then as a

4 nation, we must make a full commitment to the goal of

5 clean air now because we know that even with that

6 commitment, it will take time for us to get there.

7 Otherwise, ten years from now, we will again have this

8 very same conversation and many more people will have

9 been sickened or died because of our failure to act.

10 At the end, this is an opportunity for EPA to

11 move us from fighting over the defects of an antiquated

12 system to planning for the smart -- excuse me -- to

13 planning for the smart power generation that will

14 transcend our current situation. We should begin that

15 journey right now.

16 Thank you.

17 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much.

18 MS. BULTINCK: I would like to add one other

19 thing because I'm looking at all of you and seeing

20 you're numbers people. Keep in mind that there are

21 twelve million inflicted with COPD today. Another

22 twelve million are probably un-diagnosed. We've done

23 race across America and everything for COPD, we've seen

24 [indecipherable] race car do it and we've had some good

25 people behind it and we've come up with a lot more
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1 diagnosed people with COPD. Please keep those numbers

2 in mind because it keeps growing; unfortunately, it

3 does keep growing. Thank you gentlemen.

4 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much and actually

5 Jim, let me just ask you quickly, can you just say a

6 quick word about Neighbors for a Healthy Rogers Park

7 and that organization?

8 MR. GINDERSKE: Sure. We're in the Rogers

9 Park neighborhood of Chicago on the north side, east

10 corner right where it borders the lake in Evanston. We

11 were responsible for the organizational drive that

12 opened the Rogers Park Health Center. It's a

13 thoroughly qualified Health Center.

14 MR. CLARK: Great. Okay. Appreciate it.

15 Thank you both very much.

16 MR. GINDERSKE: Thank you.

17 MR. CLARK: Okay. Next two speakers,

18 Mr. Michael Murray and Ms. Eve Pytel please. I keep

19 getting a note from the folks outside to say, to remind

20 folks to please sign in even if you're pre-registered,

21 so that, that if you are scheduled to speak, so that

22 they know that you're here, so they can be sure to get

23 you in. Okay? Thank you. Mr. Murray.

24 MR. MURRAY: Hello. My name is Mike Murray

25 and I'm from Roselle, Illinois. Last name is
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1 M-U-R-R-A-Y. I'm not a scientist and I'm not an expert

2 witness on the mercury issue, but I'm here to represent

3 two important people to me who couldn't be here today.

4 I'm here speaking for my grandchildren like the

5 gentleman from Harper College. I, of course, as a

6 proud grandparent have pictures of my two grandchildren

7 here. Murray who is three and Lucy who is five and I

8 also have two additional grandchildren on the way

9 within the next six weeks.

10 MR. CLARK: Congratulations.

11 MR. MURRAY: On the news and talk shows, a

12 lot of people seem to be talking about the national

13 debt. I guess they think that's something that's

14 important, but when I get together with old friends,

15 that's far from the first thing on our minds. When we

16 talk, it's about our families and our health. Money is

17 pretty far down the list, even if it is a problem.

18 We've lived long enough to know that money

19 isn't really real. It's made up. It's what socialist,

20 social, social scientists call a social construct that

21 can be changed at any time for the better or the worse.

22 On the other hand, anything that jeopardizes our health

23 or pollutes our earth is really important and something

24 we need to think about carefully and talk about

25 frequently because it effects everyone.
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1 Health and pollution are not social

2 constructs, they are real. I told Murray and Lucy's

3 Mom, my daughter, Rachel, who's currently pregnant, I

4 was going to comment on the mercury issue at an EPA

5 meeting. She said, "Pop, this is my third child, so I

6 know all about that. The doctors don't even have to

7 mention it to me." It's a sad commentary in our

8 society, isn't it? We worry about the unreal and money

9 and something that we know is wrong, we know is bad,

10 and we've known about for a long time. As a

11 matter-of-fact, we knew about it when my children were

12 born and we know how to fix it and we really haven't

13 done anything about it.

14 One of the things my son-in-law, Nick, who

15 I'm proud to say is a great Pastor, and he changes the

16 dirtiest diapers and my daughter, Rachel, are working

17 on with Lucy and Murray is getting them to clean up

18 after themselves. They are getting better, but it

19 still takes a lot of reminding and even though they're

20 young, they have developed quite a few lists of reasons

21 to procrastinate. It's scary. Sometimes I hear them

22 say things I say from time to time.

23 From what I've read on the web, mercury

24 polluters have quite a few excuses, just like Lucy and

25 Murray, for not cleaning up after themselves. I guess
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1 the role EPA has to play on this mercury and other

2 critical issues in our society is like my daughter and

3 son-in-law have to do with Murray and Lucy. You have

4 to remind polluters to do what is right. Indeed, in

5 some cases, you have to demand they do what is right

6 because it effects even them.

7 Obviously doing what is right is not always

8 the easiest course of action and it might take more

9 time and effort, but unequivocally, the outcome turns

10 out better when you do the right things. When the EPA

11 stands up for what is right in this mercury debate, a

12 lot of people will holler about jobs, lights dimming,

13 too costly, and too many regulations. Lots of excuses

14 to do nothing; just like Murray and Lucy and sometimes

15 their grandpa does. But in the end, jobs will be

16 created, we'll have a healthier world, things will be

17 unequivocally better.

18 Of course, we won't really know how much

19 better until we decide to do the right thing. That's

20 the irony. The only way to know for sure how much

21 better is to stop doing the wrong thing. If we do the

22 right thing on this issue, maybe Lucy and Murray will

23 be able to think about other things when they have

24 their own children and grandchildren. It will be

25 really sad if we fail to take action we know is right.
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1 In summary, everyone agrees mercury is a

2 pollutant. We know how to make it better. It's not

3 easy. People are going to holler and complain, but my

4 assumption as an optimistic American is we're going to

5 do the right thing. If that doesn't happen, I'd have

6 one thing I'd like to ask you to do for Murray and

7 Lucy. Something I don't think a grandparent should

8 have to do. I would like you -- excuse me -- for those

9 who impede this action, to explain to them how come

10 they're letting a known poison into the environment.

11 Thank you.

12 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you,

13 Mr. Murray. Ms. Pytel.

14 MS. PYTEL: My name is Eve Pytel, that's P as

15 in Paul, Y as in York, T-E-L like telephone and I work

16 on the Clean Air Counts campaign.

17 The Clean Air Counts campaign began in March

18 1999 as a policy development forum called the Regional

19 Dialogue on Clean Air and Redevelopment, that was

20 initiated to find a way to improve air quality and meet

21 the standards of the Clean Air Act without compromising

22 economic development for the region.

23 Clean Air Counts was initiated because of

24 repeated violations of the National Ambient Air Quality

25 Standards for ground level ozone that had resulted in
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1 metropolitan regions designation as a severe

2 non-attainment area.

3 The original goal of the program was to

4 reduce pollution by five tons per day. Twelve years

5 later, five hundred businesses and over a hundred local

6 government have voluntarily committed to implement

7 strategies that reduce ozone precursor emissions in

8 quantifiable ways.

9 To date, that program has reduced pollution

10 by thirteen point five tons per day or five million,

11 seven hundred ten thousand pounds.

12 Through Clean Air Counts, we've shown that

13 air quality in many ways is determined by an infinite

14 series of mundane decisions and that voluntary

15 programming can make a significant impact. Despite

16 exceeding the programs goals and the region's achieving

17 management status for attainment of the ozone standard,

18 it is widely agreed by scientists and public health

19 experts that our current standards are not rigorous

20 enough to protect public health.

21 Air pollutants are responsible for four

22 hundred fifty five hospitalizations and one thousand,

23 one hundred eighteen deaths in this region alone.

24 Respiratory problems take children out of school and

25 parents out of jobs. Hospitalizations can cost as much
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1 as twenty thousand dollars constituting a major cost

2 for a family and a community. This is a huge drain

3 emotionally and financially on the families and our

4 region.

5 Many of these pollutants have tertiary and

6 secondary costs that impact our quality of life. That

7 might include haze or diminished vegetation.

8 Additionally, air quality makes this region less

9 business friendly due to special permits that are

10 required.

11 The Chicago metropolitan region continues to

12 struggle with air quality issues because it is a major

13 population center and a job center, however the region

14 requires a management response that includes both

15 regulatory and voluntary responses. Programs such as

16 Clean Air Counts and Commuter Trip Reduction programs

17 can make an impact, but that impact is a fraction of

18 what can be achieved through the proposed mercury and

19 toxic standards.

20 Thank you.

21 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. Okay.

22 Thank you very much.

23 MS. KURLANSKY: Can I ask Ms. Pytel just a

24 short question, if you could tell me just in a couple

25 sentences what sort of voluntary programs you've been
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1 advocating and are these things that you're asking

2 individuals to do or is it something that the local

3 governments are participating in?

4 MR. PYTEL: Sure. Clean Air Counts works

5 principally with local governments and businesses.

6 They are -- to participate, they have to implement at

7 least one of nine strategies and they are all

8 quantifiable strategies. That may include an energy

9 efficiency program including energy efficient lighting,

10 use of energy efficient office equipment, other

11 reductions. It could also include many types of fleet

12 management strategies, transportation, work place

13 transportation options, various types of landscaping

14 strategies to reduce mowing and burning and small

15 engine use and then with -- and then also the use of

16 various types of low VOC products and those are all

17 things that are very easily quantifiable with peer

18 reviewed methodology. For local governments, we

19 ask them to engage in outreach as a sort of beginning

20 level, but then we ask them to also become much more

21 energy efficient, to use low VOC products in just about

22 everything that they're doing and then we also have an

23 expansive amount of fleet management and transportation

24 strategies. They are also asked as they participate in

25 the program for a longer amount of time to look at
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1 other, other types of regulatory programs; for example,

2 small incinerator bands and, and that kind of things,

3 so it really is a very rigorous program and we only

4 engage in things that are quantifiable.

5 MS. KURLANSKY: Thank you.

6 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Okay. Next two

7 speakers please; Terry Grace and Cory Jones.

8 MR. GRACE: Hello. My name is Terry Grace.

9 I am a recently retired, after thirty-one years, as an

10 elementary school social worker from the suburb of Oak

11 Park and four plus years in the Department of Mental

12 Health for the State of Illinois.

13 I'm committed to testifying on this important

14 matter due to my thirty-five plus years of experience

15 working with children. As indicated on the EPA

16 website, on the effects of mercury on children, mercury

17 effects the cognitive thinking skills, memory,

18 attention, language development, fine motor development

19 and visual spacial skills of children.

20 In my role as a school social worker, I have

21 worked with regular education and the special education

22 student populations in my schools; that is, all of the

23 students. During my thirty-one years as a social

24 worker, I and many of my professional colleagues in my

25 schools noticed a gradual, but definite steady increase
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1 in the frequency of different disabilities occurring in

2 the student population. Colleagues in other schools

3 and districts also observed and shared their

4 perceptions about seeing similar patterns.

5 For instance, the occurrence of attention

6 deficit, hyper active disordered children increased

7 dramatically over the course of my career. Children

8 commonly referred to as hyperactive were fairly rare

9 phenomenon when I first began working. Excuse me. My

10 estimate would be that there was approximately one

11 child out of seventy students when I first started that

12 exhibited those kinds of behaviors. When I retired in

13 June of 2010, it was common for every classroom to have

14 two or even three children functioning as hyperactive;

15 that is up to one child out of ten. These children

16 almost always remained in the regular education

17 class, but they tend to be disruptive with behavioral

18 and learning challenges that drain the teacher's time,

19 energy and attention away from the other students.

20 Learning disabilities are another concern

21 that increased steadily over time. Children with a

22 wide range and variety of learning issues that require

23 substantial special education intervention have become

24 a major burden on the finances and human resources of

25 public education. These student issues require a wide
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1 range of resources and/or interventions to address

2 their learning needs.

3 Another phenomenon is the dramatic increase

4 in the frequency of asthma. During the last fifteen

5 years, asthma inhalers became common items for school

6 nurses to have for numerous students in every building.

7 That air pollution can influence the frequency and

8 severity of asthma attacks is well documented.

9 The steady increase in autism in our children

10 has also been well documented. Again, it is a

11 phenomenon that is, was fairly rare when I started as a

12 social worker, but became progressively more frequent

13 in our schools. These students often need a very

14 significant level of services that again absorb

15 financial, time and energy resources.

16 When I started my career, there was one

17 occupational therapist for ten schools to help

18 remediate students' fine motor difficulties. When I

19 retired, there were at least five in my district.

20 I'm not suggesting that all the changes over

21 the past thirty one years are directly related to air

22 pollution in general and mercury pollution

23 specifically. I realize determining a precise direct

24 correlation between air pollution and these issues is

25 extremely difficult. What I am suggesting is that
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1 pollution factors have, in my judgment, and according

2 to considerable research definitely impacted to varying

3 degrees on the educational and likely life functioning

4 of our children. That impact is unacceptable in my

5 judgment when the ability to alleviate these concerns

6 is definitely available.

7 I pose the question, what is going to dictate

8 our cultural priorities; valuing the lives of our

9 children and the health of all of us, or valuing

10 corporate profits? The political cost benefit analysis

11 has always seemed to focus on corporate profits. The

12 true cost of toxic pollutants including educational,

13 medical and loss life productivity of our children and

14 all of us greatly exceeds any cost that corporate

15 giants in my judgment.

16 Even though most conservative EPA analysis

17 indicates at least a three to one benefit estimate to

18 cost from the implementation of these regulations. If

19 your midpoint estimate proved to be true, it is an

20 overwhelming thirty to one benefits to cost estimate.

21 I do not see this as a children and/or health versus

22 jobs issue from my point of view. If corporations

23 commit to meeting these guidelines, more jobs should be

24 available, not less.

25 The focus needs to be on corporate
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1 responsibility, not only for our air quality, but also

2 for treating their own employees with respect and

3 integrity. The fear mongering among the corporations

4 has their workers very apprehensive, which I regret,

5 but to some degree understand.

6 However, the reality of how the economics

7 actually works does not appear to support the corporate

8 threats. This would be especially true, in my

9 judgment, if the corporations function responsibly with

10 integrity for all of us.

11 I really strongly support the implementation

12 of these regulations for toxic controls. Thank you

13 very much.

14 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Ms. Jones.

15 MS. JONES: Good morning. My name is Cory

16 Jones. I'm actually an international business

17 consultant; more importantly probably, I'm actually a

18 Sierra Club volunteer. I like, I like their pragmatic

19 approach.

20 The reason I'm here today, actually I have a

21 story to tell. A story about heroes actually. And

22 just to preface that a little bit, I'm an American, but

23 half of my family live in England. I recently came

24 back from a visit in England and had a chance to chat

25 with the older generations. Interestingly enough, they
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1 still talk about World War II, like World War II was

2 just a couple of years ago and it actually made me

3 think about the EPA and today's mercury hearing in a

4 little bit of a different way actually.

5 Putting it back in the context, I was just

6 having conversations with my, my elder relatives. Back

7 in the 1940's during World War II, big business and big

8 energy were actually our heroes, interestingly enough.

9 They were the engines of industry that helped us win

10 the war.

11 Unfortunately, they really haven't done

12 anything for us since then. In my lifetime, the real

13 hero, to be honest in retrospect, has been the EPA, the

14 Environmental Protection Agency. Since the inception

15 of the EPA in December of 1970, the EPA has been a hero

16 of common sense for the protections of the common man,

17 for all Americans.

18 After World War II, pollution continued to

19 increase. I mean, that was their boom time, right?

20 Industry saved us, got us the work. We won the war

21 because of big business, big energy. So they put it in

22 fifth gear and after World War II, pollution continued

23 to increase. Pollution continued to get worse. To big

24 business at some point, to the coal industry, big

25 energy at some point decide to do anything about the
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1 consequence of their success? All this pollution.

2 They didn't really. They pretty much maintained their

3 singular pursuits of corporate profits.

4 And again, a disclaimer, I'm a corporate

5 international business consultant. I kind of see both

6 sides of the story here. And just to kind of put it in

7 context about the history of where this profiteering

8 kind of comes from, I mean it's gotten better. Don't

9 get me wrong. I think, after having conversations with

10 my elders in England, having conversations with some

11 friends who are economists, things have definitely

12 gotten better. Does that mean we should be happy and

13 complacent with where things are?

14 Think of it this way. In the 1960's, there

15 was a car called the Ford Pinto. It had a design flaw;

16 a gas tank that exploded if the car was rear ended.

17 It's true. Now the design change, at a cost of five

18 dollars and eight cents per vehicle was considered to

19 be an unreasonable cost of doing business and yes

20 thousands of people would burn to death, but big

21 business said because they did a cost benefit analysis

22 on the situation, it wasn't profitable to make the

23 safety changes to the car.

24 So did big business and corporate profits

25 eventually make cars safer? No, actually they didn't.
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1 Government regulations did. So at the same time,

2 during these crazy times in the 1960's, big energy was

3 adding new coal plants and spewing pollution at

4 unprecedented rates. Actually approximately about

5 eighty percent of the worst polluting coal plants in

6 America were built during the same time.

7 Clearly, big business and big energy were no

8 longer our heroes. But then came the creation of the

9 EPA in December 2, 1970, and then the 1970 Clean Air

10 Act and then the makings of a new kind of hero.

11 Government regulations; surprise, surprise. A new kind

12 of hero in EPA representatives, representatives of the

13 common people. Not corporate profiteers, but real

14 people put in place to help address the issue of the

15 ever escalating pollution problems.

16 And then came the 1990 Clean Air Act

17 Amendments from the EPA. Thank you. And something

18 quite remarkable happened. Now that corporate profits

19 no longer decided how much pollution was too much

20 pollution. It was no longer their decision. Things

21 got better. The air got cleaner and according to the

22 CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

23 after the burning of leaded gasoline in cars was phased

24 out, thank you EPA, the percentage of children with

25 elevated levels of lead in their blood dropped from
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1 eighty-eight percent in 1970 to four percent in 1995.

2 Thanks to you guys.

3 That's success and that success is not driven

4 by corporations with an altruistic mind sets. It, it,

5 that success is purely driven by the mandates set forth

6 by the EPA.

7 So in conclusion, the EPA has been a real

8 champion of common sense and a new heroes for Americans

9 after World War II. That's been the EPA, so America

10 now, again, needs that support for common sense and new

11 mercury standards. We need a new hero. We need

12 someone to stand up for common sense.

13 MR. CLARK: Thank you. You guys, go ahead.

14 MR. SYPNIEWSKI: Just wanted to say as a

15 former owner of a Pinto, I appreciated your analogy.

16 MR. CLARK: Any other questions or comments?

17 Okay. Thank you guys very much.

18 Next speakers, Don -- Mr. Don Ferber and

19 Reverend Homer Cobb please. And again, for folks

20 coming in. Hopefully everybody, even if you've signed

21 up previously that you're checking in at the desk so

22 that they can get you in the queue here to speak and we

23 are -- because of the overwhelming nature of the

24 speakers today and into tonight, we're hoping everybody

25 can stay within a five minute limit, so with that,
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1 Mr. Ferber.

2 MR. FERBER: Thank you. I appreciate the

3 chance to be here. My name is Don Ferber, that's

4 F-E-R-B-E-R and I'm down here today from Madison,

5 Wisconsin, to testify on behalf of the Wisconsin

6 John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club.

7 I do have to say that it's a pleasure to be

8 in a state that welcomes progressive Wisconsin

9 legislators today too.

10 I want to provide some perspective from

11 Wisconsin where two thirds -- about two thirds of our

12 electricity comes from coal and we have mercury in all

13 of our waters in the state and that's really a critical

14 issues; not just for health, but because we rely a lot

15 on recreation and fishing in the state and Wisconsin,

16 in 2008, had the wisdom to pass a mercury rule and

17 under this rule, our coal-fired power plants must

18 either meet a ninety percent emission reductions or

19 limit the concentration of mercury emissions to point

20 zero, zero eight pounds of mercury per gigawatt by

21 2015.

22 There was sort of an out -- a multi-pollutant

23 patrol approach that with sufficient reductions in

24 nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxides, levels of mercury

25 could be reduced by seventy percent only by 2015 and
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1 ninety percent by 2021.

2 Obviously, the Department of Natural

3 Resources was looking to this in the state and in

4 response to the question why is controlling mercury

5 emissions in Wisconsin important, the response was

6 health effects experts worldwide have identified the

7 reduction of mercury exposures as a major public health

8 goal.

9 All of Wisconsin's inland water have gone

10 through a general fish consumption advisory that

11 recommends people, particularly pregnant women and

12 young children, limit the number of some fish species

13 they eat because of elevated mercury levels and that

14 there are a lot of effects from mercury.

15 Currently, the emissions from coal-fired

16 power plants account for sixty percent of the annual

17 emissions from state sources.

18 In the time since then, the mercury emissions

19 have been cut actually in about half, so there has been

20 some good progress, but that's still twenty-seven

21 hundred pounds a year. If you think about how much it

22 takes to pollute any body of water and that mercury

23 accumulates over time and tends not to degrade readily,

24 that's a lot.

25 The Secretary of the DNR in giving testimony
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1 about this, indicated that the reasons for reducing

2 power plant mercury emissions and other pollutants are

3 clear. Nearly all of Wisconsin's fifteen thousand

4 lakes and fifty-seven thousand miles of rivers and

5 streams are under a general fish consumption advisory

6 that recommends that people limit the number of some

7 fish species they eat because of elevated mercury

8 levels and six percent of Wisconsin, of women of

9 childbearing age have elevated levels of mercury in

10 approximately four hundred, thirty-seven thousand men

11 and women are exposed to higher than safe levels of

12 mercury and that that, again, they enumerate the

13 effects.

14 There are also economic concerns. Each year,

15 the Department of Natural Resources sells approximately

16 one and a half million fishing licenses. I'm sure a

17 lot of those go to people in Illinois. One million to

18 state residents, yes and the rest from non-residents.

19 Fishing generates two point three billion dollars in

20 economic impact in Wisconsin. This was back in 2008.

21 Reductions in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen

22 oxide in the air we breathe will improve public health

23 and lower the instances -- incidents of asthma, chronic

24 bronchitis, decreased lung function, other respiratory

25 health problems, cardiovascular disease, strokes, and
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1 premature death.

2 Currently, there's still many counties in

3 eastern Wisconsin that are still in non-attainment for

4 the federal ozone standards adopted in 1997 and eleven

5 counties in eastern and southern Wisconsin failed to

6 meet new federal ozone standards adopted in 2008, so

7 there's still some big problems from other pollutants

8 occurring in Wisconsin and much of our mercury

9 pollution, even with the rules, we have come out of the

10 state and of course, enforcement, especially with our

11 current political climate, is really an issue. So we

12 really need stronger rules from the EPA than what we've

13 done by ourselves. We're not guaranteed will either be

14 enforced or will be continued.

15 Also to echo some of what the EPA has found,

16 there have been Natural Resources Defense Council

17 studies that have consistently showed a very high

18 benefit to cost ratio from regulations. The savings in

19 health alone far surpass the cost of pollution controls

20 or switching to cleaner energy sources and that these

21 regulations actually create new jobs. It's only where

22 they take away a few jobs and who they hurt in terms of

23 the money that's really the affect. We can replace

24 sources of energy. We can't replace clean air or clean

25 water.
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1 Finally want to put this in human terms,

2 given the [indecipherable] of democracy and that

3 mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin. If I were to go out

4 there and do bodily harm to somebody else, I'd be

5 charged with a crime. Why are businesses being allowed

6 to do bodily harm to us and they are not being charged

7 with anything and being allowed to continue to do this?

8 Is this the American way? I think not. Thank you.

9 MR. CLARK: Thank you Mr. Ferber. Reverend

10 Cobb.

11 REVEREND COBB: Hello. My name is Reverend

12 Homer Cobb, C-O-B-B. I'm from Hammond, Indiana, and

13 I'm President of the NAACP of Hammond Branch, thirty

14 fifty-two. I thank you for this opportunity to be

15 able to speak to you today and as I, as I begin to look

16 around and the things that were brought to my attention

17 is that right in our backyard is the State Line power

18 company.

19 And the State Line power company has been

20 there every since I've been in Hammond. I've been in

21 Hammond, I've been married for forty-four years. I've

22 raised children, my grandchildren, my great nephews,

23 all of them are still in Hammond. And as it polluted,

24 I didn't realize that it was even there because I

25 always thought that it was in the state of Illinois,
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1 for one thing.

2 The next thing that when it became, when it

3 came to our attention, the amount of harm, amount of

4 hydro carbons and the amount of pollutants, the

5 particulates that was put in the air, that it was an

6 alarming thing. I found it to be quite frightening as

7 a matter-of-fact because we're playing with children.

8 I watch children as they, as we work with the school

9 system. I see them playing on the playground equipment

10 and when they're playing on the playground equipment,

11 whatever is there is undisturbed over night. These

12 companies run twenty-four hours a day.

13 When these pollutants are put out, it settles

14 on that equipment during the course of the day and from

15 one day to the next. When they come out for recess,

16 they come out and they're technically playing in the

17 very dust, the mercury. They're playing in all of

18 these things in that next day.

19 When I came in here today, I saw a little

20 child out here and he was, he was there and he was

21 waiting for us to clear the sidewalk and he was sitting

22 there in his stroller and he had his little leg, his or

23 her little legs crossed and I was saying, wow, you

24 know, that's a wonderful thing not to have a care in

25 the world. But then you look up in the face of the
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1 parent and you see a different look. In the face of

2 the parent expresses what's in their heart. They

3 express their concern about things that are in the air.

4 We as people, we know that we've been given

5 charge as stewards over this earth and I don't think

6 that we have been very good stewards over the earth.

7 We leave carbon footprints. The biggest footprint is

8 coming from coal burning power plants. It's a danger

9 to our communities. Our community is of eighty

10 thousand hard working people that work every day. I

11 worked in the steel mills. I retired after

12 thirty-seven and a half years. I talked to some of the

13 individuals that came out of there after I and I

14 realized that some of them had different cardiovascular

15 diseases. My father was fifty-one when he died. He

16 worked in the steel mills.

17 I noticed a remarkable improvement in the

18 release of different chemicals in the steel mill as a

19 result of the EPA. But then there's other things that

20 lay, like a silent giant in the darkness. Some silent

21 monster that's spewing forth a gobbling mouth that's

22 slowly taking away the health of anyone that's near it.

23 My cousin had a baby that was born on the

24 twenty-first of May, born prematurely, still in the

25 hospital right now. I had a great nephew who had
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1 surgery and it was, and he was only three months old

2 and they said that it was common in this area for that

3 type of surgery and it was a digestive problem.

4 Many friends, I have lost many friends in

5 relationship to cancer and cancer seems to -- instead

6 of having a better hold and a better grip, we have

7 people in here with great minds and those that are out.

8 We've sent people to the moon. We've changed things in

9 a lot of areas. We even -- the other day I saw a paper

10 headline that they were even going to attempt to change

11 the weather. But you tell me that in fifty years, that

12 no one has made an attempt to enforce the guidelines in

13 which are in place and that they are not enforceable on

14 places that we know are polluting our air and the

15 reason I know that you know is because I can go to the

16 internet and I can go to -- type in pollution, I can

17 find it anywhere in the United States.

18 Our country has fallen far behind in

19 premature births. When I was growing up, we played

20 with mercury on, on pennies. We covered it. We, we,

21 we covered pennies to make it shine because nobody told

22 us how dangerous it was. And now we're finding that

23 we're breathing it, we're eating it in our fish and

24 nobody's done anything about it in over fifty years.

25 It's time to do something. Today is a good day.
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1 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. Any

2 questions for -- appreciate it very much. Thanks.

3 Next two speakers please, Ms. Kimberly

4 Wasserman and Ian Viteri. All right. I apologize.

5 Ms. Wasserman.

6 MS. WASSERMAN: Sure no problem. Good

7 afternoon. My name is Kimberly Wasserman and I am the

8 Executive Director of the Little Village Environmental

9 Justice Organization. I am also a member of the

10 National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

11 On behalf of the Little Village community, we

12 thank the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for

13 hosting one of the hearings here in Chicago where we

14 are home to the Crawford and Fisk coal power plants.

15 The Crawford plant is located in the South

16 Lawndale community which is home to over one hundred

17 thousand residents in a five mile radius.

18 On a day to day basis, we are exposed to

19 deadly pollution put out by these outdates coal power

20 plants and we are here today as a community to say we

21 support the regulations that are being proposed for

22 mercury and heavy metals.

23 Far too long, industry has allowed profit to

24 dictate safety. The reality is, I could sit here for

25 four minutes and fifteen seconds and talk about how
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1 mercury is affecting our communities, but I believe

2 that the EPA knows how it's affecting our communities.

3 What I'm here to do today is put a face to those

4 communities.

5 As Executive Director and as a community

6 member of Little Village, that is my responsibility,

7 not just to my community, but to my children and my

8 family as well.

9 Our community should no longer and can no

10 longer afford no controls over these emissions and as

11 I'm sure you will hear in the hearings, there are

12 communities across the United States who will support

13 your efforts, not just for themselves, but for the

14 families and communities as well.

15 I'm also here today because I feel it's

16 important to talk about not just our community members,

17 but the people who are employed in these plants as

18 well.

19 The reality is, is our communities are

20 impacted just as much as those workers are and

21 unfortunately, I hope some of them will come out, but

22 the reality is, is they're being scared to believe that

23 their jobs are at stake, that their companies are at

24 stake and that their welfare is at stake and the

25 reality is, is we as a community and the EPA can no
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1 longer afford to believe those excuses.

2 Money cannot be put over that of health and

3 that of protecting the environment. As a community, we

4 have been doing our part and we will do our part to

5 support the passing of these rules, by not just by

6 supporting our community, but by supporting those

7 workers and saying no to the scare tactics of those

8 plants who don't want to put profit over people.

9 I'm sure you know the responsibility falls on

10 the EPA to protect our environment and we're here on

11 behalf of our community to support these rulings and

12 support the structure that is the Environmental

13 Protection Agency. So thank you.

14 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Mr., Mr. Viteri.

15 MR. VITERI: All right, thank you. First of

16 all, I'd like to say thank you for your time in

17 allowing me to make a statement and testify at this

18 hearing. My name is Ian Viteri. I'm a Community

19 Organizer with the Little Village Environmental Justice

20 Organization and a born and raised resident of the

21 Little Village community.

22 I spent my whole twenty-four years of life in

23 Little Village under the shadow of the toxic coal-fired

24 power plant known as the Crawford generating station.

25 I have seen firsthand the devastating health effects
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1 from all the pollution that comes out of these smoke

2 stacks and how it has affected my friends, my family,

3 my neighbors and my community.

4 Mercury has invaded Little Village. It's

5 been around for a long time already. You can find

6 mercury all over the neighborhood; in the sanitary

7 canal where the coal plant discharges their boiling hot

8 water, where we can't fish or at least nobody should

9 eat the fish that we find in the canal and nobody there

10 jump in, for who knows what kind of illness, you'll end

11 up coming out with.

12 You can find mercury in the soil, in the

13 ground where people grow their produce and their

14 vegetables from their own home gardens, which is why we

15 highly advocate and encourage people to grow their

16 vegetables in raised beds and import the compost and

17 soil from outside sources because the ones that we have

18 in community is just not useable.

19 You can find mercury in the air where we

20 breathe on a daily basis from just living in the Little

21 Village community and of course the most devastating

22 place where we can find mercury is within ourselves.

23 Mercury pollution is known to cause

24 complications in the development process and problems

25 in the neurological system in growing children. In our
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1 neighborhood, I can see this effects most evidence in

2 my generation. My parents, along with most of the

3 older generation in Little Village, have only there

4 about half their lives. They immigrated from other

5 countries like Mexico and they weren't raised in the

6 community like myself and many of my friends. Their

7 bodies and minds weren't developing amongst the midst

8 of all this mercury pollution in the area.

9 Now as my generation reaches that age where

10 we're starting to pair off and do what we do best as a

11 species, we start realizing, we start realizing the

12 effects of mercury in our systems and in our bodies.

13 Personally, I have begun to notice a rise in low birth

14 weight babies and premature babies in my friends and my

15 neighbors in the Little Village community. I myself,

16 have two couple friends who are young, healthy couples

17 in the prime of their baby making years, who over this

18 past year, they got pregnant -- both couples got

19 pregnant, but instead of giving birth to a beautiful

20 healthy children, they failed and they miscarried.

21 I have yet planted my seed myself, but I'd

22 like to think that when I do, my child is given a fair

23 right to breathe clean air and a fair chance to grow

24 and live a healthy life, so I'm, I'm standing here

25 asking you as an affected community member and as a
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1 first hand witness to the effects of mercury and all

2 sorts of pollution that comes from these coal-fired

3 power plants to, you know, to take a stand and enforce

4 stricter regulations on mercury, on mercury pollution

5 as well as all other pollution, especially when it

6 comes from places like this ancient, out dated coal

7 fired power plants that we have here in Chicago right

8 now.

9 That's all I'd like to say. Thank you for

10 this time and thank you for this opportunity.

11 MR. CLARK: Thank you. A quick question

12 about your organization; Little Village Environmental

13 Justice Organization. Yeah, just if you could, just

14 say something, some -- give us some sort of sense about

15 the organization itself.

16 MS. WASSERMAN: Sure. We're a not for profit

17 environmental justice organization. We are turning

18 fifteen years old this year and our primary work is

19 around the coal power plants, public transit and urban

20 agriculture.

21 MR. CLARK: And?

22 MS. WASSERMAN: Urban agriculture.

23 MR. CLARK: Okay. Thank you.

24 MR. HUTSON: And what can you tell us about

25 Little Village? Where, where is that located and what
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1 is the makeup.

2 MS. WASSERMAN: Sure. We're located on the

3 southwest side of Chicago. We have around a hundred

4 thousand residents within a five mile radius. The

5 community is primarily Mexican, Mexican/American.

6 Anywhere between new immigrants through third

7 generation immigrants. Spanish speaking, reading,

8 writing neighborhood and over half of our population is

9 under the age of twenty-five, which means we have a lot

10 of little people in our neighborhood and we're seeing

11 the effects of these plants every generation that comes

12 through.

13 MR. CLARK: Thank you both.

14 MS. WASSERMAN: Thank you.

15 MR. CLARK: Okay. Our next two speakers,

16 please. Victoria Persky and John Blair. Ms. Persky.

17 MS. PERSKY: Good morning. Thank you for,

18 for being here and accepting testimony. My name is

19 Victoria Persky. I'm an Internist by training and an

20 Epidemiologist these days by practice. I worked for

21 thirty years in a community health center in an under

22 served neighborhood on the west side of Chicago.

23 Currently, I'm a Professor of Epidemiology at the

24 University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public

25 Health.
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1 I'm testifying as an individual today,

2 however, not as a representative of UIC. I want to

3 congratulate you first of all, the EPA for the mercury

4 and air toxics standards and hopefully for the adoption

5 and rigorous enforcement. You know, you're well aware

6 of the three pronged approach. I'll be addressing a

7 few of those.

8 The approach of standards for mercury, the

9 other metals captured by particulate measurements and

10 toxic gasses measured and the downstream effects of SO2

11 are supported by a large extensive and robust

12 epidemiologic data base in terms of health effects.

13 The EPA estimates of saving of seventeen

14 thousand premature deaths, eleven thousand heart

15 attacks, a hundred twenty thousand asthma attacks,

16 twelve thousand hospital and ER visits and five million

17 restricted days have extensive support in the

18 literature.

19 You've heard, I'm sure, the support around

20 the mercury standards. The database around this is

21 really quite extensive. The newer developmental

22 effects, the cardiovascular effects in terms of newborn

23 children, early life, and then the cardiovascular

24 effects both in early life and in adults is well

25 documented.
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1 There are cognitive effects, auditory

2 effects, visual, fine motor and cerebellum, as well as

3 changes in heart rate variability and, and hypertension

4 then get reflected into heart attacks and deaths.

5 The current recommendation of, of restricting

6 fish in potentially pregnant women that was adopted

7 several years ago by EPA is also well founded. It

8 is -- and it is unfortunate and dependent upon, in

9 large part upon our mercury exposures and as a result

10 is limiting the ingestion of other potentially positive

11 components of fish such as omega three fatty acids and

12 antioxidants.

13 The estimate of seven point eight percent of

14 potentially pregnant women exposed to potentially toxic

15 levels of mercury again is fairly well founded on

16 previous studies and disturbing and the best way, as

17 you've heard already to decrease this exposure and

18 allow us to eat fish again, is through decreasing,

19 decreasing coal emissions and gas emissions.

20 Again, the literature around fine particulate

21 effects is even more extensive and more robust. Here

22 in Chicago as elsewhere in the country, we're

23 estimating that thirteen to fifteen percent of children

24 have asthma. There are discrepancies or differences

25 around the city in terms of prevalence. Maybe, maybe
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1 fifty percent differences among, among low income,

2 minority populations. What's very disturbing here in

3 Chicago is that there are five to eight fold

4 differences in deaths from asthma with low income

5 minorities at far higher risk and with pollution

6 thought to be at least a part of that differential.

7 Again, as with mercury, the data is, is

8 profound. The American Cancer Society study published

9 a few years or several years ago now, by POPE and the

10 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

11 in 2002 estimated that a ten microgram per

12 millimeter cubed -- per meter cubed increase in fine

13 particulates is associated with a four percent increase

14 in all cause mortality, six percent increase in

15 cardiopulmonary and an eight percent increase in lung

16 cancer.

17 Jonathan Levy's Harvard

18 report again of, of several years ago now estimated

19 that we could be saving two hundred lives in the

20 greater Chicago and surrounding area if we, if we

21 actually put better controls on pollution.

22 The database for the metals, although,

23 although less robust is there and we're seeing more and

24 more evidence of cardiovascular effects from arsenic in

25 different studies and the data around other gasses is
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1 huge and the SO2 effects alone by, by the downstream

2 effects of, of decreasing acid gasses is really huge

3 and substantial.

4 So I guess I'm here as an individual with a

5 long history of both primary care medicine and

6 epidemiology to support you, EPA, in the efforts both

7 in terms of the standards and also, ultimately, in

8 terms of the implementation. Thank you.

9 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Mr. Blair.

10 MR. BLAIR: Good afternoon. My name is John

11 Blair. I'm the President of a group called Valley

12 Watch, it's location is in southwestern Indiana. I've

13 got a map here showing the numerous power plants, very

14 large power plants that surround the area that I live

15 in. These power plants, according to the E-GRID data,

16 put out two hundred and eighty-eight thousand tons of

17 nitrogen oxides, five hundred and ten thousand tons of

18 sulfur dioxide, a hundred and five million tons of

19 carbon dioxide, over two tons of mercury a year, and in

20 2009, forty-two million, two hundred and fifty-nine

21 thousand, nine hundred and seventy pounds of toxic

22 chemicals according to the toxic release inventory.

23 I live in the center of the beast. We

24 produce fifteen thousand megawatts. It's actually

25 fifteen thousand and three megawatts of electricity
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1 with those plants. Fifteen thousand megawatts. Of

2 that, we use about forty-four hundred megawatts in this

3 same region, to power, among other things, three of the

4 remaining nine aluminum smelters that are in the

5 nation. Results of that are really kind of bad. This

6 is a terrible environmental justice issue.

7 In 1998, there was a study done by the

8 University of Southern Indiana and a private group

9 called Tri-State Partners for Health that showed that a

10 kid in Evansville from nine to thirteen was five times

11 more likely to be hospitalized with asthma than his

12 counterpart in Fort Wayne. Why is that? Because we're

13 surrounded by coal-fired power plants and Fort Wayne

14 has none, at least appreciably none within a close

15 distance.

16 Like Mr. Lowe who said earlier -- the first

17 gentleman who spoke as an evangelical, talked about the

18 carp that he caught and gave to a, a man whose family

19 was hungry. I've seen that happen time and again and

20 I, I'm torn now whenever I see somebody -- a

21 subsistence fisherman doing that and catching large

22 catfish, carp, buffalo, and others out of the Ohio

23 River because I know that they're hungry and I know

24 that they're giving their children a problem that

25 they're going to have to face.
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1 Recently, we found a mercury poisoned eagle

2 in the region. Why would that be? Mercury are in

3 fish, the fish are consumed by the eagles.

4 You know, it's been twenty-one long years

5 since the Clean Air Act of 1990 was passed. It's been

6 thirty years since Valley Watch got, got started and

7 the reason we got started, among other things, was

8 because of a study that you guys did back in 1980

9 called the Ohio River Basin Energy Study. In that,

10 just dealing with sulfur dioxide alone, it said that

11 there would be two hundred and eighteen thousand

12 increased deaths in the Ohio Valley if sulfur dioxide

13 wasn't controlled. I personally thought, well you

14 know, if we control it, what's it going to be, so ORBES

15 projected that; a hundred and nine thousand. They said

16 it would cut it in half if we cut sulfur dioxide

17 emissions in half.

18 Well that was in 1980. By 1990, the Bill was

19 passed to cut those sulfur dioxide emissions and about

20 2000 it was implemented and low and behold, we got

21 thirty-five percent reduction by the year 2000 in

22 sulfur dioxide emissions. How many of those people I

23 knew? I know a lot of people who have died at early

24 ages, at young, very young ages. I know a lot of

25 people that are sick. In, in my community, there's
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1 four major cancer facilities and we send a lot of

2 people to Nashville, St. Louis, Louisville and

3 Indianapolis to get treated for cancer as well.

4 Our community has a hundred and fifteen

5 thousand people with four major cancer facilities. You

6 know, I'm a little concerned that so far it's been

7 ninety five percent of the people that you've heard

8 today. I think it's thirty-eight to two that have

9 spoken in favor of this rule and I'm a little concerned

10 that the reason the other side didn't bother to show up

11 at this hearing is because they think the fix is in;

12 that you guys will take all this testimony, have three

13 hundred thousand people testify or offer comments and

14 then you'll let the OMB boss you around.

15 It's time to take a stand. My life depends

16 upon it. Everybody I know depends upon this. It's

17 time, now. Thank you.

18 MS. KURLANSKY: Mr. Blair, I'm interested in

19 the study about the children in Evansville being, I

20 think you said five times more likely to have asthma.

21 Is that something you'll submit to us please?

22 MR. BLAIR: Yes, I sure will.

23 MS. KURLANSKY: Okay. Thank you. And

24 Ms. Persky, you were talking about this study done from

25 [indecipherable] study. This is the one that he did of
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1 the power plants in the --

2 MS. PERSKY: Yes. The estimate of the

3 effects of actually maintaining better control of the

4 pollution of the power plants in Illinois. He, he

5 looked at the group of power plants in Illinois and the

6 surrounding both within Chicago and the surrounding

7 area of thirty-three million people. I think this was

8 published in 2002.

9 MS. KURLANSKY: Right. Okay. Thank you.

10 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. We

11 appreciate it.

12 Next two speakers please, Leigh Touchton and

13 Howard Ehrman.

14 MS. TOUCHTON: Good afternoon. My name is

15 Leigh Touchton. I'm a mother. I have an eight year

16 old daughter that I had late in life. I learned that

17 after I moved to Georgia, I'm from Valdosta, Georgia.

18 I came all this way just to testify. I learned that

19 the Georgia Department of Natural Resources had issued

20 a warning ten years ago that pregnant women in Georgia

21 should limit their consumption of Georgia fish to once

22 a month, but two, two fish species; bass and red

23 breasted sun fish, which is a type of perch were

24 classified as too dangerous to eat. Swordfish and

25 albacore tuna also fall in this category. Even one bit
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1 contains dangerous levels of mercury which comes

2 primarily from these antiquated coal-fired power

3 plants.

4 I'm a trained biologist. I have a master's

5 in science from the University of Virginia. I've

6 taught high school and college biology. I also have

7 taught environmental science. I live in an area of

8 Georgia where most of the boys grow up hunting and

9 fishing. None of the college students that I've ever

10 taught have ever known, before they came into my class,

11 that the Department of Natural Resources has warnings

12 against eating wild caught fish. I am the first time

13 that they've ever been informed of this dangerous

14 situation.

15 I'm also the President of the Valdosta NAACP

16 Branch. I'm the first white woman in history to hold

17 this role in the nation. In Valdosta, Georgia, like

18 many places, the African American community suffers

19 higher rates of poverty. In our community, the average

20 salary for African Americans is eighteen thousand

21 dollars while the average salary for Caucasian

22 Americans is thirty-six thousand dollars. What we see,

23 as a consequence is that a lot of African American

24 families will fish in order to supplement their diet,

25 to bring protein into their diet.
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1 When I learned about mercury poisoning due to

2 the fish consumption, I began to finally understand

3 that the African American community was suffering a lot

4 of health problems that might and probably are directly

5 related to this high incidence of mercury in their

6 diet.

7 The Valdosta African American community has

8 been designated an environmental justice community by

9 the EPA already and this is because of one incinerator

10 that's already located in their community, but this

11 community suffers an infant mortality rate that is

12 twice as high as the white community in Valdosta. The

13 rate of ADD, ADHD, birth defects, slow speech, and

14 other neurological disorders as were documented by

15 Dr. Persky is much higher in the African American

16 community than in the, than in elementary schools that

17 are predominantly white.

18 Nationwide, the rate of asthma is three to

19 five times higher for black Americans as for white

20 Americans and hospital admissions for asthma are higher

21 for black families. This causes undue hardship, both

22 on the amount of money that families have to spend to

23 get treated and on the amount of salary that's lost

24 from their jobs when they have to take time off.

25 I believe this is directly due to the
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1 disproportionate burden of pollution that this

2 community has to face. About eight years ago, a local

3 physician in our community started collecting hair

4 samples and sending them in to a medical lab for

5 testing for mercury. The rate of mercury levels in the

6 African American community was astronomical compared to

7 the white community.

8 When I was pregnant, I was educated as to the

9 dangers of eating wild caught fish, but most Georgia

10 families are simply not aware of these warnings and I'm

11 sure everybody here realizes that southern states,

12 historically score at the bottom in levels of

13 graduation rates and levels of testing and so on and so

14 forth. Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi always vie

15 for last place, so we are not the most educated portion

16 of our nation.

17 So that's why we depend on the EPA. Not only

18 are most Georgians uninformed on this subject, but the

19 Georgia Department of Education School Nutrition

20 Program hasn't even gotten up to speed on this

21 information. I was shocked to learn that tuna and fish

22 sticks, which are from cod, are often a part of their

23 school lunch.

24 To return to the neurological and behavioral

25 disorders like ADHD that can be caused by mercury
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1 poisoning, our school system expels and refers African

2 American students at a rate twenty-five percent higher

3 than Caucasian Americans and many of us wonder are

4 these behavior problems due to untreated ADD and ADHD?

5 There's also a higher rate of autism.

6 In addition, the EPA's score card data, our

7 county is listed in the top twenty percent worst air

8 polluted counties in the nation. So when you look at

9 all of this information, it's easy to connect the dots

10 to what's happening to a community in terms of the

11 health risks, mortality, and morbidity data that is

12 accumulating.

13 Georgia is a red state. Everybody knows

14 that. We are a right to work state. We hate unions.

15 We think President Obama is a socialist. We, we have

16 to go to the Department of Justice every time we redraw

17 our voting district lines, which we're doing right now.

18 We have had to fight -- I'm fifty-one years old and as

19 long as I can -- I went through bussing, I went through

20 integration. We have had to fight for civil rights in

21 Georgia for as long as I've been alive and we still are

22 and environmental rights are a civil right.

23 So, that's why we're coming to the EPA

24 because we need your help. We need you to strengthen

25 these laws. If you don't do it, our state is not going
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1 to take any action. We have never, as a state, passed

2 a law that was stronger than what the EPA has passed.

3 And so we're asking you for the health of these people

4 who oftentimes don't have a voice and don't have the

5 money to come to these EPA hearings and testify on

6 their behalf. We're asking you to please strengthen

7 that rule and take mercury out of the atmosphere.

8 Thank you.

9 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Dr. Ehrman, please.

10 DR. EHRMAN: Good afternoon. My name is

11 Howard Ehrman. I'm a faculty member like Vicki Persky

12 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a few blocks

13 from here, in the College of Medicine and also in the

14 school public health. But I'm speaking today as a

15 Board Member of the Little Village Environmental

16 Justice Organization.

17 I support the U.S. EPA's proposed mercury and

18 air standards for coal and oil power plants.

19 When I was a child in the south side of

20 Chicago, my grandfather would take me fishing along

21 rivers and Lake Michigan. Like many, my grandfather

22 was a sustenance fisherman, helping to sustain our

23 family, not just doing it for sport.

24 The present deepening economic depression

25 among the vast majority of Americans is forcing more
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1 and more people to do sustenance fishing. Right here

2 in Chicago, we can go to the lake, we can go --

3 actually to the sanitary canal to the Chicago River

4 nearby; hundreds of people today, on a day like this,

5 nice bright and sunny are doing fishing.

6 The crisis is greatest among working class

7 and poor people of color. Many fish that we ate when I

8 was a child, I would not give to my two daughters of

9 child bearing age or my three grandchildren because of

10 high mercury levels. I want to take my grandchildren

11 fishing, but I can't. I can afford not to, but many

12 cannot and unknowingly and increasingly feeding, are

13 feeding their families mercury poisoned fish.

14 The twelve hundred U.S. coal-fired power

15 units put fifty three tons of mercury in the air each

16 year. Half of all the total mercury emissions in the

17 United States. This is a digital thermometer. If this

18 was an old fashioned mercury thermometer, it would

19 contain one gram of mercury. If this one gram of

20 mercury comes out of the Fisk Power Plant, which is two

21 miles that way, that's enough to contaminate a twenty

22 acre lake. However, the mercury emissions from U.S.

23 power plants and power units is fifty-three tons a

24 year. That's enough, basically to contaminate one

25 billion acres of fresh water. A hundred and sixty
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1 times the size of the five Great Lakes combined, the

2 largest body of fresh water in the world.

3 Three days a week, I teach medical students

4 and see patients at a university clinic in, in the

5 Chicago back of the yards neighborhood, two miles south

6 of the Fisk Plant -- within the death zone. Yesterday,

7 Jose Sanchez came for uncontrolled asthma, Elijah Smith

8 for high lead levels and Nancy Solice [phonetic] for

9 learning disabilities. Elijah, Nancy and Jose are not

10 unusual patients. There are tens of thousands like

11 them in the Chicago region and millions in the United

12 States. They are the most vulnerable to the

13 particulate matter or soot. The mercury, the lead, the

14 dioxin and other poisons they breathe and eat everyday

15 that come from the Fisk Crawford and the twelve hundred

16 power units in the United States which this new rule

17 seeks to decrease.

18 They exist in every U.S. city, suburb, town

19 and farm, particularly in areas of people of color

20 which are closer to coal power plants than where whites

21 live. The two mile and five mile death zones around

22 Fisk Crawford and all coal power plants are where the

23 greatest fall out of these poisons occurs.

24 The Chicago Fisk and Crawford plants have the

25 greatest number of people living in these death zones
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1 of any of the twelve hundred coal powered units in the

2 entire United States. Over three hundred thousand

3 people, eighty-three percent of whom are people of

4 color. Forty-two of us die in that death zone every

5 year, within the Fisk and Crawford death zones with

6 twenty-eight hundred asthma attacks and five hundred

7 and fifty emergency room visits.

8 This data is from the 2001 Harvard School of

9 Public Health Study, part of which Vicki Persky

10 referred to.

11 Within the death zones around these two

12 Chicago power plants are fifty elementary and high

13 schools with over fifty thousand children attending

14 school. We forgot to bring a map here from the Chicago

15 Metropolitan Agency for Planning, but they did for us

16 in 2007 which shows exactly where all these school are,

17 what their names are, etcetera.

18 According to a study released in the last

19 year, these two plants are costing the people and

20 economy of the City of Chicago over one billion dollars

21 a year just in healthcare costs and work days lost.

22 I'm very happy to see in the data, in the write up that

23 your agency did on these coal power plants, that you

24 mentioned those things. However, there's a big thing

25 that you overlooked.
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1 According to the National Center for Health

2 Statistics latest data, persons in the U.S. with asthma

3 missed ten point five million school days and fourteen

4 point two million work days due to their asthma.

5 Parents missed twenty million school -- work days

6 because they were taking care of their kids at home

7 with their asthma. According to the U.S. Centers for

8 Disease Control, far and away, asthma is the number one

9 cause of school absences.

10 What this means to public school systems,

11 whether they're in rural Georgia or right here in the

12 Chicago Public School System is that hundreds of

13 million, probably billions of dollars are being lost

14 because in every state of the union, schools are paid

15 for by average daily attendance. Since the number one

16 cause of people missing school is asthma, schools are

17 losing hundreds of millions of dollars and the primary

18 cause of this asthma, as well as exacerbations are coal

19 power plants.

20 This is a really important group of studies

21 that have been done in the last fifteen years. When I

22 was in medical school and until recently, we always

23 taught the medical school and students and residents

24 that asthma was not caused by particulate matter. That

25 it was just exacerbated. We have many good studies,
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1 starting with the UCLA study of 1996 next to the

2 freeways in Los Angeles that show that clearly indeed,

3 particulate matter is very probably a cause of asthma,

4 and not just a cause for exacerbation.

5 I've been teaching medical and public health

6 students and family medicine residents at Cook County

7 Hospital and the University of Illinois and doing

8 research about the dangers of coal power plants, the

9 particulate matter, soot, mercury, lead, ozone dioxin

10 for over thirty-five years and I'm sick and tired of

11 seeing patients, friends, and family members, including

12 my wife, son and grandson who are sick and tired

13 because of these twelve hundred coal power units in our

14 country.

15 In 1969, I had the pleasure of meeting a

16 retired coal miner in Chicago's uptown neighborhood

17 with black lung disease. Gasping for air with every

18 strained breath. Uptown had the densest population of

19 retired coal miners in the United States; over twenty

20 thousand of our brothers and sisters. Since then I

21 have taken care of hundreds of them, most of whom who

22 have now passed away to greater peace than they had in

23 the last two decades when they were alive.

24 While implementing the U.S. EPA rule by

25 November of this year is a real step forward, we must
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1 all work together to shut down forever all the U.S.

2 coal power plants in the next decade, starting with

3 Chicago's Crawford and Fisk by 2012. Through energy

4 conservation, selected energy efficiency and massive

5 increases in solar and wind power.

6 Keep oil in the soil, coal in the hole and

7 tar sands in the land. Our lives and those of our

8 children and grandchildren depend on it. Thank you.

9 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Any questions guys?

10 MS. KURLANSKY: Yes. Ms. Touchton, you

11 talked about some mercury hair testing that was done in

12 your community and I'm hoping that --

13 MS. TOUCHTON: It never made it to a study,

14 but I can get you some studies from other places.

15 MS. KURLANSKY: Please.

16 MS. TOUCHTON: But this never was published.

17 It was simply what we put together to show ourselves

18 what was happening.

19 MS. KURLANSKY: All right.

20 MS. TOUCHTON: Okay.

21 MS. KURLANSKY: Whatever you can send.

22 MS. TOUCHTON: Okay.

23 MS. KURLANSKY: And of course, Dr. Ehrman,

24 you mentioned a lot of studies and I hope you will make

25 sure we've got them all. Okay?
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1 DR. EHRMAN: Sure. No problem.

2 MR. CLARK: Great. Thank you. Thank you

3 both very much.

4 The next two speakers. We're going to do

5 four more speakers before the lunch break and then

6 reconvene at one thirty instead of two o'clock, so the

7 next two speakers would be Mr. Ben Stewart and

8 Mr. Frank Solowski, Solowsi. Are you Ben

9 or --

10 MR. STEWART: I'm Ben.

11 MR. CLARK: You're Ben. Okay. Is Frank

12 here? All right, in that case, let me ask Jan Boudart.

13 Are you here Jan? No Frank Solowsi, no Jan Boudart?

14 So, and then Dave Shaw? Dave? Come on up.

15 FEMALE: She's a Jan.

16 MS. BOHN: I'm a Jan and [indecipherable].

17 MR. CLARK: Is it B-O-U-D-A-R-T?

18 MS. BOHN: No. B-O-H-N.

19 MR. CLARK: Okay.

20 MS. BOHN: They just told me

21 [indecipherable].

22 MR. CLARK: Okay. Well, well Jan why don't

23 you -- Dave, if you don't mind. Yeah, take -- well,

24 actually, I was going to say now Jan, if you -- yeah.

25 Go ahead. Dave will grab a seat and that will be
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1 great. Thanks. Yeah, sure. Thanks Dave. And if you

2 guys could just also spell, spell your names.

3 MR. STEWART: Sure. I'm Benjamin Stewart,

4 B-E-N-J-A-M-I-N, S-T-E-W-A-R-T. I'm a Professor of

5 Worship at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

6 where I also serve as Dean of [Indecipherable] Chapel

7 and I'm a Lutheran Pastor. Thank you for the

8 profoundly important work that you're doing on this

9 proposed rule and for this opportunity to comment.

10 As a scholar of religion and a religious

11 practitioner, I want to speak to some of the religious

12 interests of the religious community, especially

13 Christian community related to this proposed rule.

14 In the original languages of the bible, there

15 is a single word that is used for three related things;

16 wind, spirit, and breath. It's "pneuma" in Greek,

17 "ruah" in Hebrew, got that? Both mean wind, spirit and

18 breath. So right away, you can see that in

19 Christianity and Judaism, there is a spiritual interest

20 in the physical things that are at issue in this

21 hearing; the air, the wind all around us, the breath in

22 our lungs. Wind, breath, spirit, it's the same word.

23 Using this word as a lens, I want to name

24 three ways our religious tradition looks at this

25 proposed rule and they are illustrative of why I am
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1 here to speak in support of this rule. First, this

2 word for wind, spirit, breath actually shows up in the

3 very first sentence of the bible. In the beginning

4 when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth

5 was a formless void and darkness covered the face of

6 the deep while a wind, spirit breath from God swept

7 over the face of the waters.

8 Today, the wind that sweeps over the face of

9 the waters carries mercury into those waters poisoning

10 the fish and poisoning those who eat the fish.

11 Your proposed rule goes a long way towards

12 recovering a wind that will again bring life to the

13 waters instead of degrading them and making them toxic.

14 Thus, I want you to hear that this proposed rule helps

15 to regain a traditional religious good among many other

16 kinds of goods. A good that is evoked in the first

17 sentence of the bible; life giving winds that sweep

18 across the face of the waters.

19 Second, in another creation story in Genesis,

20 God scoops up the mud of the earth and forms it and

21 then breathes the breath of life into it. This story

22 symbolizes the way Jews and Christians consider every

23 breath for all of us to be a gift from God, but at this

24 very moment, in emergency rooms all across this city,

25 right now, there are people struggling for that basic
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1 gift, gasping, sweating, panicked with asthma attacks;

2 many of which are caused by the pollution this proposed

3 rule would regulate.

4 Over the course of just two years, this

5 proposed rule would prevent a quarter of a million

6 asthma attacks, restoring the breath of life to people

7 struggling simply to breathe. That's an ethical good

8 and Christians and Jews along with many others, say it

9 is also a religious good, that breath is a gift from

10 God and it's a deplorable theft for coal and oil

11 industries to rob people of that gift.

12 Third, at what is for many Christians, the

13 most important festival of the year, the vigil of

14 Easter, one of the traditional scripture readings is

15 from Ezekiel in which Ezekiel sees a vision of a valley

16 of dry bones and so the prophet Ezekiel says, "Come

17 from the fore winds oh breath and breathe upon these

18 slain that they may live." Ezekiel continues, "I

19 prophesied as God commanded me and the breath came into

20 them and they lived and stood on their feet a vast

21 multitude."

22 If you brought a vast multitude back to life,

23 what would it look like? In the first four years of

24 this rule coming fully into effect, this rule would

25 save the lives of more Americans than have been killed
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1 in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam combined. With this

2 rule, thousands upon thousands will stand on their feet

3 and live; a vast multitude.

4 For my denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran

5 Church in America, made up of four point five million

6 people here in the United States, right now the

7 advocacy action that is literally at the top of our

8 list is this proposed rule and I leave you with words

9 from our national office.

10 Without these protections, our neighbors,

11 particularly the most vulnerable; children, the

12 elderly, those living in poverty and unable to afford

13 healthcare, will continue to suffer the harmful impacts

14 of toxic air pollution. We urge the EPA to adopt the

15 strongest standards possible for these pollutants and

16 to continue its important work to defend our

17 communities from environmental harm.

18 Thank you for this hard and good work.

19 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Jan, I'll let you do

20 the last name.

21 MS. BOHN: Okay. I'm a little nervous about

22 this, but and yet -- I'm an asthmatic as you can hear.

23 It's in my voice. Mercury is in my body. My name is

24 Jan, Janet Bohn, B-O-H-N. I live in Wisconsin and for

25 thirty-four years, I was a teacher and a school
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1 guidance counselor. During that time, the increase in

2 hyper activity and asthma and other problems that are

3 due to air pollution increased astronomically. It was,

4 it's such a sad thing to see that. Thirty-four years

5 ago, I very seldom saw those problems.

6 I became asthmatic eighteen years ago when I

7 moved to Lacrosse, Wisconsin, and unknown to me at that

8 time, there was a large incinerator burning waste and

9 plastics. This resulted in these smoke stacks belching

10 out heavy smoke which included mercury emissions.

11 Since then that plant has been closed and recycling

12 instituted in Lacrosse, but then I retired and I moved

13 to Madison, Wisconsin, where the pollution is even

14 worse. I live in Middleton, Wisconsin, and that's

15 located between a triangle of coal plants; the Charter

16 Plant in Madison, the Columbia Plant in Portage, and

17 the Plant Fill Plant. My asthma has continued to

18 become worse since moving here.

19 A recent Lung Association study said that

20 Madison area was the twenty-first, twenty-fourth worst

21 city in the U.S. for air pollution and I believe it. I

22 can attest to it. My friends used to call me the

23 canary in the coal mine. Now I've noticed that many of

24 my friends are coughing also. It's spreading.

25 The Wisconsin DNR used to be an advocate for
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1 clean water and air. As you know, our political

2 situation has recently changed. Other things are

3 changing quickly. We now have a corporate person at

4 the head of our DNR. Recent legislation in Wisconsin

5 has now allowed no regulation of what DNR does.

6 Wisconsin needs your help.

7 I'm an active person. I've taken exercise --

8 I've taken to exercising mainly indoors at an athletic

9 club, however I miss nature and I now find it necessary

10 to wear this mask whenever I walk outside or if I

11 bicycle outside. For me, for me this sign says it all.

12 Dirty coal takes my breath away. We don't like mercury

13 and we like the job that you're going to do and we need

14 your help. Thank you for that.

15 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you both. Any

16 questions, guys? Okay. Thank you both very much.

17 Our last two speakers then before the lunch

18 break would be Dave Shaw -- thanks Dave, for that --

19 and Brenda Archambo. Brenda, you can correct my

20 pronunciation and do the spelling when --

21 MS. ARCHAMBO: That was good.

22 MR. CLARK: Okay. All right.

23 MS. ARCHAMBO: He's first?

24 MR. CLARK: Sure. You all right with that

25 Dave?
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1 MR. SHAW: Sure. Good afternoon. My name is

2 David Shaw. I'm the Director of a Division of Air

3 Resources at the New York State Department of

4 Environmental Conservation, but today I'm testifying on

5 behalf of NACAA, the National Association of Clean Air

6 Agencies of which I am Co-President.

7 NACAA is an association of -- representing

8 fifty-one states and a hundred and sixty-five

9 metropolitan areas across the country who have the

10 primary responsibility under the Clean Air Act for

11 implementing our nation's clean air program. Thank you

12 for this opportunity to testify on EPA's proposed

13 maximum achievable control technology standards and new

14 source performance standards for coal, oil and fossil

15 fuel fired electric generating units.

16 EGU's are among the largest emitters of

17 toxics and criteria pollutants in the country. They're

18 also among the oldest sources of air pollution in the

19 country with many being built before the Clean Air Act

20 was adopted in 1970. Because of their age, many of

21 these units lack modern controls, accordingly the

22 benefits to public health and the environment that will

23 result from the implementation of these well considered

24 rules are substantial and EPA -- and NACAA strongly

25 supports the adoption of effective limitations on
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1 mercury, toxic acid gas, toxic metal emissions, and

2 criteria pollutants from these large sources.

3 An evaluation of the proposed rule will

4 require a detailed review of a substantial amount of

5 new information and analysis provided by EPA. NACAA

6 will submit detailed comments on these proposals by the

7 deadline identified in the proposal, however, we

8 appreciate this early opportunity to provide the agency

9 with our preliminary thoughts and will focus on three

10 major points today.

11 First, NACAA believes that the effective

12 regulation of emissions from EGU's is long overdue and

13 should not be delayed further. EGUs emit approximately

14 one half of the manmade emissions of mercury in the

15 U.S. as well as sixty percent of the arsenic, sixty

16 percent of the SO2, thirteen percent of the NO2, thirty

17 percent of the nickel, twenty percent of the chromium,

18 and more than fifty percent of the acid gasses in our

19 nation's emissions inventory.

20 It is now well past time for EPA to complete

21 these rules and for the first time limit emissions of

22 HAPs from these very significant sources as originally

23 contemplated by Congress.

24 Second, we believe the control of emissions

25 from EGUs is of critical important from public health
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1 and environmental perspectives. EGUs release mercury,

2 arsenic, other metals, acid gasses and particulates

3 that all harm human health. Uncontrolled releases of

4 mercury from power plants damage children's developing

5 brains, reducing their IQ and their ability to learn.

6 Mercury and many of the other toxic

7 pollutants also pollute our nation's lakes, streams,

8 and fish. Every state in our nation has a fish

9 advisory because of mercury contamination. Metals such

10 as arsenic, chromium six, and nickel can cause cancer.

11 Acid gasses cause lung damage and contribute to asthma,

12 bronchitis and other chronic respiratory disease

13 especially in children and the elderly. Particulate

14 emissions contribute to premature death and a wide

15 range of lung and heart diseases.

16 Clearly these emissions are posing

17 unacceptable health risks to the public and must be

18 addressed.

19 Third, NACAA believes that effective

20 regulation of emissions from EGUs is technically

21 feasible and affordable. In recent years, there have

22 been significant improvement and advances in

23 technologies for reducing emissions of mercury and

24 particulate metals from EGUs. Indeed, many states --

25 excuse me -- many states adopted programs that call for
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1 substantial emission reductions from sources in their

2 jurisdiction and these facilities need to be included

3 in the MACT floor determination.

4 While there are always new technologies being

5 developed and existing technologies are constantly

6 being improved, the proposed emission levels do not

7 seem to reflect such improvements. We recommend that

8 EPA consider strengthening the provisions in the rule

9 including using beyond the MACT floor provisions when

10 warranted.

11 Besides being technically feasible, we

12 believe that the proposed reductions are likely to be

13 cost effective, especially considering the fact that

14 the controls used to limit toxics emissions will

15 provide an additional benefit by reducing emissions of

16 fine particulate matter associated with heart disease,

17 stroke, asthma and other ailments.

18 Great information is available concerning the

19 economic and public health benefits of reducing PM

20 emissions and this information demonstrates that the

21 proposed rules will provide a very significant positive

22 public health and economic benefit beyond what is

23 associated with reductions in the HAPs themselves.

24 EPA's estimate of the co-benefits from

25 reducing PM emissions will result in six thousand eight
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1 hundred to seventeen thousand fewer premature deaths to

2 say nothing of reductions in illnesses. The economic

3 benefit associated with this is in the range of

4 fifty-nine billion to a hundred and forty billion per

5 year at a cost of, of only ten point nine billion per

6 year for controls, thus the rate of return to the

7 public is six dollars to fourteen dollars for each

8 dollar spent. This is a wise investment.

9 NACAA looks forward to further review and

10 analysis of the proposals and we'll submit more

11 detailed comments by the deadline. Thank you very much

12 for the opportunity to be here today.

13 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you very much.

14 Ms. Archambo.

15 MS. ARCHAMBO: I, I'd also like to thank you

16 for having this hearing and hearing us out because we,

17 we cherish our clean air and our clean water.

18 My name is Brenda Archambo. I live on Black

19 Lake in Sheboygan, Michigan, which is at the very tip

20 of the mitt and it's a water wonderland there. I'm

21 also an angler and the Founder and President of

22 Sturgeon for Tomorrow and -- which is a non-profit

23 organization whose Michigan -- whose mission is to

24 assist fisheries, managers in their rehabilitation and

25 recovery of lake sturgeon. Lake sturgeon are a
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1 threatened species in the state of Michigan.

2 Michigan's wildlife and natural resources are

3 the backbone of our five billion dollar recreational

4 tourism economy. The Great Lakes are a national

5 treasure. Michigan's wildlife is as unique as the

6 shape of its shoreline and the variety of the habitats

7 found within its borders. Whether it's a moose in the

8 upper peninsula, a musky in Lake Sinclair or the iconic

9 lake sturgeon in northern lower peninsula, wildlife

10 helps define Michigan's sense of place.

11 Our state's history is inseparably linked to

12 its wildlife and it's what makes us pure Michigan. As

13 a sportswoman, I am particularly concerned about

14 mercury. This harmful air toxic settles from the air

15 onto our lakes, rivers, and forests, polluting the

16 environment and accumulating up the food chain as the

17 fish and wildlife consume the contamination. This

18 directly effects many species including water fowl,

19 walleye, perch, bass, musky, and sturgeon. All are

20 revered as part of our state's angling and hunting

21 conservation heritage.

22 This potent neurotoxin is especially harmful

23 to children whose exposure effects the child's ability

24 to walk, talk, read and learn. As many as one in six

25 women of childbearing age is likely to have mercury
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1 levels in her blood high enough to put her baby at risk

2 and that's just uncanny.

3 Few experiences in life are more precious

4 than witnessing the excitement of a child who reels in

5 their first fish, then takes it home proudly for

6 dinner. How do we explain to them that they cannot

7 eat, safely eat the fish that they caught?

8 Our families should not -- our families

9 should be able to eat safe fish without having to worry

10 about mercury in their bloodstream. As hunters and

11 anglers, we know how widespread mercury is in our

12 environment, posing a danger to all who eat mercury

13 laden fish.

14 Anglers have had to worry about mercury fish

15 advisories for decades. Last year in Michigan, there

16 were a hundred and twenty fish advisories. A hundred

17 and twenty of them. All fifty states at some point in

18 time will have a fish advisory.

19 In Michigan, there are one point seven

20 million hunters and anglers that spend three point

21 three billion dollars a year. Of that, those support

22 forty-six thousand, forty-six thousand jobs, so

23 safeguarding our natural resources is important to

24 those of us Michiganders who hunt fish and spend time

25 in the woods and on the waters. But it's also a wise
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1 investment into our economic future. Reducing mercury

2 and air toxics will help protect our long standing

3 investment and our outdoor heritage.

4 The difference today is that we now have the

5 technology to feasibly and affordably solve this

6 problem. By utilizing our environmental laws, we could

7 help rid the air and water of those harmful pollutants

8 and restore the health of our ecosystems. We cannot

9 afford to return to the days when our rivers burned,

10 smog darkened our skies and our native species were

11 driven to the brink of extinction.

12 I strongly urge EPA to move forward the

13 strong mercury rule and air toxic standard insuring our

14 outdoor legacy for future generations. Now and in the

15 future, the EPA and other federal and state

16 environmental laws can help insure that the legacy we

17 leave our children is a clean and healthy planet.

18 Thank you.

19 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Appreciate

20 it very much.

21 MS. ARCHAMBO: Thank you.

22 MR. CLARK: We are going to suspend the

23 hearing for lunch. We are going to come back --

24 actually I had said before one thirty, I'm not being

25 told it's one forty-five, so we are going to be back to
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1 start with the next set of witnesses at one forty-five.

2 Thank you.

3 (Lunch break from 1:03 p.m. until 1:54 p.m.)

4 MR. CLARK: -- and I know there's a number of

5 people that are on a bus, that came down from Wisconsin

6 that are, that are looking to try to get in as well, so

7 I'm going to sort of pass on reading my, my opening

8 statement which we basically start each one of these

9 sessions with, but I, I will say that we're here to

10 take public comment on, on a rule that we proposed

11 March 16; a couple of months ago on toxic --

12 controlling toxic emissions from power plants and a new

13 source performance standard to reduce pollutants like

14 sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from power plants as

15 well.

16 That rule is open for public comment right

17 now. Public comment period closes on July the 5th of

18 this year. We are under consent decree with the Court

19 to issue the, the final rule by November the 16th of

20 this year. So we have quite a lot of work ahead of us.

21 We're, we're taking public comment at this hearing

22 today. We've also got one going on in Philadelphia and

23 we're going to have another public hearing in Atlanta

24 on Thursday. Thank you.

25 What I would like to do here is just explain,
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1 for those of you that weren't in earlier. The system

2 that we've got, we're going to invite the speakers up

3 two at a time to, to come up and, and sit down and

4 we'll ask each speaker to, to speak. We're hoping to

5 hold everybody to five minutes if possible just from

6 the sheer number of folks that we've got. We're going

7 to go through the afternoon until -- we're supposed to

8 go until five o'clock. We might extend that a bit for,

9 for a dinner break and then pick back up at six thirty

10 and go until as long as it takes tonight, so we plan on

11 being here fairly, fairly late.

12 With me is Ellen Kurlansky from EPA's Office

13 of Program Analysis and Review in Washington, D.C. and,

14 and Nick Hutson from EPA's Office of Air Quality

15 Planning and Standards in Research Triangle Park, North

16 Carolina and John Mooney from the EPA Regional Office

17 here in Chicago and Doug Aburano from the EPA Regional

18 Office in, in Chicago as well. My name is Jeff Clark

19 and I'm Associate Director for EPA's Office of Air

20 Quality Planning and Standards in North Carolina and,

21 and our office is responsible for developing the rule.

22 So, with that, if there's hopefully -- unless

23 anybody wants to add anything, let's just go ahead and

24 call up the, the next two speakers, Rose Gomez and

25 Chris Pado please. While you guys are coming up, if
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1 you were here this morning, you, you know this already,

2 but the most important guy in the room is the court

3 reporter, Chris, who's sitting against the wall there

4 and Chris is -- if, if -- he needs to be able to hear

5 everyone, so we're asking that you pull the microphone

6 up, up to you when you speak and, and also ask that you

7 could spell -- say your name and spell your name for

8 the court reporter as well, that would be great, so

9 Ms. Gomez, if we could start with you. Appreciate it.

10 MS. GOMEZ: Hi, my name is Rose Gomez and my

11 first name, R-O-S-E, my last name is G-O-M-E-Z. I'm

12 here because I feel compelled not to stand by the

13 sidelines and not voice my heartfelt opinion regarding

14 this rule because it effects and is going to affect so

15 many future generations. This doesn't end with us.

16 This is bigger than all of us in this room because it's

17 going to affect the future and the future is in the

18 hands of us regarding what we're going to do today.

19 And myself, I grew up in the community of

20 Little Village, which is west of here about more or

21 less five to seven miles west of here and I grew up

22 near the Crawford Power Plant which is on thirty-four

23 hundred South Polasky. I grew up in that neighborhood

24 not really knowing exactly what that coal power plant

25 represents, which is a lot of health damaging effects
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1 that still goes on today as we speak. And the numbers

2 are staggering and indisputable. The data is -- has

3 been proven with so many different statistics.

4 Scientists continue to let us know about the scary

5 health effects regarding the community where that power

6 plant exists.

7 Myself, I have a son and actually the reason

8 why I got involved. As an environmentalist

9 specifically with the Sierra Club is because actually

10 my son represents the future and an investment which I

11 believe a lot of us do have. Because what we do is

12 going to affect the children and it would be shameful,

13 I would say, nothing less than shameful knowing

14 everything that we can do today to make a difference

15 regarding the technology that's available.

16 And again, I believe that those coal power

17 plants have the ability to stop killing really the

18 people and the, the statistics are forty-one premature

19 deaths, fifteen hundred asthma attacks, and countless

20 other statistics.

21 Again, I'm here because of the future and it

22 depends on us what we're going to do today and I

23 believe nothing less than acting out on passing this

24 rule would be shameful on our part.

25 I do want to say that the other reason why
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1 I'm here is because of the other coal power plant which

2 exists in Pilsen. That is on Surmack [phonetic] and

3 Holsted [phonetic]. That's even closer, actually, to

4 this hotel which is on Holsted and Surmack which is

5 about two miles west of this location and you, you

6 can't miss that coal power plant when you're down the

7 [indecipherable] or the I55.

8 You can see the smoke stack which is scary at

9 night because it continues endlessly to blow all the

10 toxins in city air and then sadly, there is a high

11 school, which has physical education right across the

12 street from this coal power plant. I think that is

13 something I would say morally wrong to have those

14 children have physical education. The name of the

15 school is [indecipherable] and that school is down the

16 street, across the street you could say from that coal

17 power plant which is Fisk, F-I-S-K, which is also owned

18 by Midwest Generation like that other power plant,

19 Crawford. Both are owned by that same company, Midwest

20 Generation.

21 And I have been working with other members of

22 the coalition to get that clean power ordinance passed

23 and it's something that I hope that we can get done,

24 but this, in itself, I hope that we can get this

25 through regarding the mercury rule, including all the
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1 other toxins that would be included with this rule.

2 Thank you.

3 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Ms. -- I

4 don't know.

5 MS. PADO: Hi. My name is Christine Pado,

6 C-H-R-I-S-T-I-N-E, P-A-D-O and I'm here to testify

7 today in favor of EPA's mercury and air toxics rule.

8 I have a master's degree in neurobiology and an MBA.

9 I spent several years working in laboratories and have

10 been working in corporations at the level of director

11 for the past fifteen years.

12 Given that much of today's testimony centers

13 on the toxic effects of methyl mercury on developing

14 fetus and children, I will not rehash the facts on that

15 issue. Rather, I'd like to address the issue of

16 particulates.

17 As a background, I lived near a landfill that

18 has had significant trouble controlling emissions of

19 hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide. In the course of

20 my research regarding the landfill emissions, I found

21 that sulfur dioxide has significant direct adverse

22 health effects, including damage to the lungs of

23 healthy, non-asthmatic adults at concentrations as low

24 as one to two parts per million.

25 Longer term health damaging effects are
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1 associated with sulfur dioxide in combination with fine

2 particulates of which sulfur dioxide is a precursor.

3 These fine particulates penetrate deeply into sensitive

4 parts of the lungs and can cause or worsen respiratory

5 disease such as emphysema and bronchitis and can

6 aggravate existing heart disease, leading, as has been

7 discussed many times this morning, to increased

8 hospital admissions and premature deaths.

9 Even more disturbingly, though rarely

10 mentioned, it's becoming more evident through human and

11 animal studies that fine and ultra-fine particulates

12 can travel into the brain where they are neurotoxic

13 causing inflammation and neurodegenerative

14 diseases.

15 This is the air we're breathing right now,

16 air that's toxic to our lungs, to our heart and to our

17 brains.

18 I applaud EPA for seeking to decrease the

19 amount of these damaging particulates in the air we

20 breathe. Sadly, but predictably, the power generation

21 industry is fighting this regulation. This is not

22 unusual. Industry reflexively fights regulation, often

23 complaining about the cost of compliance and trotting

24 out the specter of lost jobs or in this case dire

25 warnings of wildly inflated increases in the cost of
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1 energy.

2 Being in management in corporate America,

3 I've seen my fair share of regulations. I have three

4 observations about regulations.

5 The first is that they are routinely held to

6 be job killers and/or profit killers. My experience

7 is, this is nonsense. No company I've worked for has

8 ever gone out of business or seen its profit evaporate

9 due to regulation nor has any company I worked for shed

10 jobs due to regulations. Profits and jobs go away for

11 many reasons, but a brief review of the business

12 literature indicates that mismanagement and ineffective

13 corporate govern is the key reasons for loss of profits

14 and the key reason for loss of jobs is to create a

15 quick boost to the bottom line.

16 Regulation is never mentioned in this

17 literature. Rather the opposite proves to be true.

18 Regulations, particularly those requiring new

19 technology are net job creators.

20 The second observation is that regulation

21 exists because industry declines to do the right thing

22 in the first place. Industry has known for years about

23 the adverse health and environmental effects of

24 uncontrolled emissions and industry knows how to do the

25 job. Dozens of coal-fired power plants have already
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1 done the job of controlling emissions and presumably

2 these plants are the ones contributing to the ten

3 percent decline in emissions from power plants since

4 1990. In fact, one utility executive has said that

5 compliance will not be unduly burdensome. Paul Allen,

6 SVP of Constellation Energy was quoted in the New York

7 Times as saying, "We know from experience that

8 constructing this technology can be done in a

9 reasonable time frame, especially with good advance

10 planning and that there is meaningful job creation

11 associated with the projects."

12 However, despite technology being available

13 and despite the leadership of other power generation

14 companies, the majority of the industry has chose to

15 wage a costly battle against regulations rather than

16 simply doing the right thing and investing in the

17 development and employment of control technology.

18 The third and final observation is that

19 regulations get the job done. EPA's own statistics

20 back this up. Municipal solid waste and medical waste

21 incinerators are subject to regulations. Since 1990,

22 these sources have decreased their emissions by over

23 ninety-five percent. In stark contrast to the

24 unregulated power plant industry that has seen

25 emissions over that time period drop by only ten
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1 percent.

2 The proposed regulations will save lives.

3 They will save money. They will create jobs. I

4 strongly support EPA's mercury and air toxics rule and

5 I thank the EPA for the opportunity to speak and for

6 standing for the health of the American citizens.

7 Thank you.

8 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you both very

9 much. Anyone have a comment or questions? No? Okay.

10 Thank you both.

11 Next two speakers please, Susanna McColley

12 and Richard Cogan. Hi. Susanna, please.

13 DR. McCOLLEY: Hi. My name is Dr. Susanna

14 McColley, S-U-S-A-N-N-A, M-C-C-O-L-L-E-Y and I'm the

15 Head of Pediatric Pulmonology at Children's Memorial

16 Hospital here in Chicago.

17 I'm speaking today on behalf of the American

18 Thoracic Society, a medical professional organization

19 of over fifteen thousand physicians, researchers and

20 allied health professionals who are dedicated to the

21 preventing, detection, treatment and cure of

22 respiratory, sleep and critical illnesses through

23 research, education and advocacy.

24 In my professional life, I treat kids with

25 lung disease. These are very sick kids who are very
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1 sensitive to environmental assaults like air pollution.

2 When Chicago has a high ozone day, which is very

3 frequent during the summer, we admit a lot more

4 children to the hospital with asthma exacerbations.

5 That's just an anecdote, but many scientific research

6 studies support that observation. Air pollution is a

7 major contributor to hospital stays for children with

8 asthma and cystic fibrosis and it causes, not only the

9 direct harm to these children by making them ill, but

10 it markedly increases healthcare costs.

11 Chicago has among the highest asthma

12 hospitalization and death rates in the United States

13 and air pollution is a significant contributor to this.

14 There's a lot of research demonstrating that air

15 pollution is bad for your health. Experiments show

16 that exposure to air pollution reduces pulmonary

17 function and promotes inflammation in the airways.

18 Epidemiologic studies have linked air

19 pollution to a whole host of adverse health

20 consequences, including cardiac death, respiratory

21 death, heart attacks, vascular remodeling, COPD

22 exacerbations, the asthma and CF exacerbations that I

23 just mentioned, as well as low birth weight.

24 As I and my pediatric colleagues often say,

25 kids are not just little adults. They're different
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1 from adults in important ways that make them uniquely

2 vulnerable to environmental assaults from air

3 pollution. They tend to be outside more. They're more

4 engaged in exercise outside. They breathe faster and

5 that makes them get proportionately higher levels of

6 air pollution into their lungs. They also have smaller

7 airways which makes them more vulnerable to the effects

8 of that inflammation triggered by air pollution.

9 Coal and oil fired power plants are a

10 significant source of air pollution in the U.S. Coal

11 powered plants emit a complex mixture of air

12 pollutants, including acid gasses, heavy metals and

13 particulate matter. The pollutions emitted from smoke

14 stacks are precursors for other pollutants like ozone

15 and PM2.5. Pollution from power plants has an

16 immediately health impact on nearby communities as well

17 as sending pollution to downwind communities.

18 The American Thoracic Society strongly

19 supports the EPA's proposed rules to reduce air toxic

20 emissions from coal-fired and oil fired power plants.

21 The proposed rule when implemented will have a

22 significant and positive impact on our nation's health.

23 The rule will require all coal and oil powered plants

24 to install pollution control equipment to reduce air

25 pollution emissions. It is very encouraging that over
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1 half of coal-fired power plants already have taken

2 this responsible action and installed equipment that

3 meets the standards of the proposed rule.

4 It's our hope that with urging of the EPA

5 rule, the remaining power plants will follow the

6 actions of their industry partners and install readily

7 available pollution control technology.

8 Reducing air pollution will have significant

9 health benefits for the U.S. especially for kids. EPA

10 estimates that the rule, when fully implemented will

11 prevent a hundred and twenty thousand cases of asthma

12 symptoms, eleven thousand cases of acute bronchitis and

13 twelve thousand emergency room and hospital visits

14 every year. That means fewer sick kids, fewer anxious

15 parents, a healthier America and lower health care

16 costs.

17 In conclusion, the dangers that exposure to

18 air pollution opposes is real. The science documenting

19 the adverse health effects of air pollution is

20 conclusive. The technology required to reduce air

21 pollution is readily available and already in use and

22 the benefits are meaningful and significant to passing

23 this rule. For this reason, the American Thoracic

24 Society and I personally strongly support the proposed

25 air toxic rule.
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1 Thank you for your time. I'm happy to take

2 any questions.

3 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Excuse me.

4 Thank you very much. Mr. Cogan, is that right?

5 MR. COGAN: Cogan.

6 MR. CLARK: Cogan.

7 MR. COGAN: My name is Richard Cogan,

8 C-O-G-A-N. I have been the owner and President of a

9 company here in Chicago called Textile Industries since

10 1985. In essence, I guess I have the EPA to thank for

11 keeping me in business because we make fabric

12 replacement filters for air pollution control; dust

13 collector bags.

14 So the truth of the matter is that even

15 though I have the EPA to thank for that, I would much

16 prefer to be out of business completely. I would like

17 to be in a position where the EPA has done such a good

18 job of keeping our air clean, that I no longer need to

19 be in existence. I would love for the EPA to put me

20 out of business.

21 That's simply all I have to say. Thank you.

22 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

23 MR. COGAN: Any questions?

24 MR. CLARK: I was just going to say, any

25 questions?
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1 MR. HUTSON: Yeah I have a question. Your

2 company makes replacement filters for, the type of

3 fabric filters that go in power plants?

4 MR. COGAN: We make a lot of different kinds

5 of dust collector bags for air pollution control.

6 MR. HUTSON: Okay.

7 MR. COGAN: Whether it's power plants,

8 whether it's zinc manufacturers, whether -- it, it

9 could be glue. We, we, we deal with so many different

10 kinds of businesses that require dust collector bags

11 and dust collector cartridges that depending on what

12 their application is, the fabric could be a dozen,

13 maybe several dozen different kinds of fabrics

14 depending on what the, the quality of their need is.

15 So that's what we do. We've been doing it since before

16 I took over the business when my dad had a heart

17 attack, so I took over in `85 and we've been doing this

18 since before then.

19 Any other questions?

20 MR. CLARK: I guess not. Thank you both very

21 much. Appreciate it.

22 MR. COGAN: Thank you.

23 DR. McCOLLEY: Thank you.

24 MR. COGAN: Thank you for the opportunity to

25 speak with you.
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1 MR. CLARK: Next two speakers, Jan Boudart

2 and Barry Woods please. All right. Either Jan or

3 Barry here? Okay. Let's move to the next two.

4 Margaret Nelson and Joyce -- oh gosh, it looks like

5 Bloominshine [phonetic], Bloominshine I think. Okay.

6 So those are the last next -- oh I'm sorry. Here we

7 have -- I'm sorry, you are?

8 MS. NELSON: Margaret Nelson.

9 MR. CLARK: Margaret Nelson. Okay, great.

10 Excuse me for interrupting for a second. Can I ask you

11 a question? Excuse me, the woman that just came in --

12 can you get one of the EPA people to come in here

13 please? Thank you. Margaret please go ahead.

14 MS. NELSON: My intention had been to present

15 myself as a, an Aunt and grand Aunt with many younger

16 relatives that I would like to see grow up. That point

17 has been made and made well many times during this

18 testimony. So I'm going to duck back to my other

19 stance which is that of a folk singer and pretty much

20 give you my opinion in song. This is in strong support

21 of the act to reduce the release of toxins to the

22 atmosphere. This is in strong support of the EPA and

23 has something to do with the fact that what we do here

24 does not only affect the USA, it effects all of North

25 America. It effects all of the world. The wind does
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1 not, does not cease to blow.

2 Brothers all stand together. Sisters all

3 join your hands. We are children of one mother though

4 we're born in distant lands.

5 In the circle of the ocean, on the pathway of

6 the wind, by the blood and breath within us, to all

7 creatures we are kin.

8 False the words that have divided, now a

9 better truth is known. All things living one great

10 family, earth our mother, earth our home.

11 In the circle of the ocean, on the pathway of

12 the wind, by the blood and breath within us, to all

13 creatures we are kin.

14 We can change our way of living to protect

15 and not destroy. Serve the earth and love each other,

16 in community find joy.

17 In the circle of the ocean, on the pathway of

18 the wind, by the blood and breath within us, to all

19 creatures we are kin.

20 What in ignorance we have damaged, we will

21 work now to repair. To the coming generations, leave

22 an earth that's green and fair.

23 In the circle of the ocean, on the pathway of

24 the wind, by the blood and breath within us, to all

25 creatures we are kin. By the blood and breath within
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1 us, to all creatures we are kin.

2 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much for that

3 unique testimony and too bad it will show up in the

4 transcript just as words, but that was, that was great.

5 Thank you.

6 So next please Shannon Fisk and Al Williams.

7 You are Al. Shannon couldn't --

8 MR. FISK: I, I'm Shannon.

9 MR. CLARK: Oh you're Shannon. I'm sorry.

10 All right.

11 MR. FISK: That's okay.

12 MR. CLARK: Al Williams is not here, so let

13 me go on to -- holy smokes, Boise Jones please. Is

14 Boise Jones here?

15 FEMALE: I think he's in the other room.

16 MR. CLARK: Okay. Well, maybe we'll get him

17 in a second. Brad Vam Guilder please. Is Brad here?

18 Susan Michetti? Laura Kratz. All right. Laura,

19 you're -- thank you. I was getting worried. We have a

20 room full of people and no witnesses, so.

21 Okay, so Mr. Fisk.

22 MR. FISK: Great. Thank you. I'm Shannon

23 Fisk. I am a Senior Attorney with the Midwest Office

24 of the Natural Resources Defense Council and I'd like

25 to thank the EPA for the opportunity to submit
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1 testimony on the proposed mercury and air toxic

2 standard.

3 NRDC is a national non-profit public interest

4 organization. It's dedicated to protecting human

5 health and the environment. We have more than one

6 point two million members and online activists in all

7 fifty states.

8 We will be submitting in-depth written

9 comments by the July 5th comment deadline. Today,

10 however, I'd like to just touch on three basic points.

11 The important public health benefits this

12 proposal, how the coal industry has improperly avoided

13 the Clean Air Act's requirement to clean up harmful

14 toxic emissions for over twenty years and why EPA must

15 resist pressure to delay these standards even further.

16 Coal-fired power plants are the largest

17 emitters of mercury and scores of other toxic air

18 pollutants in the country today. Mercury is a powerful

19 poison. It damages the developing brain of children

20 and fetuses, lowering IQ's and harming motor functions.

21 As a result of mercury emissions from uncontrolled coal

22 plants throughout the Midwest, every river, lake and

23 stream in the region, including the Great Lakes have

24 fish consumption advisories that establish limits on

25 the amount of fish that is safe to eat.
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1 Polluting coal plants also emit many other

2 toxic air pollutants that cause cancer, heart attacks,

3 strokes, asthma symptoms and premature deaths.

4 EPA's proposal would finally require coal

5 plants to reduce these toxic emissions by ninety

6 percent, resulting in substantial public health

7 benefits including the prevention every year of up to

8 seventeen thousand premature deaths, a hundred and

9 twenty thousand cases of childhood asthma, and eleven

10 thousand cases of acute bronchitis.

11 The proposed rule should be stronger.

12 Reductions of ninety-five percent or more of mercury

13 and acid gasses are achievable with existing

14 technologies and should be required in the final rule,

15 but there could be no reasonable dispute that the

16 proposed mercury and air toxic standard at issue today

17 represents a strong step forward towards insuring that

18 the long required reduction of air toxic emissions are

19 finally achieved.

20 Given the significant public health impacts

21 of air toxic emissions, it is outrageous it has taken

22 so long for these regulations to be proposed. The

23 maximum achievable control technology provisions at

24 issue here were established by Congress in 1990 and

25 should have been complied with by about 1998. Instead,
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1 lobbying by the energy industry and in intransigence

2 by previous administrations has allowed industry

3 profits to be put ahead of protecting public health

4 from coal plant emissions. As a result today, in 2011,

5 coal plants that were built in the 1950's and 1960's

6 still lack modern pollution controls that can cost

7 effectively clean up emissions.

8 The good news is that some in the utility

9 industry have acknowledged that they can and will

10 comply with these standards being proposed today within

11 the three year deadline set forth in the Clean Air Act.

12 Here in Chicago, Midwest Generation, the

13 owner and operator of the Fisk coal plant just a couple

14 of miles down the road from here, has publicly stated

15 support for the goals of the new standards. Such

16 support is due to the fact that the State of Illinois

17 and environmental groups have required Midwest

18 Generation to already make reductions in mercury

19 emissions and it would be helpful if Midwest Generation

20 would comply with its legal duty to install modern

21 pollution control for other pollutants, however its

22 instructive that Midwest Generation believes that it is

23 able to make -- that air toxic standards work on a

24 fleet that includes some of the oldest coal plants in

25 the country that have not had pollution control updates
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1 in decades. Surely, if this can work in the fifty plus

2 year old boiler at the Fisk coal plant, it can work

3 across the country to protect all Americans.

4 Unfortunately, others in industry are pushing

5 the EPA to delay even further. And my questions to

6 these agents of delay is how much is enough. How many

7 lives are they willing to sacrifice in order to have

8 even more time to install pollution controls that have

9 been available for decades?

10 Our response to the agents of delay is that

11 enough is enough. The agency must reject industry

12 pressure because the controls necessary to reduce toxic

13 emissions are readily available and the public health

14 impacts of further delay would be severe. Each year of

15 delay would postpone preventing up to seventeen

16 thousand premature deaths and a hundred and twenty

17 thousand asthma attacks. Each month of delay would be

18 ten thousand unnecessary asthma attacks and fourteen

19 hundred premature deaths.

20 The Midwest and other regions of our country

21 continue to be littered with aging coal plants that

22 fail to control their pollution emissions and as a

23 result have significant impacts on public health and

24 water quality in the Great Lakes.

25 We applaud U.S. EPA's proposed rule. We
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1 urge you to strengthen it and to finalize it as

2 expeditiously as possible. Thank you.

3 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Ms. Kratz

4 and let me just say to the folks in the back, there are

5 some chairs up here in the front row if you, if you

6 feel like sitting down, so feel, feel free to come on

7 up. Laura.

8 MS. KRATZ: Good afternoon. I'm Laura Kratz,

9 a Specialist on Air Quality and Energy Issues with the

10 League of Women Voters of Illinois.

11 Several other league leaders are here in the

12 audience today and we're here together to voice our

13 strong support for implementation of the air toxics

14 rule.

15 As you may know, for over ninety years, the

16 League of Women Voters has promoted the active and

17 informed participation of citizens in all levels of

18 government. This goes well beyond simply showing up at

19 the polls on election day. Our organization conducts

20 in-depth, independent studies on a vast array of public

21 policy matters that include our representative

22 government, education, health care, social services,

23 criminal justice and natural resources.

24 Not only do we stay current on these issues,

25 we fully understand the interrelationships between
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1 them. Because we are known for well informed, non

2 partisan advocacy, we are regularly called upon to

3 share our expertise with other groups, testify before

4 governmental agencies, and to work on policy task

5 forces, such as the Illinois Smart Grid Collaborative.

6 So this is why we're here today.

7 Since our national study on air pollution in

8 the early 1970's, the League of Women Voters has

9 actively supported federal air pollution controls on

10 industrial production, governmental installation, fuels

11 and vehicles.

12 Furthermore, League members helped pass the

13 landmark Clean Water Act in the early 1970's and worked

14 to protect, expand, and strengthen it throughout the

15 1990's as we continue to do in this century.

16 The materials the EPA has provided in advance

17 of this hearing do an excellent job laying out the

18 health dangers associated with the toxics that are to

19 be regulated once the rule is implemented. Mercury

20 ingestion is a particular concern, whether it is part

21 of the air we breathe or in the fish we eat from our

22 local waters.

23 The failure of some power plants to act on

24 their own to keep mercury and other toxic pollutants

25 out of our air and water must be addressed now. Some
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1 industry officials are claiming that it's too expensive

2 to change their methods of operation for the sake of

3 cleaner air, but their failure to change results in

4 higher costs for others as families struggle to provide

5 care and comfort to afflicted loved ones, healthcare

6 systems are called upon to treat growing incidence of

7 preventable illnesses and ailments, business,

8 businesses lose ailing workers and schools deal with

9 students whose health and cognitive abilities are not

10 optimal due to pollution exposure. The cost to our

11 society are enormous.

12 We believe that all Americans have the right

13 to the basic necessities of life; air, water and food

14 that is both clean and healthful. We also believe that

15 it is the responsibility of government agencies, such

16 as the EPA, to protect our environment and precious

17 natural resources for our own benefit and for the

18 benefit of generations to come.

19 The League of Women Voters believes that the

20 air toxics rule is in the public interest and we

21 strongly encourage you to implement it without delay.

22 Thank you for letting us testify today.

23 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Anybody -- a

24 question? I think not. Thank you both so much. Let

25 me try again here with, is Al Williams here? Al and
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1 Susan Michetti. Is Susan here? Okay. Brad Vam

2 Guilder. Is Brad here? Brad. Okay. Let's see, Brad.

3 Okay. Mr. Williams.

4 MR. WILLIAMS: Good afternoon. My name is Al

5 Williams and I'm here today representing the Detroit

6 NAACP and members of the City of Detroit and

7 Southeastern Michigan.

8 I would like to thank the EPA for taking

9 comments today on such a very important and vital

10 issue. I'm testifying in favor of strong air toxics

11 and mercury standards for power plants.

12 Coal-Fired power plants are the largest

13 source of mercury contamination in the United States,

14 responsible for approximately fifty percent of human

15 caused mercury emissions. Other sources include waste

16 incinerators that burn mercury containing products and

17 coin manufacturers and I'll talk about incinerators

18 further in a second, in my community. However, unlike

19 these sources, power plants are not currently required

20 to limit their mercury pollution. As a result,

21 significant amounts of mercury pollution are released

22 into the air every year from Americans, for -- from

23 Americans and Americas. Approximately six hundred coal

24 fired plants.

25 Mercury emissions primarily fall locally, so
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1 these plants are major contributors to local

2 contamination problems and hot spots. Additionally,

3 some mercury emissions also stay in the atmosphere and

4 travel longer distances, resulting in mercury

5 contamination hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

6 As a lifelong resident in the City of

7 Detroit and in the State of Michigan, I understand the

8 impacts of poor air quality on our communities,

9 families and more importantly, our most prized

10 possession; our children.

11 Having grown up close to the largest waste

12 incinerator in the world, in the City of Detroit, I

13 understand the importance of setting strong air quality

14 standards nationally and most importantly, of course,

15 in my community. If you didn't know, right outside of

16 the largest incinerator in the world, in the city that

17 I live in is the freshest market in the city that I

18 live in; right down the street. Right down the street,

19 we have one of the largest hospitals in our city and

20 within a mile radius, if you knock on the doors and

21 talk to the parents of the children who live in those

22 houses, more than half of them have asthma.

23 Additionally, the American Lung Cancer -- or

24 Lung Association recently gave the City of Detroit an F

25 grade for air quality. Unfortunately that is too
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1 familiar to me. I know several people who suffer from

2 asthma, several families who have spent more time in

3 hospitals protecting their children than having their

4 children go to school.

5 Cardiovascular disease is -- I know several

6 people with asthma and cardiovascular diseases and

7 other health problems associated with air toxics and

8 poor air quality. It is time to start and to be more

9 aggressive when it comes to addressing air pollution in

10 our community. Fighting toxic pollutions is one of the

11 best ways to improve public health and that's why these

12 historic air quality standards are important, vital,

13 essential not only for my community, not only for my

14 city, but for the State of Michigan and this country.

15 As many of you probably are already aware,

16 and as EPA research already shows, mercury and other

17 air pollutants disproportionately, disproportionately

18 effects communities of color and low income areas

19 because these communities are vulnerable to dangerous

20 impacts.

21 Strong rules addressing these pollutants are

22 even more imperative right now, right here.

23 Let me just give you a few numbers and I'll

24 be done. Seventy-one percent of African Americans live

25 in counties that violate federal air pollution
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1 standards, compared to fifty-eight percent of white

2 populations. Asthma attacks sent African Americans to

3 the emergency room at three times the rate of white

4 Americans. Latinos in twelve states are two times more

5 likely than whites to live in neighborhoods where air

6 pollution poses the most significant danger. I have

7 other stats to add to that as well, but I don't have a

8 lot of time left.

9 So I would like to make sure that you

10 understand that my community is hurting. Our children,

11 our most prized possession is hurting. The state,

12 Illinois and the State of Michigan is hurting and our

13 country will continue to hurt unless we put these

14 important, vital measures in place. Thank you.

15 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Mr. Vam Guilder.

16 MR. VAM GUILDER: Yes. Good afternoon. My

17 name is Brad Vam Guilder and I'm here with the Ecology

18 Center, Main Office of the Ecology Center located in

19 Ann Arbor, Michigan and we have a satellite office in

20 Detroit and I'm our primary person working in Detroit,

21 but I've worked across the entire State of Michigan,

22 working with local community groups.

23 The Ecology Center is a membership advocacy

24 organization. We have more than five thousand members

25 and supporters within the State of Michigan and many
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1 more across the nation.

2 These regulations are extremely important and

3 it will cause the power plants to finally, finally

4 start to bear more of the actual cost of their

5 operations instead of placing those costs onto the

6 public and to the natural environment. This really is

7 about actually having them take on the actual cost of

8 what it really -- the real cost of what it is for these

9 power plants to operate.

10 I want to make a comparison between the Clean

11 Air Act Amendments of 1990 in terms of what happened

12 with solid waste and medical waste incinerators and the

13 regulations that have taken so long to come forward

14 with power plants.

15 In Michigan, after those regulations went

16 into effect, after 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, that

17 put in a newer, in place new regulations on solid waste

18 and medical waste incinerators. All one hundred and

19 fifty-seven medical waste incinerators in the State of

20 Michigan closed because they found new ways to be able

21 to handle their waste more better, mostly through

22 reducing the amount of waste that they generated in the

23 first place because they actually had to bear the true

24 cost of what that, handling that waste through

25 incineration actually cost. So they, they went in to,
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1 to reduce the amount of waste they generated and they

2 pursued alternative means.

3 All but three of the solid waste incinerators

4 closed and the City of Detroit incinerator spent a

5 hundred and seventy million dollars adding additional

6 pollution controls which unfortunately created great,

7 dramatic financial stress for the City of Detroit. It

8 would have been better if the facility had closed. But

9 it still continues to be a major source of pollution

10 adding to all of the other sources of pollution within

11 the City.

12 I was a member of the State of Michigan's

13 Environmental Justice working group from July 2008

14 through December 2010 and we really focused on two

15 issues that were extremely important that did not end

16 up becoming a major portion of the plan that the State

17 of Michigan issued.

18 One was cumulative impacts and the other was

19 looking at disproportionate impacts. These facilities

20 power plants have, these regulations are so important

21 because it addresses not only mercury, but acid gasses

22 and many other heavy metal emissions, but cumulative

23 impact of all those different emissions together has a

24 tremendous impact on the local community and has a

25 disproportionate impact on -- because those facilities
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1 tend to be located near low income communities of color

2 and that they end up driving down the, the land value

3 and attracting many other facilities.

4 So, for example, in southwest Detroit, they

5 have this huge collection of polluting facilities that

6 creates a tremendous cumulative impact. Between Bruce

7 [phonetic] River and the Michigan border with Ohio,

8 there are four coal-fired power plants including one of

9 the largest in North America, the Monroe Power Plant as

10 well as one nuclear power plant and that creates a

11 tremendous impact as it goes forward carried by the

12 wind.

13 So there's a, of course mercury issues is

14 very important because it has a disproportionate impact

15 on those who are very young, who don't have a voice to

16 be able to speak for themselves and those, and seniors

17 because they are very vulnerable populations. And it

18 has a disproportionate impact for those who are

19 subsistence fishers. You know I've seen, you know,

20 residents, low income residents who are fishing in the

21 channel around [indecipherable] Island even though

22 there's all kinds of posted warnings and because

23 they're there as subsistence fishers.

24 The last point I wanted to make is with

25 regard to asthma. The average asthma rate in the State
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1 of Michigan is sixteen per ten thousand. The City of

2 Detroit is anywhere from forty to ninety per ten

3 thousand, but the average -- most of the zip codes in

4 the City of Detroit are more in the sixty per ten

5 thousand. It is a disproportionate impact and creates

6 also a tremendous financial impact, eighty million

7 dollars per year is the estimated impact for Wayne

8 County through the [indecipherable] Michigan and that

9 is disproportionately on the City of Detroit and its

10 long-term residents.

11 Thank you.

12 MR. CLARK: Thank you. I, I have one quick

13 question for Mr. Williams. Do you know if the NAACP

14 national is going to submit comments on the rule,

15 written comments? Do you know?

16 MR. WILLIAMS: Written comments, I'm not

17 sure. I know they are in support of EPA's rulings on

18 reducing. I do believe that there are members of the

19 National NAACP here and they might be on the list as

20 well to make comments.

21 MR. CLARK: Okay.

22 MR. WILLIAMS: So you will be hearing from

23 them as well.

24 MR. CLARK: Okay.

25 MS. KURLANSKY: I was going to ask if you
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1 were going to submit comments because you had a lot of

2 statistics and I couldn't write that fast.

3 MR. WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Sorry about the

4 fast talking.

5 MR. CLARK: No, no. Sorry about the big

6 clock down there.

7 MR. WILLIAMS: Yeah. Just trying to get it

8 all in.

9 MR. CLARK: Thank you guys very much.

10 MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you.

11 MR. CLARK: Next two speakers, Boise Jones

12 and is Boise Jones here? All right. Striking out.

13 Might check that one out, so Howard Learner and Susan

14 Michetti here? Michetti? Okay. Yeah. Great.

15 MS. MICHETTI: I support the EPA's

16 proposal --

17 MR. CLARK: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Just give

18 us -- if you could just state your name and, and spell

19 your last name.

20 MS. MICHETTI: I'm Susan Michetti,

21 M-I-C-H-E-T-T-I from Wisconsin. I support the EPA's

22 proposed mercury and air toxic standards for fossil

23 fuel plants that are about twenty years overdue. I

24 happen to be one of the people that may request to

25 update and strengthen the Clean Air Act back in 1985
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1 and 1990. I clearly remember at that time that the

2 fossil fuel energy industry argued that they had their

3 own loved ones that they cared about and that they were

4 trustworthy to self regulate their own pollution.

5 I -- in retrospect, I can say that they lied.

6 They had twenty-one years to stop putting known toxins

7 into the air and are causing a general lack of wellness

8 throughout this nation and they are negligent. The

9 industry did not prioritize cleaning up their own

10 pollution as soon as the decision was made to let them

11 self regulate. They lied.

12 We need to establish the measurable standards

13 which I understand is happening, at least proposed.

14 Each dollar invested in air pollution control

15 technology will save five to thirteen dollars in

16 healthcare cost as well as improving the health of

17 those who are unwell from pollution, but remain outside

18 of the measurable healthcare cost system.

19 The industry must invest in pollution control

20 because it is a fair cost of their doing business that

21 must not be shirked. These health costs are being

22 unfairly transferred to the people who do not often

23 have health insurance and many who have now lost their

24 homes in the last twenty years and are now homeless

25 because of precisely this type of unfair transfer of
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1 wealth from elite polluters to innocent victims with

2 serious, adverse, chronic health effects that interfere

3 with multiple functions required for societal survival.

4 These polluter cost are transferred unfairly

5 to the innocent public and then are often secondarily

6 transferred unfairly to our health insurance system and

7 the tax payers.

8 Manmade arbitrary mechanisms are being used

9 to transfer these significant cost of industry and

10 corporations away from their paying their actual full

11 cost to make large profits for a small group of people

12 unfairly at the expense of others that are being harmed

13 financially and in their health. And to make matters

14 worse, we now have a pro-corporate political crowd

15 that bows to corporate lobbyist rallying against the

16 implementation of "Obamacare." against continuing

17 Medicare and Medicaid as we now know them and saying

18 that good health treatments need to be trimmed from the

19 federal budget when these are the very same corrupt

20 politicians wanting to dismantle the EPA and remove all

21 regulation of pollution from corporate polluters. It

22 is clear that these people are benefitting the industry

23 and corporate profits to get richer at the expense of

24 eighty percent of this population.

25 So for every one dollar of air toxic controls
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1 not installed, that will cost somebody else five to

2 thirteen dollars in health. It's a health cost. It's

3 an extremely inefficient spread of costs to other

4 people to cover their cost of doing business where if

5 they were weighing their cost of pollution control

6 versus their paying the healthcare treatment of these

7 people, it would be cleaned up.

8 So, it is also time -- why should private

9 insurance premiums, why should Medicare, Medicaid paid

10 by taxpayers, or out of pocket spending by victims have

11 to unfairly finance the cost of this industry doing

12 business in terms of its pollution. The conduct of

13 this industry needs to start paying their full costs.

14 I ask the EPA to go to the National Institute

15 of Health's TOXicology Data NETwork (TOXNET) and the

16 Centers for Disease Control's Agency for Toxic Substances

17 and Disease Registry and look at, and, and, and enter

18 into the official record the known inhalation,

19 ingestion and skin contact effects for all of the known

20 air toxins for burning fossil fuels.

21 So it, it's -- essentially I see corporate

22 pollution being unfairly subsidized by misinformation

23 and any how I had something about the GNP that needs to

24 be updated to include all the costs to society, but my

25 time is out.
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1 MR. CLARK: Well, thank you very much.

2 Mr. Learner.

3 MR. LEARNER: Good afternoon and thank you

4 for opening up this hearing. I'm Howard Learner. I'm

5 the Executive Director of the Environmental Law and

6 Policy Center. We work to improve environmental

7 quality, protect public health and preserve natural

8 resources in twelve Midwest and great plain states.

9 We passionately believe that environmental

10 progress and economic development can be achieved

11 together and we put that into practice. I live in

12 Chicago for the last thirty one years, about a mile and

13 a half from where I was born. We care about the city,

14 the state, the region and the Great Lakes and the

15 country.

16 In 2006, many of us stood with groups like

17 Voices for Illinois Children, the March of Dimes,

18 medical professionals, public health professionals when

19 the proposed Illinois mercury pollution reduction

20 standards were announced for coal plants. We were told

21 at the time that those standards were not

22 technologically feasible, they weren't economic, they

23 couldn't be put into practice and it would never

24 happen.

25 One year later, after a series of hearings by
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1 the Illinois Pollution Control Board, work by the

2 Illinois EPA, there were settlements reached with three

3 of the companies that own the largest number of coal

4 plants in Illinois and those settlements were adopted

5 by the Pollution Control Board and the Illinois mercury

6 pollution reduction standards went into effect.

7 They're in effect now. They're working. The

8 technology is available. It's economically reasonable

9 and so much of the debate that's being heard at the

10 federal level right now is exactly the bait that

11 happened in Illinois and there were two things that

12 were remarkable about that that you might want to note.

13 We can provide more data on it.

14 First of all, after all the ho ha of how

15 technologically it couldn't be done and economically,

16 it wouldn't be reasonable. The three companies that

17 own the largest number of coal plants in Illinois, all

18 reached settlements that were approved by the Illinois

19 EPA and the Illinois Pollution Control Board that went

20 into affect: Midwest Generation, Dynegy, and AMEREN.

21 Three largest owners of coal plants in the

22 state reached settlements and said we can do it and

23 have largely lived within the standards. There have

24 been some exemptions and waivers and other things, but

25 for the most part, there were settlements reached. It
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1 was doable.

2 Secondly, it's happened. Whenever we hear

3 the claims that this is not technologically reasonable

4 or economically feasible, you have a demonstration of

5 what's happened in Illinois. It is. It's worked.

6 Second point. The health impacts can't be

7 seriously in dispute and the EPA's own regulatory

8 analysis has been very strong on that point. It's been

9 discussed by many people today, I won't go back and go

10 over it and the National Academy of Science's Studies,

11 it's been clear that the population that's at highest

12 risk are the children of women who consume large

13 amounts of fish and seafood during pregnancy. And that

14 that has an impact on education.

15 We're in a city that now is the home of the

16 current Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education,

17 Ernie Duncan, and Mayor Emanuel who's

18 committed passionately to improving and fixing our

19 schools here. We need to give kids a head start. We

20 don't need to be handicapping kids because we can't get

21 it together in terms of reducing mercury in the

22 environment that hurts their health.

23 Third and final point on the can it be done

24 and can it be done soon? My colleague Faith Bugel

25 talked earlier about advancing the compliance. It's
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1 important to get going and get going sooner, but look

2 at what's happened in the other places where the

3 federal government has enacted standards to reduce

4 mercury pollution. Federal standards drove down the

5 amount of mercury pollution from municipal waste

6 incinerators from fifty-seven tons per year in 1990 to

7 two tons per year in 2005.

8 Federal standards reduce mercury pollution

9 from medical waste incinerators to less than one ton

10 per year in 2005 from fifty-one tons per year in 1990.

11 This is doable. It's technologically feasible. It's

12 economically reasonable. The benefits greatly exceed

13 the costs and this is a point where the government

14 should step up through the U.S. EPA standards and

15 protect public health and the environment in ways that

16 make sense.

17 Thank you very much.

18 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Any questions?

19 Anyone? Yeah. Thank you guys.

20 MR. LEARNER: Thank you.

21 MR. CLARK: Okay. Boise Jones I understand

22 is here and Steve McVey [phonetic] please. Is Steve

23 McVey here? I want to say it's Ade --

24 MR. ABDALLAH: Ade.

25 MR. CLARK: Ade. Sorry. Thank you.
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1 MR. ABDALLAH: That's okay.

2 MR. CLARK: That's happened to you before,

3 I'm sure. I apologize. If you can state your name and

4 spell it for the, for the court reporter and Mr. Jones,

5 feel free.

6 MR. JONES: It's Boise, although spelled as

7 in Boise, Idaho, B-O-I-S-E, Jones last name, very

8 common.

9 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

10 MR. JONES: First, I'd just like to say

11 again, thank you for having these hearings. The first

12 time I was actually testifying at these hearings, it

13 was the Bush administration, so you can imagine it was

14 a pretty hostile environment. This actually tends to

15 just have a much better feel, so thank you again for

16 these hearings.

17 I'm here from the State of Minnesota, City of

18 Minneapolis, the north side of Minneapolis which most

19 of you know, have been pretty much ravaged by tornados

20 and such and it is that community that I'm here to

21 speak on behalf of as well.

22 I am a member of the Sierra Club's Diversity

23 Council, also a Co-Founder of the Environmental Justice

24 Advocates of Minnesota, as well as a member of the

25 Climate Change Advisory Group for the State of
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1 Minnesota as well. Not that I want to give any

2 pedigree, but just to simply say that these issues have

3 been very important to our community for years and

4 that's the reason why I sit here before you.

5 As members of the environmental and public

6 health communities, we hope that we can applaud you

7 today for your proposed mercury and air toxic rules

8 which we believe significantly cuts toxic air pollution

9 from power plants. As you work to finalize these

10 rules, we urge you to keep the final rule just as

11 strong as or stronger than the proposed version.

12 Our families should be able to breathe clean

13 air, drink clean water, and eat fish without worrying

14 about mercury in their blood streams, soot in their

15 lungs, or lead in their water. Yet coal-fired power

16 plants spew hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous

17 air pollutants like these into our air and water every

18 year. These pollutants are linked to cancer, heart

19 disease, neurological damage, birth defects, and you

20 know, many other, other diseases.

21 When coal-fired power plants emit mercury

22 from their smoke stacks, rain, snow and dust particles

23 wash it out into the air, into land affecting our

24 ability to walk, talk, read and write and it's so

25 widespread, that it's many -- as many as one out of six
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1 women of childbearing age has enough mercury in her

2 blood to put her baby at risk should she become

3 pregnant.

4 Moreover, low income and minority communities

5 often bear a greater burden of the effects of toxic

6 pollution from power plants as they live closer to the

7 polluting facilities than most Americans.

8 Because mercury is the most common

9 contaminant in fish in the U.S., every state has some

10 sort of fish advisory due to, due to unsafe levels of

11 toxic pollutants. Wildlife that is exposed to mercury

12 may die, or depending upon the level of exposure, have

13 reduced fertility or complete reproductive failure as

14 well as slower growth and development and other

15 vulnerabilities.

16 High levels of mercury have been found in

17 species that every level in the food -- at every level

18 in the food chain threatening many different species

19 including the common loon and main and the endangered

20 Florida panther.

21 Coal-Fired power plants are the single

22 largest source of mercury pollution, arsenic, and acid

23 gasses and account for twenty-five percent of all toxic

24 metal emissions in the United States. Furthermore,

25 coal-fired power plants are responsible for
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1 ninety-nine percent of all mercury emissions from the

2 power sector in the United States, so for decades the

3 coal industry and its powerful allies have successfully

4 delayed implementation of strong standards to cut the

5 emissions of toxic air pollutions from their facilities

6 going so far as to work with Bush administration

7 officials to set a severely -- to, to -- at a severely

8 flawed illegal standard that yielded few at any actual,

9 than any actual benefits.

10 Thank you for proposing a strong standard

11 that will, for the first time, cut mercury emissions

12 from power plants nationwide by ninety-one percent,

13 reduce arsenic and acid gasses by ninety-one percent,

14 prevent twelve thousand two hundred trips to the

15 hospital and save up to seventeen thousand lives each

16 year, once it's, it's, it is implemented.

17 We urge you to keep the standards just as

18 strong or stronger than the proposed rule when you

19 finalize the mercury, air and toxic rules in November

20 and we look for, look forward to working with you on

21 this matter. Thank you very much.

22 MR. CLARK: Thank you. And actually -- Okay.

23 Mr. Abdallah, before you start, let me just remind the

24 crowd here. A couple of things. For folks in the

25 back, anybody again, there are a few chairs up here if
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1 anybody wants to come sit down, feel free.

2 Secondly, just a reminder on the telephone,

3 if, if folks could put their phone on vibrate or turn

4 them off, that would be respectful to the speakers and

5 let me turn it over to Ade.

6 MR. ABDALLAH: Good afternoon and I'd like to

7 thank you for this opportunity to make a brief comment.

8 My name is Ade Abdallah. I'm the Co-Founder,

9 President, and CEO of two organizations. Energy

10 Efficiency and Environmental Health Services Task Force

11 and Walking on Water, Environmental Stewardship and

12 Recreational Services.

13 The vision of Energy Efficiency and

14 Environmental Health Services Task Force is to recreate

15 heaven on earth. Our mission is to establish a

16 worldwide foundation and universal philosophy to

17 mobilize humanity to recreate optimal ecological

18 conditions for the enjoyment and preservation of life

19 on mother earth.

20 I just want to make a brief statement taken

21 from our city charter. Our preamble and declaration of

22 rights and it states: "The people have the right to

23 expect city government to provide for its residents

24 decent housing, excellence in education, job

25 opportunities, reliable, convenient, and comfortable
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1 transportation, recreational facilities, organized

2 programs for recreational activities, cultural

3 enrichment, including libraries and art and historic

4 museums, clean air and waterways, safe drinking water

5 and sanitary, environmentally sound city."

6 More than my comment, I have a question. I

7 always tell people I have to apologize for being the

8 prodigal son or grandson and godsons of ministers, so I

9 have a spiritual outlook on everything that I do and

10 the most important question that I have for everyone

11 here, it states in the book of Mark, I believe Mark

12 eight, thirty-six. "What, for what shall the profit of

13 man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own

14 soul." I'm wondering if the people that are in favor

15 of increasing coal production, increasing things that's

16 going to contaminate and pollute the air and pollute

17 the ground and jeopardize our lives. I'm wondering

18 where their children and their grandchildren, what

19 earth are they living on? What air are they going to

20 breathe? What water are they going to drink?

21 Those are my comments.

22 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

23 MS. KURLANSKY: Excuse me. You named two

24 organizations you were from and I didn't get the name

25 of the first one.
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1 MR. ABDALLAH: I'm sorry. The first

2 organization is Energy Efficiency and Environmental

3 Health Services/Task Force.

4 MS. KURLANSKY: Okay.

5 MR. ABDALLAH: The second organization is

6 actually our youth division, which is Walking on Water

7 Environmental Stewardship and Recreational Services.

8 We also are members of the NAACP Allies Group.

9 MR. MOONEY: And that's located here in

10 Chicago?

11 MR. ABDALLAH: In Detroit, Michigan.

12 MR. MOONEY: In Detroit.

13 MS. KURLANSKY: Thank you.

14 MR. ABDALLAH: You're welcome.

15 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Okay. Let me try

16 Steve McVey again. Steve, going, going, gone. We'll

17 say gone. Okay. Dennis Nelson and Paul Wojoski

18 [phonetic] please.

19 You are Dennis or Paul?

20 MR. NELSON: Dennis.

21 MR. CLARK: Okay. Is Paul not here? All

22 right. Let's Jerry Cain, Mr. Jerry Cain. Are you

23 here?

24 Okay. Mr. Nelson.

25 MR. NELSON: This is my testimony supporting
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1 the adoption of the strongest possible final U.S. EPA

2 mercury and air toxic standard with the deliberate

3 speed.

4 My name is Dennis Nelson, I reside in the

5 River North neighborhood of Chicago here. I have a

6 bachelor of science degree in biology and environmental

7 studies from Dana College of Blair, Nebraska.

8 Being actively involved in environmental

9 movement since around the first earth day, April 22,

10 1970. I have over forty-one years of proven experience

11 as an effective energy environmental activist. I am

12 the President and Board Member of the Nuclear Energy

13 Information Service, NEIS here in Chicago. Our website

14 is www.NEIS.org. Being Illinois nuclear power watchdog

15 group, NEIS actively supports a carbon free, nuclear

16 free energy pathway, greatly reducing the toxic air

17 pollutants such as mercury, arsenic, and lead from

18 Midwest Generation's Fisk Coal Plant in the Pilsen

19 neighborhood and Midwest Generation's Crawford Coal

20 Plant in the Little Village neighborhood on Chicago's

21 south side, as well as the other coal plants around the

22 country under the proposed U.S. EPA standard definitely

23 fits within the carbon free part of this pathway.

24 Let's stand up to polluting and dirty king

25 coal. U.S. EPA should enact stringent final mercury
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1 and air toxic safeguards as soon as possible. These

2 newer proposed safeguards will cut mercury emissions by

3 about ninety-one percent, acid gas pollution also by

4 ninety-one percent, sulfur dioxide by around

5 fifty-three percent and direct particulate matter by

6 roughly thirty percent.

7 You'll probably receive oral and written

8 testimony from organizations like the Respiratory

9 Health Association, Metropolitan, Chicago, the American

10 Lung Association in Illinois, greater Chicago, and

11 Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club Chicago Group

12 documenting the specific health problems caused by this

13 coal-fired air pollution in greater detail.

14 I'm throwing out on the table some of the

15 information connected with this to be considered.

16 Every year, our country's coal-fired power plants

17 release over seventy thousand pounds of toxic mercury

18 and approximately three hundred and eighty-six thousand

19 tons of other hazardous air pollutants. About

20 seventy-two percent of our nation's mercury emissions

21 come from our coal-fired power plants. Even only one

22 gram of this mercury contamination in a twenty acre

23 lake will make the fish caught there not fit for us to

24 eat.

25 Some Chicago activists wave signs at rallies
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1 and demonstrations which say, coal kills and coal

2 pollutes, but you must actuate the positive as well as

3 bash the negative. Putting a positive spin on all of

4 this does not mean buying into the junk science that

5 the big dirty polluting coal companies to deliberately

6 fostering through industry funded front groups, think

7 tanks and public relations firms.

8 Putting this public spin means to point out

9 that the toughest possible final standard means cleaner

10 air and water for all of us resulting in healthier

11 lifestyles and a better quality of life for everyone.

12 For example, drastically reducing mercury emissions

13 will mean safer fish to eat, fewer cases of learning

14 disabilities in kids, and reduced heart disease in

15 adults.

16 Anti-coal equals inherently cleaner energy.

17 If I -- I say cleaner, rather than clean because to me,

18 it's a relative rather than absolute. All energy

19 technologies have some kind of impact, however, the

20 specific kinds of environmental pollution covered by

21 the proposed U.S. EPA safeguards are not directly

22 produced by energy efficient, renewable energy

23 oriented, zero net energy homes, utility scale wind

24 farms and solar photovoltaic take facilities,

25 etcetera.
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1 On Saturday, May 14, 2011, I attended this

2 year's Chicago Green Festival at McCormack Place. At

3 the Sierra Club Green Cinema, I viewed the Center for

4 Investigative Reporting's excellent ninety minute film

5 entitled Dirty Business, Clean Coal, and the Battle for

6 Our Future featuring investigative journalist Jeff

7 Goodell who wrote the book entitled, "Big

8 Coal, the Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future."

9 The moral of this story is there's no such thing as

10 so-called clean coal.

11 Thanks for considering my comments.

12 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Mr. Cain.

13 MR. CAIN: My name is Jerry Cain, C-A-I-N.

14 I'm the President of Judson University in Elgin, about

15 forty miles west of here. Philosophically, I'm a

16 follower of Christ and thus I'm very interested in

17 life, not only its definitions like beginnings and

18 endings, but also the quality of life.

19 Secondly, vocationally I'm an educator and

20 I'm concerned about learning and all of the

21 accouterments related thereto. Thank you very much for

22 hearing a few of my statements.

23 I began today with a baby shower. College

24 Presidents don't do baby showers very frequently, and

25 so I attended a baby shower for the new baby of our
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1 webmaster, Anna Sherman. In that snack room, we were

2 gathered around and admiring this new child, but I

3 realized one of those facts that I had read in

4 preparation for our thoughts for today. One out of six

5 babies is harmed by mercury at every birth and if

6 that's five of you over there and one of me over here

7 and we only procreate one child, one of us is going to

8 have a, a deficient child because of excessive mercury

9 in our system. And although Illinois prides itself as

10 being the Saudi Arabia of coal, our, our coal plants

11 create a lot of that problem and I'd like to see us

12 address that.

13 There is a blood brain barrier that is not

14 formed until a child is about nearly two years old that

15 prevents mercury from getting to the brain, so that

16 brain is very susceptible until about age two and

17 those -- whenever mercury enters the system, it creates

18 developmental disabilities, lowered intelligence and

19 significant learning problems. Now that's scene number

20 one.

21 I, I then went to scene number two. Scene

22 number two is meeting with my cabinet. So cabinet

23 around the table. We're discussing environmental

24 [indecipherable]. Everyone wants to be keeping up with

25 the latest writings, publications, research, etcetera,
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1 so one person laid on the table the United States has

2 now dropped to number thirty-one in mathematics acumen.

3 That's not, not a statistic we want to be proud of, but

4 that came out yesterday.

5 It also came out last week that our teacher

6 education graduates have only a seventy percent chance

7 of passing the basic skills test in Illinois if they

8 have an ACT of twenty-five or above. Now those are the

9 people that we're producing to be teachers and an ACT

10 of twenty-five will only give you a seventy percent

11 chance of passing that basic skills test.

12 Now as educators, we're willing to deal with

13 that. We wrestle with those problems and we will face

14 them daily, but I ask you to step up and help us

15 address those problems. I think the issue we're

16 discussing today is an educational issue and thus,

17 after twenty-one years, I think it would be time to

18 enforce these requirements that we have suggested since

19 about 1990.

20 You've heard already that the enforcement of

21 these goals would take ninety-one percent of the

22 mercury out of the air. I would suggest that nearly

23 every American would be happy to pay the four or so

24 dollars additional every year necessary. That's going

25 to be much better than a tax to try to increase our
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1 academic systems.

2 This would result in better brains. It would

3 result in better bodies. It would result in sharper

4 minds. It would be a major step forward to helping us

5 rebuild our educational systems. Help us compete again

6 with the rest of the world, so I request that the EPA

7 implement the mercury standard without delay and

8 suggest that the members of Congress not impede this

9 implementation. It's necessary to move forward in

10 quality education.

11 Thank you for hearing me.

12 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Guys, any questions?

13 Thank you both very much. Appreciate your testimony.

14 Let me say in general, we very much

15 appreciate the fact that I know many of you have come

16 long distances and, and taken a day out of your busy

17 schedules, so thank you very much for that. We, we

18 very much appreciate that.

19 I'm going to try Paul Wojoski one more time.

20 Is Paul here? I'm afraid I'm going to write Paul off

21 onto the later to be dealt with group. Rebecca Rossof

22 and Michelle Martinez please.

23 MS. ROSSOF: Good afternoon. My name is

24 Rebecca Rossof, R-O-S-S-O-F as in Frank. Thank you for

25 allowing me to testify before you this afternoon.
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1 For forty years, I have taught biology and

2 chemistry here in Chicago and have helped high school

3 students understand the nature of their physical world.

4 I have encouraged them to educate themselves and place

5 their trust in a safe, productive future.

6 I am here today to support the important step

7 taken by the EPA on March 16 of this year in imposing,

8 in proposing the first national standard developed

9 under section one twelve of the Clean Air Act to reduce

10 mercury and other toxic air pollution from coal and oil

11 fired power plants.

12 I urge you to enact the rules as written, not

13 just because it will prevent the emission of mercury,

14 acid gas emissions, and sulfur dioxide by very

15 significant amounts, and thereby protecting our health

16 and our families from the illnesses and premature

17 deaths linked to these pollutants. Pollutants which

18 damage children's developing brains and contribute to

19 serious health problems in adults, including cancer,

20 heart disease.

21 I'm here not just because each year the

22 standards will prevent serious illnesses and health

23 problems for thousands of Americans. I'm here not just

24 because these standards will keep people working. Each

25 year eight hundred fifty thousand missed work days or
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1 sick days will be avoided, enhancing productivity and

2 lowering health care costs for American families.

3 I'm here not just because the standard would

4 create jobs, provide high quality employment in America

5 for thirty-one thousand short-term construction jobs,

6 and nine thousand long term utility jobs as our workers

7 create, build and install the equipment at power plants

8 and then operate and maintain the equipment after

9 installation.

10 I'm here not just because the proposal is

11 realistic. It sets technology based emissions

12 limitation standards for mercury and other toxic

13 pollutants, which reflect levels already achieved by

14 the best performing sources currently in operation and

15 allows existing sources up to four years to comply with

16 these standards. Even high school students recognize

17 that electrical generation plants cannot be hamstrung

18 with needless regulations, but they are able to

19 recognize that the EPA is trying to create regulatory

20 certainty and a level playing field for cleaner energy

21 sources.

22 Students know the cost of generating

23 electricity from coal and oil must include the cost of

24 maintaining clean air.

25 I am here today to support the proposed
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1 standard because it makes a strong statement to the

2 young people of our nation that their government can,

3 will, and does take action to ensure a healthful

4 environment for them.

5 Already in their young lives, they know that

6 our air has been fouled with unhealthful substances

7 from unregulated commercial development. They ask why

8 this endangerment is allowed to continue and they so

9 easily become cynical when the lobbying of utilities

10 manufacturers and other big businesses are able to

11 derail efforts to curb the release of such toxic

12 pollutants.

13 How are they to have faith in their future?

14 They need to see evidence of concern for their health,

15 concern for their environment, concern for wise and

16 productive economic development in their country.

17 Without such action, how will they have the opportunity

18 to enjoy a healthful, meaningful future.

19 On behalf of the thousands of students with

20 whom I've had the pleasure to work, I encourage you to

21 move forward with these proposed standards. I hope

22 that America will see these rulings finalized in

23 November of this year. Thank you very much.

24 MR. CLARK: Ms. Martinez.

25 MS. MARTINEZ: Hi, my name is Michelle
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1 Martinez and I am an employee of the Sierra Club in the

2 Detroit office and I come here today to talk a little

3 bit about my experience during my master's thesis as a

4 student at the University of Michigan School of Natural

5 Resources and Environment from 2002 to 2008 in which I

6 conducted, with my colleagues, Alexandria Teague

7 [phonetic] and Vicki Calcurtz [phonetic]

8 [indecipherable] survey on the Detroit River of anglers

9 to determine their awareness of fish consumption

10 advisories and fish toxicity in the Detroit River.

11 And we found in our studies and in our

12 conversations that African Americans on the U.S. side

13 of the Detroit River are the primary demographic of

14 fish consumers on the Detroit River area of concern.

15 Canadian anglers in comparison did not eat as much fish

16 from the Detroit River.

17 Our second finding was that African Americans

18 consume more fish in greater quantity and in greater

19 frequency, choosing a wider breadth of species than

20 their Caucasian counterparts.

21 In that, our findings also were that

22 pollution in the fisheries, like mercury, adds a stigma

23 to the cultural preferences of African Americans which

24 choose fish at lower trophic levels like catfish,

25 adding that stigma equating to a logic that only dirty
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1 people eat dirty fish. And that was said to us on the

2 river.

3 Mercury pollution in our fisheries compounds

4 environmental justice issues, not only for indigenous

5 populations all over the country, but also for anglers

6 of color in the Detroit River area of concern,

7 specifically. Not only because of the consumption

8 habits of people of color on the Detroit River, but

9 also because of the lack of awareness of fish

10 advisories. Fish advisories as a tool are not

11 effective for people of color.

12 Through our literature research, we found

13 over a dozen surveys or studies starting from 1992

14 finding that fish consumption advisories were not

15 effective in communicating toxicity to anglers.

16 In 2001, only fifty percent of all Great

17 Lake's anglers were aware of the fish consumption

18 advisory and only fifteen percent of African American

19 black sports fish consumers were aware of the advisory.

20 More studies coming out all over the Great

21 Lakes region that determine that fish consumption

22 advisories were insufficient in their ability to convey

23 that message for a variety of different reasons,

24 including having to break cultural norms to accept that

25 knowledge. Also that, specifically in Detroit, has
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1 been determined food desert. If you're taking

2 supplements to your food and putting food on your table

3 through the Detroit River, you would have to give up a

4 food source for your family and that would mean --

5 accepting that knowledge would mean limiting your food

6 source choices.

7 Also that trust of the governmental

8 institutions themselves that why should I stop fishing

9 when the government is not protecting me. Why should I

10 listen to the government when they're not regulating

11 the companies, they're regulating me.

12 So that, those were some of the sentiments

13 that we heard on the river and I hope that you will

14 consider that fish consumption because of mercury is an

15 environmental justice issue and that it should be taken

16 seriously and it disrupts cultural norms and the

17 culture of the United States and their people in it.

18 Thank you.

19 MS. KURLANSKY: Excuse me, Ms. Martinez.

20 That study that you did in graduate school, did you

21 publish that?

22 MS. MARTINEZ: It's online, yes.

23 MS. KURLANSKY: Is it?

24 MS. MARTINEZ: Fish Consumption Advisories

25 and Environmental Justice in the Detroit River Area of
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1 Concern.

2 MS. KURLANSKY: So I could probably find it

3 on Google.

4 MS. MARTINEZ: Absolutely.

5 MALE: [Indecipherable].

6 MS. MARTINEZ: Great. No problem.

7 MALE: [Indecipherable].

8 MR. CLARK: I'm sorry. Next speakers please.

9 Juliee De La Terre and Lance Green, please.

10 Also, just want to remind people to, to sign

11 in at the EPA desk even if you, if you're signed up to

12 speak, but you didn't sign in when you came in, please

13 do that, so that they know you're here and can get you

14 on the list. Okay? Thank you.

15 Okay.

16 MS. WENDLAND: I'm Ingrid Wendland, Juliee De

17 La Terre's daughter, fourth grade, Kickapoo School.

18 MR. CLARK: And can you -- if you don't mind,

19 if you could spell your name, that would be great.

20 MS. WENDLAND: I-N-G-R-I-D, W-E-N-D-L-A-N-D.

21 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

22 MS. WENDLAND: My watershed is near a coal

23 fired power plant at Genoa, Wisconsin. Mercury from

24 this plant has contaminated the fish in the trout

25 streams and the Kickapoo River.
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1 Our area relies on trout fisher people for

2 important income.

3 MS. DE LA TERRE: My name is Juliee De La

4 Terre, J-U-L-I-E-E, D-E L-A T-E-R-R-E. I'm a graduate

5 student at the Gaylord Nelson Institute in Madison,

6 Wisconsin; that rowdy town you've all been hearing

7 about, and I'm wondering to myself whether Gaylord

8 would be rolling over in his grave right now because

9 his earth day movement is what brought EPA into

10 existence and it's been forty years now and we're still

11 not having the work getting done, so that is why I'm at

12 this institute, pursuing a doctorate in environment and

13 resources and since that other gentleman gave a couple

14 of websites, so am I. So if you want to go to

15 University of Wisconsin, it's wisc.edu. We also have a

16 website called WICCI, which is Wisconsin Initiative on

17 Climate Change Impacts which isn't coming up today, but

18 burning coal is also very integral in that whole global

19 issue.

20 So you've been provided with copious facts

21 and figures here today regarding toxins and health

22 effects resulting from our addition to coal. I live in

23 the beautiful Kickapoo Valley in southwest Wisconsin.

24 The Genoa coal-fired electrical power plant is not far

25 away, on the banks of the Mississippi. The toxins from
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1 this plant have contaminated one of the world's best

2 trout fisheries and the Kickapoo River in our valley.

3 My valley relies on tourism as a key economic

4 driver. The air quality in our valley of Amish organic

5 farmers and health conscious citizens is often

6 compromised on warm summer days. I understand how

7 scrubbers work in plants, to take out the mercury and

8 the arsenic and the [Indecipherable] and all that good

9 stuff, but I wonder where this scrubbing material will

10 be disposed of now that it's being kept out of the

11 atmosphere.

12 We recently defeated a proposal in our valley

13 to locate a coal ash dump next to an organic farming

14 community. So though we are asking you to increase

15 regulations, we also must remember that scrubber ash

16 and coal ash, how do we safeguard communities and the

17 environment from these substances?

18 I believe this ash is used in cement and

19 wallboard products. Is this safe or will children be

20 poisoned if they ingest wall board? That's another

21 question I have.

22 Every answer to a problem usually has three

23 or four other things that come along with it. I'm just

24 saying, we need to have a long term look at what we're

25 doing.
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1 Passing the air toxics rule and enforcing all

2 Clean Air Act regulations is just a tiny part of what

3 needs to be done nationally and to preserve human

4 health and ecosystem health. Worldwide, we are an

5 [indecipherable] of unprecedented degradation and

6 extraction of the earth's resources for profit.

7 As a citizen of the U.S., I demand the EPA

8 take its responsibilities of protecting our water, air,

9 bio-diversity and vital ecosystems seriously. That is

10 our job. Enforce the regulations. Don't cave in to

11 the industry's demand for ever increasing profits.

12 Profits that will destroy the future of our children,

13 our ecosystems and all other living beings.

14 Simply put, it is time to address greed and

15 profit and return to an approach to our energy needs by

16 implementing renewable energy systems and an office of

17 efficiency in every state and in Washington. A clean,

18 renewable energy future equals a viable economic

19 future. Let's get real.

20 MR. CLARK: Mr. Green. Mr. Green.

21 MR. GREEN: My name is Lance Green,

22 L-A-N-C-E, and Green spelled like the politics of most

23 of the people in here.

24 First thing I want to do is before I say --

25 I'm just going to say a few short things, but I first
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1 want to thank the EPA. I know you've been lambasted a

2 lot today, but in reality, we have done an awful lot

3 since that first earth day that I and most of us

4 participated in forty years ago and I really appreciate

5 the work that the EPA has done, so thank you very much.

6 For the, for the last twenty years, I've

7 worked at the Department of Natural Resources in

8 Wisconsin and the Air Management Bureau. My work

9 really had to do with controlling emissions of ozone

10 depleting substances and greenhouse gasses and so I'm

11 not an air toxic expert. But today, I'm here to

12 support the proposed air toxic rule as it has been

13 written and hopefully to get it passed without any kind

14 of refinements or weakening of the rule. So I

15 appreciate that very much.

16 As someone who has worked through that

17 process of rule making and administering the

18 regulations and working with the industry, I think

19 you're certainly at a place now where this rule has

20 been worked on and these issues have been worked on for

21 such a long time that everybody, everybody recognizes

22 including those in the industry that this is what we

23 need to do.

24 So it really just comes down to a pretty, a

25 pretty simple, simple, simple solution and that is
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1 let's just do it. We know that it's going to cost a

2 little bit, but as one other person, four dollars a

3 person a year and we're talking about everybody getting

4 all these fish advisories. I'm from Wisconsin. We

5 have fish fries every Friday. You know? We eat a lot

6 of fish there, you know, and, and, and so we really

7 know and understand that fishing's important, as other

8 people have said, fishing is a giant industry in

9 Wisconsin.

10 This is the kind of pollutant that's

11 worldwide. This is the kind of pollutant that doesn't

12 just come from your local plant. This is the kind of

13 pollutant that goes all over the whole planet and so we

14 here in the United States need to set a tone and we

15 need to show the rest of the world that we're being

16 responsible. I think that's an important part of it.

17 Our young people here need to understand that

18 they live in a place that is a caring place, that is

19 worried about these kind of issues. A lot of people

20 seem to be losing hope in this present day world and we

21 need to give hope by showing that we understand and

22 know the right thing to do. I think that's really

23 important, just for the attitude of young people.

24 In Wisconsin, we have worked on this issue

25 and we have a proposal -- we have a rule now that says,
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1 by -- as someone else said, by 2015, the Wisconsin

2 plants can reduce mercury by ninety percent. I think

3 as Illinois has showed, it's not impossible to do that.

4 It's not impossible financially to do that. It's easy

5 to do it really. There's a giant benefit to cost ratio

6 here. I mean what, one place I read for every dollar

7 you put into pollution control, you get seven or eight

8 dollars of health returns on that, so that's, that's a

9 no-brainer.

10 So, I guess in conclusion, again I'm very

11 much in supporting of the rule as it is. This

12 regulation addresses important, important aspect of how

13 we're treating each other, especially cross

14 generational and especially cross color. We should

15 know that we are all the same people here and we need

16 to treat each other that way and this obviously, as

17 others have said, effects different people in, in our

18 culture in different ways.

19 So the health of you, me, our children, is

20 all, all under this decision. You know that this is up

21 to you. I hope that you can all stand strong in the

22 face of the kind of pressure that you're getting from

23 some, from some sectors of our society and from some

24 people who are going to make a lot of money if they

25 don't do this, but I think you know a lot better than
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1 that.

2 As a citizen of the U.S. and a citizen of the

3 planet, I ask you to please choose wisely to protect us

4 and I thank you again for doing the wonderful work that

5 you do. Thank you EPA.

6 MR. CLARK: I have for Ingrid. What -- I

7 have a question for you.

8 MS. WENDLAND: Oh.

9 MR. CLARK: What, what grade are you in?

10 MS. WENDLAND: Fourth.

11 MR. CLARK: You're ending fourth grade?

12 MS. WENDLAND: Yes.

13 MR. CLARK: Okay. You're the youngest --

14 actually, you're not the youngest. We had someone who

15 was about three months old this morning, I think. But

16 you're the most articulate young person that we've had,

17 so thank you very much for coming to testify.

18 Okay. Let's see. Kelly Pierce and Patricia

19 Rosenthal please, Rosenthal. Are you Ms. Pierce?

20 MS. ROSENTHAL: No, I'm, I'm --

21 MR. CLARK: Oh there we go. Okay.

22 MS. ROSENTHAL: I'm Patricia Rosenthal.

23 MR. CLARK: Patricia Rosenthal. Okay. Got

24 you, got you. Okay.

25 MS. ROSENTHAL: Shall I start?
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1 MR. CLARK: No, let's just, let's wait one

2 second.

3 MS. ROSENTHAL: Oh.

4 MR. CLARK: Right.

5 MS. ROSENTHAL: Sorry about that. Hi, I've

6 seen you before. Yeah, you were at the meeting.

7 MALE: Well, it was a pleasure meeting you.

8 MS. ROSENTHAL: Yeah.

9 MR. CLARK: Okay. Ms. Rosenthal.

10 MS. ROSENTHAL: My name is Patty Rosenthal.

11 Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. I

12 live in the south loop close to the Fisk and Crawford

13 coal plants.

14 About a year ago, I learned that these plants

15 emit air pollution in the form of mercury, arsenic and

16 lead. These pollutants cause asthma, development

17 problems in children, even death and you've heard all

18 the other things that it does that I didn't even know.

19 Okay. Since then, I haven't been able to get

20 this, these facts out of my mind. I don't want to

21 breathe these pollutants and I don't want other people

22 breathing them either. I'm appalled that the managers

23 of Fisk and Crawford care so little about the people

24 they serve or are supposed to serve.

25 I'm therefore delighted that the EPA is
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1 proposing a national rule which will drastically reduce

2 air pollution and save lives. Thank you.

3 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Mr. Pierce.

4 MR. PIERCE: Thank you so much. My name is

5 Kelly Pierce, K-E-L-L-Y, P-I-E-R-C-E. I'm a resident

6 of Chicago on the north side. I am blind and

7 intentionally choose to live in Chicago because it

8 offers me a level of independence because of its public

9 transit system and walkable communities that would be

10 hard to find elsewhere in places that are outside the

11 Chicago area, but have a lot, lot cleaner air.

12 I, I, I've had declining health. I've lived

13 here continuously for the past twenty years and have

14 had declining health over these past two decades. I

15 never could understand why until I finally -- even

16 despite speaking to and, and working with many doctors

17 until finding a doctor who is rather sophisticated and

18 aware. It turns out that my thyroid levels are one

19 fifth of that of a normal person and, and it turns out

20 that mercury blocks the actions of thyroid hormone

21 causing the body to under regulate and so what happens

22 is the metabolism slows down, there's low energy

23 levels, the body temperature is cold most of the time

24 and I'm -- it's a -- I'm ending up being tired and

25 fatigued a lot until, of course, I started my treatment
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1 to restore my good health and my thyroid levels.

2 One of the biggest sources of mercury that

3 interferes and blocks thyroid metabolism in the body is

4 coal-fired power plants.

5 When the Clean Air Act was passed, the

6 existing plants such as the Fisk and Crawford plants

7 here in Chicago and the State Line plant on the

8 Indiana, Illinois border were exempt from, from

9 regulations.

10 I fully support these rules because these

11 rules will actually make plants, these coal plants that

12 were exempt when the Clean Air Act was initially

13 implemented to actually provide, to clean up their act

14 and provide emissions to modern standards or frankly,

15 go out of business. That's, that is something that I

16 have paid the price for. It's not something that

17 Midwest Generation, Edison International, which owns

18 Fisk and Crawford, or Dominion which, which owns State

19 Line or Commonwealth Edison which own the plants before

20 Edison International bought them, is paying for. I'm

21 paying for it. The insurance company's paying for it.

22 My employer's paying for it.

23 Essentially, all of us are paying for it, but

24 yet these companies are reaping billions of dollars

25 from producing dirty coal, dirty emissions, declining
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1 health. And the other prices are, are unaccountable.

2 Who pays for the missed birthdays? Who pays for the

3 missed days at work? Who pays for the missed times of

4 spending time with my family and my parents? Those --

5 prices can't be paid for that. When I'm, when I'm too

6 exhausted to do much else.

7 That's, that's something that is incalculable

8 and that's why these regulations need to exist and need

9 to be implemented as they, as they are in the final

10 rule. And that's why I'm here today and speaking up

11 for these, these coal, these coal regulations. It's

12 incredible, these, these two plants alone, for example

13 and I'll finish with this, equal eighteen times the

14 ground operations at O'Hare National Airport. That's

15 how much they pollute according to an analysis by Green

16 Peace.

17 They, they have the carbon dioxide output,

18 just these two plants at Fisk and Crawford, of two

19 thirds of all the vehicle emissions -- carbon dioxide

20 vehicle emissions of all the vehicles in the City of

21 Chicago on any given day. That's why these plants that

22 have never really been regulated by the EPA before, to

23 any substantive degree need these regulations and not

24 only these plants, but all plants that were exempt need

25 to have these regulations for the sake of my good
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1 health and that for millions of others of Americans.

2 Thank you so much for this opportunity.

3 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you both.

4 Okay. Next two speakers please, Patricia Crowley and

5 James McPike. Ms. Crowley.

6 DR. CROWLEY: I wanted to thank you for your

7 time today. I know that listening is the most

8 difficult of human activity --

9 MR. CLARK: You sound like my wife. I'm

10 sorry.

11 DR. CROWLEY: -- hour after hour is very

12 difficult.

13 Before I start, I have been asked to let my

14 fourteen year old daughter, Lyrica [phonetic] and our

15 friend Jim Adair [phonetic] present a poster from the

16 children of southeast Michigan. This was an unplanned

17 event that I'm trying to incorporate into my

18 presentation.

19 And you as part of the executive branch of

20 our President, I hope you can relay our message here.

21 My name is Dr. Pat Crowley and I'm the

22 Drain Commissioner of Kalamazoo County,

23 Michigan. A drain commissioner is an elected person

24 charged with managing the storm water of a county.

25 I've also been a hydrologist for about thirty-five
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1 years and about ten of those associated with

2 cleaning up soil and water contamination.

3 I have a dream that, unlike most dreams, once

4 was a reality and that dream is that each and every one

5 of us might be able to invite a friend or a family

6 member to walk with us to the nearest stream, river, or

7 lake, soak a line, tell a joke, listen to the birds

8 sing and catch a few fish. Then, of course, walk home,

9 wash the fish, cook the fish, eat the fish without

10 having to consult a fish advisory bulletin.

11 This is a simple activity and has a profound

12 social, cultural, physical and spiritual consequence

13 and I, I think you all know that.

14 Even though my community has many beautiful

15 lakes, streams and rivers, this is now not possible for

16 us. My office holds the EPA MS4 [phonetic] and PDS

17 permit for about half the surface waters in our county

18 and I work hard to educate the people and the public,

19 general public on how to keep their water clean.

20 In our everyday work, we always consider the

21 aquatic habitat of every activity that we're involved

22 in, be it selecting and installing a culvert, removing

23 brush and sediment from a stream or a drain, or

24 stabilizing stream banks. We participate fully in

25 monitoring our water and promoting low impact
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1 development techniques and we're, we're also preparing

2 ourselves for, for greater EPA regulation.

3 Regardless of our effort, toxics are raining

4 down on us, negating our hard work. While we work hard

5 to control sediment, nutrients, bacteria and

6 hydrocarbons, mercury, dioxin, PCB's and other

7 persistent organic pesticides continue to increase in

8 our water body, in the water bodies surrounding us.

9 These come from across our state borders and across our

10 national borders.

11 I want you and we need you to be a full

12 partner in helping to restore our water quality and

13 bring confidence in the attainment of a fuller

14 participation in the natural world. I need you to do

15 for our air what I cannot do locally. Assure that our

16 national standards are adopted and enforced and work

17 for global treaties to protect all our earth's natural

18 resources.

19 Thank you.

20 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

21 MR. McPIKE: Hello. I want to thank you for

22 giving me the opportunity to speak today. My name is

23 Jim McPike and I'm a student of Central Michigan

24 University and I work in a pharmacy in Lansing. I am

25 testifying in support of increasing pollutant
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1 regulations for coal and oil power plants.

2 As a pharmacy technician, I encounter

3 patients with respiratory illnesses on a daily basis.

4 An increasing amount of those patients are children and

5 infants. Multiple studies have proven a correlation

6 between exposure to airborne pollutants and respiratory

7 illness, illnesses.

8 A study performed by J.D. Thurston of the

9 California Air Resources Board focused on particulate

10 matter and its effects on children. The study showed

11 that long term particulate matter exposure to children

12 has been associated with reduced lung function,

13 increased respiratory symptoms and increased infant

14 mortality.

15 Another study [indecipherable] and Air

16 Pollution and its effects on health -- sorry -- showed

17 that exposure to nitrogen dioxide can increase

18 respiratory illness in children. The health issues of

19 these pollutants can be addressed by limiting exposure

20 to these pollutants by increasing emission regulations

21 for these coal and oil power plants.

22 That has been proven the cause of

23 irreversible neurological damage in children. A study

24 done by Gilbert and Wise [phonetic] and the rationale

25 for lowering the blood action level showed impaired
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1 neuro-development in children with blood levels as low

2 as two microgram per deciliter. To clarify how small

3 that value truly is, a microgram is one millionth of a

4 gram, a deciliter is one tenth of a liter.

5 Another study performed by a collaboration of

6 scientists looked at the rates of lower respiratory

7 illness in relation to particulate matter and

8 hydrocarbons. It was found that bronchitis rates

9 increased with rising concentrations of the pollutants.

10 It conclude that preschool children may be particularly

11 susceptible to airborne pollutants.

12 I could site study after study showing the

13 effects of airborne pollutants all day. The problem

14 is, we all know this. We see the effects of this in

15 our everyday lives. We see children with asthma,

16 bronchitis and other respiratory illnesses. We see

17 children that require pills, tubes, inhalers, just so

18 they can live.

19 We can't continue to let these companies emit

20 these pollutants at the current rate. We cannot

21 allow -- we cannot afford to let our children's health

22 suffer, suffer for the -- sorry for that. We can't

23 afford to let our children's health suffer for the sake

24 of cost cutting and profit. The regulations should be

25 increased. Emission standards should be raised.
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1 Raising the standards is not only the pragmatic

2 thing to do for our collective health, it's the ethical

3 thing to do as well. I thank you for the time.

4 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Thank you.

5 Thank you very much.

6 Our next speakers Laura Chamberlain and

7 Allison Risler [phonetic] please.

8 FEMALE: Laura's out to lunch.

9 MR. CLARK: Laura's out to lunch. Okay.

10 Okay and she may have to get back in line a little bit

11 later then. So Allison Risler Sarah Lovinger. And

12 okay. Let's try Vivian Hood and Joan Arnold please.

13 MS. ARNOLD: Right here.

14 MR. CLARK: Okay. I don't know to say to

15 these guys. Oh okay. Yeah, I was just getting to

16 these. All right. Ms. Hood please.

17 MS. HOOD: Thank you. Vivian Hood. Of

18 course Hood is H-O-O-D. I'm very much in favor, of

19 course, of increasing clean air standards and holding

20 those responsible for the demise of our air and water

21 responsible.

22 It's very sad to me when people tell me they

23 visit Chicago and how bad the air is. When I fly over

24 Chicago and I can't even see the buildings. When I

25 come into Chicago and I feel worse. I'll turn
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1 sixty-five this year and, of course, that makes me a

2 senior citizen, and but I'm a lifelong Chicagoan and I

3 can't remember ever being so appalled and it seems

4 we've been going down a wrong path for so very long and

5 it's about time that we take a step in a different

6 direction.

7 Thank you for hearing me.

8 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Ms. Arnold.

9 MS. ARNOLD: Before I begin, I want, I want

10 you to know that I look at the EPA as my American

11 soldier. My protector. My first line of defense from

12 environmental dangers created by those who are doing us

13 harm.

14 I know you want to be on my, on my, the

15 people's side. I'm Joan Arnold. Born and raised on a

16 dairy farm on the central part of Wisconsin. I am

17 also retired military officer who spent over

18 twenty-eight years in the active army. I currently

19 operate a small vegetable and fruit operation on the

20 family farm and I sell my produce at two farmer's

21 markets in Wisconsin Rapids and Stevens Point.

22 One of the major employers of this area where

23 I grew up, was and some still are, the paper mills in

24 the Wisconsin River valley area. Three of those mills

25 still use coal as their source of power generation.
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1 Paper mills and coal power plants have their own sets

2 of contamination issues and when combined, the water,

3 air and ground are worsened all the more.

4 On days when the wind blows right, or for my

5 part, wrong, I can smell the paper mill's emissions. I

6 live about seven miles from the nearest mill. I often

7 wonder what else I am breathing and what is falling on

8 my crops. Thank goodness, Wisconsin is one of the few

9 states which has, in the past, been trying to clean up

10 the emissions from paper mills and power plants with

11 stricter standards. I want this to continue.

12 I want to be assured that the air I breathe

13 is clean, the water I drink is safe and the ground I

14 use to grow food is as clean as or as safe as it can

15 be. There needs to be more federal and state standards

16 that are enforceable throughout the country.

17 Unfortunately, I see there are politicians

18 with certain corporate agendas that will bring us back

19 to the days when we are recklessly polluting our water,

20 air and ground all in the name of some cover as job

21 creation and taking advantage of a supposed crisis that

22 was created by continued Wall Street greed.

23 Not to mention two almost eight to ten year

24 old wars. We cannot afford to go back to the days of

25 this environmental recklessness and not doing what is
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1 right because it will cost the companies or the

2 stockholders bottom line. Where CEO's now earning

3 record salaries and bonuses, we as a nation cannot

4 afford to keep stamping on the environment and common

5 people who compose most of this country.

6 All we get to share in is the continuing

7 slumming and dumbing down of America from these

8 corporate barons. You all know what pollution does to

9 the environment and we are learning more and more that

10 chemicals are ruining the human body also. How much of

11 it is in our food supply as well?

12 When are we, as a nation, going to get

13 serious and really embrace our truly renewable sources

14 for the use of power generation and energy in general?

15 When is solar energy and wind generation going to be

16 embraced? When is this truly renewable energy going to

17 be affordable for us as consumers to embrace it in all

18 our daily lives? When are energy efficiency standards

19 going to be raised across the board? Why haven't we

20 really improved since the first energy crisis in the

21 late 1970's? When are we as a nation, going to tell

22 corporate CEO's we don't want them to make so much

23 money off of their compromising our health and welfare?

24 When are we, as a people, really going to make the

25 government and the corporations that buy our
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1 politicians and that get in bed with our regulators,

2 when are we going to make them do what is right by the

3 American people finally?

4 I encourage you to embrace -- I'm sorry. I

5 encourage you to enforce and -- correct. I encourage

6 you to enhance and enforce safe standards for our air,

7 water and ground. If we don't have a clean and

8 sustainable environment, what is life worth living for

9 anyway?

10 And thank you for your time.

11 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Okay. Sarah Lovinger

12 please. Sarah are you here? Okay. And also, I'm

13 trying to figure this out, Susan Harley and Kelinda

14 Scott are a combination.

15 FEMALE: Yeah, we [Indecipherable] last for

16 five minutes. I'm sharing my time with her.

17 MR. CLARK: Oh okay. Well let's, we need an

18 extra chair up there then.

19 FEMALE: That's okay. I'll just stand.

20 MR. CLARK: There's one right there. Okay.

21 Great. In the meantime, Sarah, if you'll feel free to

22 start and if you could spell your name also for the

23 court reporter.

24 DR. LOVINGER: Sure. I spell my name

25 S-A-R-A-H, L-O-V like Victor, I-N-G-E-R.
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1 MR. CLARK: Great. Thank you.

2 DR. LOVINGER: Good afternoon. My name is

3 Dr. Sarah Lovinger and I'm the Executive Director of

4 the Chicago Chapter of Physicians for Social

5 Responsibility, which is the local branch of a national

6 organization. We've been around for twenty years and

7 we advocate for a healthier Chicago. I'm also a

8 practicing Internal Medicine Physician and I'd just

9 like to say that I'm grateful for the release of such a

10 productive health standard that will greatly diminish

11 the air emissions of hazardous pollutants from coal and

12 oil fired power plants, particularly those in our area.

13 I'd like to talk a little bit about the

14 health risks of particulate matter. As a community

15 health center doctor, working for more than a dozen

16 years in Chicago's low income communities, I have

17 firsthand -- seen firsthand how our under insured and

18 uninsured minority populations bares a higher disease

19 and death burden due to heart disease, asthma, stroke,

20 and emphysema than our middle class citizens. And

21 pollution in the form of particulate matter only adds

22 to this disease burden.

23 In my clinics, I have cared for countless

24 patients suffering from these ailments; asthma,

25 emphysema, hypertension, heart disease, and stroke. I
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1 can diagnose and treat their ailments. I can give them

2 medication to try to improve their lives, but I can't

3 reduce the risk of exposure to environmental toxins.

4 Only environmental regulation can do this.

5 Unfortunately, as one of my colleagues says,

6 you can't medicate particulate matter exposure. Why is

7 air pollution and particulate matter so harmful?

8 Particulate matter increases asthma rates and

9 outbreaks, leads to the development of emphysema,

10 increases the risk of heart disease, and death and puts

11 people at risk of stroke and children face increase

12 risk of asthma development and poor lung development.

13 We're not doing so well here in Cook County.

14 The American Lung Association gives us an F, a failing

15 grade for our air quality and our high ozone days and

16 our particulate matter pollution.

17 This puts people at risk, both kids and

18 adults with asthma, chronic bronchitis, adults with

19 emphysema and heart disease of becoming more

20 debilitated just because they are breathing air.

21 As the EPA considers this rule, it is

22 essential to keep in mind the health complications of

23 breathing dirty air, especially for low income

24 populations who already have higher disease risks and

25 higher death rates. Tougher rules that can improve air
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1 quality will improve public health for all of us.

2 Thanks for allowing me to testify today.

3 MS. HARLEY: Hello. My name is Susan Harley,

4 that's S-U-S-A-N, H-A-R-L-E-Y. I'm the Michigan Policy

5 Director for Clean Water Action. I would like to thank

6 you today for holding this hearing and for allowing us

7 all the opportunity to testify today.

8 I am representing Clean Water Action's over

9 two hundred fifty thousand Michigan members. I'm also

10 representing my fellow Clean Air and Clean Water

11 Advocates from Michigan including those who are

12 following us from afar via twitter.

13 I am so honored to be able to speak today on

14 behalf of Michigan's residents, to speak for our

15 children, our mothers, for our rivers, lakes and

16 streams and for future generations.

17 I'm here to say thank you from all of us, for

18 protecting us from toxic air pollution. By moving

19 forward with strong national standards for mercury and

20 other toxic air pollution. Standards that are too long

21 awaited. Standards that must be enacted without delay.

22 I've also brought over a hundred and forty

23 thank you notes from children from across Michigan that

24 will be submitted to you later today. Their thank

25 you's will also have to represent those children unable
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1 to sign a note to you because they lack the skills to

2 do so because of developmental issues brought on by

3 exposure to toxic pollution.

4 Thank you also from Michigan workers who will

5 get jobs cleaning up coal plants and building clean,

6 renewable energy systems.

7 Thank you also from the Michigan taxpayers

8 who now pay the healthcare costs for this pollution

9 instead of the power plants that cause it.

10 And thank you again from Clean Water Action's

11 members who greatly support you as you move forward

12 with these essential and important rules as expediently

13 as possible. And we would support a rule that's even

14 stronger and achieves even greater reductions.

15 When one teaspoonful of mercury can poison an

16 entire body of water, and when Michigan has over four

17 thousand pounds of mercury emitted yearly, it's clear

18 that we must move forward now.

19 Michigan already has fish advisories in all

20 of our inland lakes and streams instead of the pure

21 Michigan that we advertise. We do want clean water and

22 clean energy, so as we move towards a clean energy

23 future for our state, we thank you, EPA for quickly

24 enacting strong air toxic standards that will

25 protective of our health.
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1 Thank you again for your efforts to clean up

2 dirty coal and for all that you do.

3 MS. SCOTT: Hello, my name is Kelinda Scott,

4 K-E Linda Scott, S-C-O-T-T. I live in Michigan. I'm a

5 mother, wife, artist, teacher and I do some domestic

6 animal rehabbing and rescue.

7 It's become apparent over the last few years

8 to the veterinarians that I work with and myself that

9 the immune systems of animals are suffering also. Just

10 like our children have increased allergies and asthma

11 and so forth, the animals also are, are showing signs

12 of decreased immune systems with some higher cancer

13 rates and tumors and, and allergies; tons and tons of

14 allergies that are new to our pets.

15 To me, the most compelling reason to, to

16 enact the strictest laws you can on these toxins would

17 be the animals and the children, but if, if you were to

18 believe the TV, some of your constituents might not

19 care about the children and the animals and maybe they

20 just care about money or big business or the economy,

21 which is okay because when it comes to money, they,

22 they better take into consideration the fact that this

23 is going to get worse and there's going to have to be a

24 clean up. Somebody's going to have to pay for it.

25 Big business -- let's see. I'm trying to
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1 beat the clock. Recent studies of the 1990's Clean Air

2 Act showed that those public safeguards two trillion

3 dollars to the economy and that's a thirty to one

4 return on their investment, so basically any, any big

5 business will really like a thirty to one return on

6 their investments, so if you -- whatever your reasons

7 are, be it the right reasons; our children and our

8 animals or the smart reasons, I, I beg you to enact and

9 very intelligently the strictest controls possible.

10 Thank you for your time.

11 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank

12 you. Okay. Lee Sprague and Danielle Korpalski please.

13 Korpalski, I hope that's close.

14 MR. SPRAGUE: [Indecipherable -- foreign

15 language]. My name is Lee Sprague, I'm from the

16 Little River Band of Ottawa Indians

17 Tribal Council clan. I'm from the territories you

18 call Michigan, but we're under the big trees there

19 also.

20 I'm about to read the official statement from

21 my tribal government. I'm an elected representative.

22 I will submit this to you after I'm done speaking as a

23 hard copy.

24 The Environmental Protection Agency must

25 protect both Michigan and national tribal communities
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1 from the harms caused by mercury and particulate

2 matter, PM2.5, from toxic air pollutants emanating from

3 coal and oil fired power plants or electric steam

4 generating units, EGU's.

5 We believe that the rules proposed by the EPA

6 to reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants from power

7 plants have a material impact on tribal communities who

8 will bear a disproportionate share of the pollution

9 burden from these toxic air emissions.

10 Mercury's a neurotoxin that causes

11 neurological delays and damage, but it's a special

12 concern of the tribal communities and children.

13 Particulate matter 2.5 and smaller or soot

14 produced by EGU's are damaging to life systems that we

15 and our clan brothers and sisters breathe every day.

16 Nitrous dioxide and sulfur dioxide in air

17 emissions cause permanent damage to living organisms

18 and acidify rain resulting in notable degradation to

19 the ecosystems all forms of life depend on.

20 The environmental and public policy health

21 burden that result from emissions are not equally born

22 by members of society. They fall heavily on tribal

23 communities. This places my people and our future

24 generations at an alarming disproportionate risk.

25 The EPA must regulate air emissions so that
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1 the rules not only protect the health, safety and

2 welfare of tribal members, but end this

3 disproportionate impact throughout the United States.

4 Historically the EPA's Indian policy and

5 trust and delegates to the agency the responsibility of

6 supporting tribal governments who protect the

7 environment and public health in Indian country.

8 The EPA policy states the key note of this

9 effort will be to give special consideration to tribal

10 interests in making agency policy and to insure close

11 involvements with tribal governments in making

12 decisions and managing environmental programs affecting

13 reservations lands.

14 In 1984, the EPA became the first federal

15 agency to adopt the formal Indian policy working with

16 federally recognized tribes on government to government

17 basis.

18 This new EPA -- the new EPA policy and

19 consultation and coordination with Indian tribes

20 published May the 4th, 2011, builds and strengthens

21 this consultation process.

22 The basis for my being here today is to --

23 that the EPA must respect the trust responsibilities of

24 the historic lack of consultation with the tribes as

25 the EPA has delegated to the State of Michigan the
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1 responsibility for regulating PM2.5. This lack of

2 regulation, of regulation to protect vulnerable tribal

3 populations have been done with little concern

4 regarding the health of our peoples.

5 Clearly, given the specific delegation,

6 Michigan Department of Environmental Qualities

7 permitting action or a state law and regulation should

8 have considered different and disproportionate impacts

9 on tribes, but it did not.

10 The MDNRE hearings for the Wolverine

11 coal-fired power plant must take into account these

12 disproportionate impacts on our people. Again, it

13 does not.

14 MDEQ erred in at least three different

15 ways in assessing the health assessments in regards

16 to mercury from Wolverine. First, Michigan Department

17 of Environmental Quality considered fish consumption

18 levels that do not reflect the reality of fish

19 consumption by tribal communities who subsist as

20 fish.

21 Second, the MDEQ model assumed the

22 disproportionate high amount of mercury is transported

23 long range and not deposited locally or regionlly.

24 Finally, MDEQ failed to include Lake Huron in

25 its modeling for the permit to install application for
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1 Wolverine coal.

2 Additionally, the impacts of PM2.5 on tribal

3 peoples was not addressed and CO2, a major green house

4 gas was not even considered as relevant even though CO2

5 has ominous implications for indigenous peoples

6 worldwide as recognized by the intergovernmental panel

7 on climate change. We are not immune to these impacts.

8 There was documented evidence demonstrating

9 that the Indians absolutely depend upon fishing for

10 subsistence in their livelihood. It's in the Michigan

11 1836 Treaty Fishery Guide on page fourteen.

12 Ignoring all the data on subsistence fishing

13 by tribes in Michigan, the MDEQ's health assessment for

14 Wolverine assumed a fish consumption level of only one

15 meal every two weeks and claimed that subsistence

16 fishing is not a reality. "Subsistence could mean

17 perhaps a meal of everyday of fish from one body of

18 water and our regulations don't cover that possibility.

19 In this case, I don't think it's a reality." Answer

20 from Robert Sills [phonetic] the Wolverine permit to

21 install applicant technician for the Michigan

22 Department for Environmental Quality.

23 Clearly the State of Michigan does not

24 consider the impacts of toxic air emissions on the

25 health of tribal peoples. We need stringent EPA
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1 regulations on toxic air emissions that must eliminate

2 the disproportionate impact on the Ottawa Indians,

3 Indians, American Indians, Alaska natives and

4 indigenous peoples. The EPA must fulfill its mandate to

5 respect the rights of tribes as sovereign governments,

6 to exercise the rights to self determination within the

7 appropriate consultation process on regulations that

8 affect the health, safety and welfare of indigenous

9 peoples.

10 The federal government and the EPA must

11 acknowledge this trust responsibility to tribes and end

12 the disproportionate impact of air toxins from EGU's.

13 [Indecipherable -- foreign language].

14 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

15 MS. KORPALSKI: Thank you. My name is

16 Danielle Korpalski, D-A-N-I-E-L-L-E, K-O-R-P-A-L-S-K-I

17 and I want to start off by first thanking the EPA and

18 the panel for hosting us today and hearing our

19 comments. We really appreciate it. But I want to put

20 in a special thank you. I've been watching and really

21 been on the front lines of seeing the interrogation and

22 the criticism that the EPA has received over the last,

23 well, probably for a while, but definitely in the last

24 year and I just want to thank you because I know it's

25 probably really tough. You hear you guys are the job
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1 killers, the over-reachers, what have you and I think

2 it's false and I think that you know, you're going to

3 walk out of here today and hear those criticisms, but I

4 just want you to really take in all of the support

5 today, not just from the people out here, but all the

6 people out there.

7 Yes, I have been known to be a cheerleader

8 and I think it, I think it serves us well here today.

9 So, as a lifelong Michigan resident, I grew

10 up in the City of Detroit, and but I grew up enjoying

11 the splendor and beauty of the Great Lakes and my

12 family spent many summers basking in the serenity of

13 the world's greatest fresh water source and I believe

14 it's a rare gem worth protecting and the standards that

15 the EPA has proposed will begin addressing and

16 mitigating the harmful effects of air toxics. Of

17 course, I wish that you guys would go even higher and

18 set even stricter standards, but this definitely gets

19 our foot in the door to start addressing mercury and

20 air toxics.

21 And now that I'm an adult and I have a lot of

22 friends of child bearing age, I see a direct connection

23 between mercury pollution and public health and several

24 of my friends have started to have children and sadly

25 every doctor has advised them against eating any of
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1 Michigan's fish and it's just really sad to see.

2 Additionally, I was just in northern Michigan

3 this last weekend doing a beautiful bike ride along the

4 lake shore and at the end, we had a great celebration

5 on Mackinaw Island and they had white fish and I,

6 again, advised all of my friends not to eat it and

7 explained the process and I'm really saddened by that,

8 but of course, took the necessary precautions and

9 decided against eating it.

10 And so, you know, today I'm encouraged by the

11 EPA's efforts and just continue to ask you to stay

12 strong on the front lines, you know, when you go out

13 the door today and just continue with your efforts.

14 Furthermore and I've submitted for the

15 record, for folks that I know that couldn't be here

16 today, so Gary Bosick [phonetic] from the great state

17 of Minnesota, he also submitted testimony from a

18 sportsman and a lifelong Minnesota resident who hunts

19 and fishes. Another woman, Dawn Erlanson [phonetic]

20 from the state of Minnesota. She is a mother and her

21 child suffers from extreme asthma and then finally from

22 Lynn Gentellis [phonetic] from Minnesota. She is a

23 person who suffers severely from asthma as well, so

24 much so that she can't even drive in the City of

25 Minneapolis without wearing a face mask, so I submitted
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1 testimony on behalf of her, so that is -- those are my

2 comments.

3 Thank you and again stay strong.

4 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you

5 very much. Mr. Frank Szollosi and Suhail Barot, that's

6 hopefully close. You, you can fix it.

7 MR. SZOLLOSI: Frank Szollosi, F-R-A-N-K,

8 S-Z-O-L-L-O-S-I. Policy Analyst at National Wildlife

9 Federation's Great Lake's Office in Ann Arbor.

10 On behalf of National Wildlife Federation and

11 our forty-seven state affiliate organizations and four

12 million members and supporters across the country,

13 thank you for the opportunity today to provide

14 comments. NWF will be submitting a detailed written

15 comments prior to the deadline from our Washington

16 headquarters.

17 I live in Toledo, Ohio. Ohio citizens and

18 wildlife are among the most exposed to the greatest

19 concentrations of mercury and other air toxics in the

20 United States. It's unacceptable.

21 Decades of delay and inaction have resulted

22 in thousands of premature deaths, heart attacks, birth

23 defects, learning disabilities and incidences of

24 disease, like childhood asthma.

25 Clearly, patchwork of state regulations have
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1 proven to be inadequate to protect citizens and

2 wildlife and I'm proud to relay the National Wildlife

3 Federation's strong support for action by the U.S. EPA

4 to limit the emissions of mercury and air toxics from

5 power plants and other facilities.

6 EPA must move forward with the strongest

7 possible air toxics protections to defend public

8 health, protect children and senior citizens and

9 safeguard wildlife and habitat.

10 The power plants, particularly the coal-fired

11 power plants and like so many in Ohio, where I live,

12 can belch these toxics without limits and these

13 emissions include some of the most hazardous pollutants

14 known.

15 It's time for owners and operators of these

16 facilities to be responsible and accountable for their

17 actions. Our children, wildlife and future generations

18 should not be sacrificed to satisfy polluters' special

19 interests.

20 Growing up, I used to fish near First Energy

21 Bay Shore Power Plant just east of Toledo. My friends

22 and I would walk out on the jetty at night near the

23 power plants water intake. The water intake there

24 chews up millions of fish every year and it attracts

25 larger fish. In fact, according to the Ohio Department
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1 of Natural Resources, fourth -- four hundred and fifty

2 thousand people fish in Ohio's portion of Lake Erie

3 every year contributing six hundred and eighty million

4 dollars to the state's economy.

5 How many more anglers would fish in Ohio if

6 we had this rule twenty years ago when Clean Air Act

7 got passed? How many more millions of dollars would

8 have been pumped into our tourism sector to support our

9 communities, but in fact, there's harm being done to

10 our fish, to our anglers, to our communities and

11 consumers.

12 According to the EPA's toxic release

13 inventory, First Energy's Bay Shore plant there,

14 disposed of over a million pounds of these toxics in

15 2009. Is it any wonder that residents who live near

16 this facility, who fish in Maumee Bay and consume this

17 fish have cancer rates and mortality rates that exceeds

18 state and national averages.

19 The state fish consumption advisories in

20 these waters are tacit admissions that we're not doing

21 enough to protect ourselves and our fisheries.

22 My colleagues at NWF in the Ann Arbor Office

23 are -- and dozens of hunting and fishing groups across

24 the Great Lakes basin are working with the federal

25 government in state and coastal communities on the
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1 Great Lakes restoration project. This is hundreds of

2 millions of dollars championed by President Obama and

3 appropriated by Congress to restore the Great Lakes and

4 this rule will help contribute to the achievement of

5 these goals.

6 Just downwind of the Bay Shore plant lies

7 critical habitat encompassed by Krane Creek [phonetic],

8 Magee [phonetic] Marsh, Metsker [phonetic] Marsh and

9 several national wildlife refuges. It would be

10 difficult to overstate the importance of this habitat

11 to endangered species, and vast populations of

12 migratory birds and the ecosystem of the Great Lakes.

13 We must institute the strongest possible

14 protections for this, for these areas because they're

15 at risk. Let's move forward to protect our children's

16 future from toxics and poisons released into the air

17 that fill their lungs.

18 The National Wildlife Federation strongly

19 supports the EPA's proposed rule to limit emissions of

20 mercury and other air toxics from power plants and

21 other facilities. Thank you.

22 MR. BAROT: Thank you for holding these

23 hearings today. My name is Suhail Barot, spelled

24 S-U-H-A-I-L, B-A-R-O-T. I'm a graduate student in

25 urban planning at the University of Illinois of Urbana
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1 Champaign. I've traveled up here with four other

2 students to testify today. Unfortunately, it's summer

3 break, otherwise we might have been able to bring up

4 some more folks.

5 Coal-Fired power plants is responsible for

6 tens of thousands of deaths annually and this rule is a

7 critical step in addressing this. But it's only one of

8 many actions that EPA needs to take in doing so. And

9 we've seen some of your regulatory activities over the

10 past two years and thank you for them and several still

11 to go.

12 Ultimately, our goal must be to shut down all

13 coal powered plants in the U.S.

14 Regulation of these hazardous air pollutants

15 is long overdue. They should have been part of the

16 original Clean Air Act in 1970 before I was born. They

17 should have been put into place immediately after the

18 Clean Air Act Amendments were passed in 1990 when I was

19 five years old, but they haven't and now I'm probably

20 too old to still be in graduate school, but they're

21 still not done.

22 We need strong federal leadership by EPA on

23 this issue and on all of these regulations on big coal.

24 We've seen industry pressure derail on coal ash and on

25 boiler MACT and that cannot happen over hear on these
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1 mercury regulations. They're too important.

2 Illinois over here is a coal state. Our

3 politicians and state agencies are captive to these

4 interests. If you go to the Department of Commerce and

5 Economic Opportunity website in this state, they're

6 giving out money to expand coal production. They have

7 coloring pages for children to learn about the coal

8 industry and its wonders.

9 If coal plants were not allowed to

10 externalize their -- these costs on the pubic, this

11 wouldn't be happening. We wouldn't be dealing with

12 these issues around coal.

13 On our campus, students fought decades ago to

14 get scrubbers placed on our coal plant, so we're not as

15 major of a contributor to coal emissions. A year ago,

16 we forced our university to put a sunset date of 2017

17 on our coal plant and this plant, we put this year,

18 this April, we put enough pressure on them to shut down

19 their coal boilers, which will hopefully stay off until

20 October and as we continue our energy conservation

21 efforts, maybe in three or four years, we won't be

22 burning coal at all anymore at the University of

23 Illinois, but when we did this, and we started on this

24 process, we had calls from state legislatures saying we

25 were setting a bad example by not using as much coal at
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1 the University of Illinois.

2 Most coal power plants do not belong to

3 universities and they are not accountable to strong

4 student coalitions that can force them to clean up

5 their act. And so we really need EPA to set standards

6 that would protect us when our local and state

7 governments might not.

8 The other thing I want to bring up is that

9 these -- this regulation will significantly reduce

10 childhood cases of asthma, which is something

11 especially important to me. I have asthma. It wasn't

12 diagnosed until I went to college, but it significantly

13 affected me. You can imagine being a child who can't

14 complete a two hundred foot race. Who can't swim the

15 length of a pool. I can hike ten miles, but I can't

16 run two hundred feet because my lungs can't give me

17 enough oxygen. And when you're a kid who can't do what

18 other kids can do, kids are cruel. It's not, it's not

19 fun going through this kind of process and most kids, a

20 lot of kids have asthma that's much, much worse than

21 mine, so whatever we can do to prevent any cases of

22 childhood asthma are worth doing.

23 Whatever you can do with this regulation,

24 however strong you can make it, stronger than it's been

25 proposed; it's worth doing and I live right now in an
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1 area that's somewhat cleaner than the areas that I grew

2 up with. Has slightly better air and thank you for

3 that, but -- and I can feel the affect of that.

4 So anyway, this regulation is really

5 important and we need you to make it as strong as it

6 can possibly be and show us strong leadership at the

7 federal level. Thank you for your time.

8 MR. CLARK: Okay. Thanks. Thank you both

9 very much. Amy Allen and Barbara Timmermans please.

10 Oh okay. Ms. Allen.

11 MS. ALLEN: Hi. Thank you for the

12 opportunity to speak this afternoon. My name is Amy

13 Allen and I am a Junior in Civil Engineering at the

14 University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, and I

15 traveled here today with four other students to stand

16 up for a future that is not marred by toxic air

17 pollution.

18 It is estimated that this air toxics rule

19 would avoid up to seventeen thousand premature deaths

20 every year as well as eight hundred fifty thousand

21 missed days of work and over twelve thousand hospital

22 visits.

23 Air pollution from coal-fired power plants

24 has a drastic impact on people's livelihoods as well as

25 the economy and coal-fired plants are responsible for
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1 ninety-nine percent of mercury emissions and the

2 majority of air pollutants in the power industry.

3 It is estimated that in Illinois alone, coal

4 power plant emissions are responsible for over four

5 hundred hospital admissions and over one thousand heart

6 attacks every year. And between one twelfth and one

7 sixth of women of child bearing age have mercury blood

8 levels high enough to put an unborn child at risk for

9 mercury poisoning.

10 Mercury is responsible for mental

11 retardation, reproductive problems, respiratory

12 illnesses and cancer, and young children and pregnant

13 women are the most vulnerable.

14 Mercury will continue to poison future

15 generations if the EPA does not take action now to

16 control air toxic emissions.

17 The human and financial costs of air pollution

18 are borne by society and almost twenty thousand

19 premature deaths, ten thousand heart attacks, and over

20 a hundred thousand asthma attacks every year and

21 thousands of missed days of school and work and

22 billions of dollars in healthcare costs. These costs

23 should be borne by the polluting industries in

24 installing already available control technology to

25 limit mercury, particulate matter and other air toxic
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1 emissions.

2 These costs should not be borne by society

3 and human lives any longer. In order to create a

4 level playing field for cleaner sources of energy to be

5 competitive and cost effective, the cost of coal must

6 be made evident and that includes the cost of

7 maintaining clean air.

8 The Clean Air Act is estimated to have lead

9 to avoidance of over a hundred billion in health costs

10 over its life as well as saving countless lives.

11 Polluting facilities such as coal-fired power plants

12 are disproportionate located in low income communities

13 such as the Fisk and Crawford plants in Chicago,

14 further depressing economic development through missed

15 days of school and work and poisoning generations of

16 children.

17 The EPA must take action now and enact a

18 strong air toxics rule to stop this cycle of suffering.

19 Thank you.

20 MR. CLARK: Yes, Ms. Timmermans.

21 DR. TIMMERMANS: Yes. Good afternoon. My

22 name is Dr. Barbara Timmermans. I teach nursing at

23 Trinity Christian College, which is in Palest Heights,

24 Illinois, a Chicago suburb.

25 My specialties in nursing are community
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1 health and maternity nursing.

2 Given these two areas, I'm concerned about

3 mercury pollution from both a public health perspective

4 and from the perspective of a nurse interested in

5 healthy newborns.

6 As a Christian, I also believe I'm called to

7 protect unborn children and to protect the environment,

8 so I'm here to support the mercury rule.

9 Currently, one in six babies are born with

10 harmful levels of mercury in their blood. We know that

11 in utero exposure to mercury is especially devastating

12 to developing babies because the blood brain barrier is

13 not well developed until, during the first year of

14 life.

15 In the unborn child, mercury, which is a

16 powerful neuro toxicant crosses this barrier and may

17 cause developmental disabilities, learning

18 disabilities, and lowered IQ. This loss of

19 intelligence leads to lowered economic productivity in

20 children and adults.

21 It's estimated that mercury pollution from

22 power plants results in a yearly loss of around a

23 hundred -- one point three billion dollars due to brain

24 damage suffered in the womb. For these children

25 though, their disabilities will be lifelong because
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1 the effects of mercury exposure in utero are not

2 reversible.

3 Since consumption of mercury contaminated

4 fish is the main route of human exposure, people

5 sometimes suggest that pregnant women should just avoid

6 eating fish. The problem with this argument is that

7 women often do not know right away that they're

8 pregnant and so may consume fish for the first month or

9 two of pregnancy. The most critical neurological

10 development takes place very early in pregnancy and

11 mercury is especially toxic to the rapidly developing

12 brain during this critical early period. Damage may

13 have already occurred before the woman even knows she's

14 pregnant.

15 Also mercury passes into breast milk, so

16 breast feeding women who consume contaminated fish will

17 pass this to their infants and further brain damage may

18 occur.

19 Power plants have known for over a decade

20 that their mercury emissions would be regulated. Some

21 plants have already installed the pollution reduction

22 technologies. It's possible for the industry to comply

23 with the laws, especially since there's a three to four

24 year time frame allowed for compliance.

25 In posing the proposed mercury standard for
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1 power plants would reduce mercury pollution by

2 ninety-one percent which would dramatically reduce

3 mercury contamination in our fish.

4 The price of regulation is well worth the

5 investment. The EPA's modeling projects that for every

6 one dollar spent on environmental mercury reduction,

7 we would get five to thirteen dollars in health

8 benefits.

9 One of the marks of a moral society is the

10 protection of its most vulnerable citizens. I believe

11 it's time to protect the vulnerable and stop the

12 mercury poisoning of unborn children. We need to do

13 what we can to protect our next generations. As a

14 country, it's our moral imperative. For me as a person

15 of faith, it is in keeping with God's command to love

16 my neighbor and to protect the environment.

17 Also as the mom of a twenty-five year old son

18 who is developmentally disabled, I wonder how we can

19 continue to cause damage to our children when it's

20 within our power to prevent this damage. Thank you for

21 your time.

22 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much.

23 Frederick Ellsworth and Daniel Weber please.

24 MR. ELLSWORTH: Thank you. Thanks. Okay.

25 MR. CLARK: Mr. Weber, do you want to start
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1 or actually -- no Mr. Ellsworth go ahead.

2 MR. ELLSWORTH: I've got the mic. Good

3 afternoon. Thank you for hearing my testimony today.

4 My name is Frederick Ellsworth. I am a resident of

5 White Fish Bay, Wisconsin. My residence is located

6 five miles north of the Milwaukee Valley coal-fired

7 power plant.

8 I'm also an avid angler and consumer of fresh

9 water fish, salt water fish, and many different ways of

10 preparation; pan fried, deep fried, broiled, baked,

11 seered, and raw.

12 I guess I really support the strictest form

13 of regulation of emissions from coal-fired power plants

14 so that I can enjoy my affliction.

15 I'd also like to include a little excerpt

16 from article written by -- or published by Clean

17 Wisconsin back in 2004. The headline is twenty-five

18 percent drop in Wisconsin fishing due to mercury would

19 cost five hundred and sixteen million annually.

20 A long term decline in angling Wisconsin of

21 just twenty-five percent due to the lake and stream

22 following the effects of mercury would cost the state's

23 economy five hundred and sixteen million per year and

24 jeopardize many of the twenty-one thousand, four

25 hundred and fifty-nine jobs in Wisconsin that depend on
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1 fishing.

2 According to a new state environmental

3 leadership program report released today by King,

4 Wisconsin. Okay. This was back in 2004, so you can

5 extrapolate that value in today's dollars. I think the

6 dollar is up today, I'm not sure, but in any event, it

7 would be considerably more.

8 And of course as most of you realize or most

9 of you have heard, Wisconsin is having fiscal problems.

10 Wisconsin is broke. We can't afford to have a decline

11 in any of our revenues for any industry, especially the

12 fishing industry; sport fishing, which accounts for a

13 third, which a third leading revenue producer in the

14 state.

15 Let me go back to the article again. The

16 Wisconsin Wildlife Federation Executive Director,

17 George Myer [phonetic] said, "Fishing is not just a way

18 of life for the one point four million anglers in the

19 state. Of the fifteen thousand, eighty-one lakes, it

20 is a critical part of Wisconsin's economy contributing

21 to over two billion dollars of economic output. The

22 mercury health containment advisory is on all of

23 Wisconsin's lakes poses serious threat to the physical

24 and economic health of Wisconsin citizens. This state

25 has stepped forward by adopting tough new regulations
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1 that the federal government needs to adopt. Excuse me.

2 However, Wisconsin anglers understand that the federal

3 government needs to adopt tough new regulations to cut

4 down on mercury pollution. It is time that the EPA

5 recognizes that we need to reduce mercury getting into

6 our lakes, our fish, and our families."

7 Also in this article, the [indecipherable]

8 report shows that Wisconsin has one of the top ten

9 economic impacts from fishing in the United States.

10 Our state ranks sixth behind Florida, California and

11 Texas and ahead of such states as Michigan, which is

12 seventh, New York eighth and Ohio ninth.

13 The Environmental Protection Agency has

14 proposed regulation requiring a seventy percent

15 reduction in mercury from coal burning power plants by

16 2018, with a trading scheme that would allow utilities

17 to buy their way out of making some or all of those

18 reductions.

19 Environmental groups have pointed out that

20 the existing Clean Air Act requires a maximum

21 achievable reductions of mercury, a ninety percent

22 reduction of mercury emissions from coal plants by 2008

23 and does not allow for the trading scheme.

24 Well obviously, I would support a ninety

25 percent reduction of mercury and would welcome that in
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1 a heartbeat. Well, this article points out that some

2 very dire predictions of the economic impact of just a

3 twenty-five percent reduction in Wisconsin angling due

4 to mercury pollution.

5 Over five hundred million dollars per year in

6 2004 dollars. And it would affect the twenty-one

7 thousand, four hundred fifty-nine jobs back in 2004.

8 It's probably a lot less now. And that was derived

9 from, like I said, from a 2004 study prior to the 2008

10 Wall Street meltdown and as I said earlier, we can't

11 afford any reduction in revenues in 2011.

12 So in closing, I'd just like to say that it

13 was clear message in 2004 as it is today, that coal

14 burning utilities continue to threaten our health and

15 economic vitality by their irresponsible acts and I

16 would hope and pray that the EPA will enforce the

17 strictest emission limits possible. Thank you.

18 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Mr. Weber.

19 DR. WEBER: My name is Daniel Weber. I'm a

20 Senior Scientist at the Children's Environmental Health

21 Sciences Center at the University of Wisconsin,

22 Milwaukee.

23 And thank you to the EPA for providing this

24 public forum in which those who will be most profoundly

25 affected by your decisions can be heard.
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1 Today we are hearing extensive testimony

2 regarding the dangers of mercury specifically and other

3 pollutants generally that are emitted from coal-fired

4 electrical generating plants.

5 These effects have been identified in human

6 populations as well as those of many species of fish

7 and wildlife. The EPA is well aware of this data.

8 The bare note questions for this hearing are

9 whether there is some level of mercury exposure that

10 could be considered safe and if so, do we have the

11 technology to achieve it and if not, do we have the

12 courage to deal with that potential possibility.

13 These are issues with particular relevance in

14 the southeastern portions of Wisconsin where I reside

15 and its heavy reliance on coal to generate electricity

16 for an ever expanding population.

17 It is an issue for various ethnic cultures in

18 Wisconsin who historically rely on fish as part of

19 their diet and there are issues to which some of the

20 current research being conducted in our laboratory may

21 shed some light.

22 I spent over twenty-five years as a

23 researcher of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee,

24 investigating the effects of toxic metals, such as

25 mercury and lead, on various species of fish using them
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1 as a model for what we also see in human populations.

2 What is critical here is that at even very

3 low levels of metal contaminant exposure, for short but

4 critical time periods, the fish we study still display

5 alterations in gene expression, physiology and

6 behavior.

7 As a result of these observations, we have

8 over the past ten years focused our efforts on three

9 areas of concern, each with relevance to this hearing.

10 First, we've examined the affect of mercury

11 and lead exposure, both emitted by the burning of coal,

12 to the developing embryo and by inference, the human

13 fetus in terms of lifelong alterations in critical

14 behaviors.

15 Our published data and manuscripts currently

16 in review clearly demonstrate that such developmental

17 exposures are sufficient to cause alterations in nerve

18 function to the point that even adult learning and the

19 ability to respond to environmental stimuli are

20 permanently affected. Indeed, such developmental

21 exposures have also been implicated in the development

22 of such neuro degenerative diseases as Alzheimer's and

23 Parkinson.

24 Research using mammalian models as well

25 as epidemiological studies on humans have yielded
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1 similar results.

2 In a study on the seafood eating populations

3 of Faroes Islands in the North Atlantic, the

4 teenagers of today who were exposed to mercury while

5 still in their mother's womb are still experiencing the

6 neurological and behavior problems.

7 In other words, whatever wheel we look,

8 whatever species we examine, we see the permanent

9 effects of pre-hatched or prenatal exposures to the

10 very metal contaminants that are emitted in coal

11 burning power plants.

12 Second, our experience -- experiments have

13 extended this finding by using ultra low levels of both

14 mercury and lead. We are now testing concentrations,

15 concentration exposures in the parts per billion range.

16 That translates to nanograms of metal for each

17 developing fish embryo.

18 Amazingly we still are able to identify

19 behavior aberrations in larval and adult fish that have

20 not experienced any metal exposure since they hatched.

21 To put this level of exposure in context, this is

22 several orders of magnitude lower than the

23 concentrations currently found in many lake sediments

24 or being released by many electrical generating plants.

25 Due to the ability of methylated mercury to
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1 bio magnify through the food chain, it is possible

2 therefore that there may not be any safe level of

3 mercury exposure to human populations as we are at the

4 top of the feeding pyramid.

5 Parallel to these studies, clinical

6 scientists are now discovering that ultra low levels of

7 lead exposure in children, five times less than the

8 current standard set by the Centers for Disease Control

9 and Prevention for what constitutes lead poisoning in

10 humans, are still sufficient to produce physiological

11 and behavioral deficits in children.

12 Similar research identifies other metals such

13 as cadmium released by the burning of coal as

14 developmental neurotoxicants.

15 Third and possibly the most disturbing is an

16 increasing understanding among scientists and

17 identified in our laboratory as well that the offspring

18 of exposed individuals, even at very low concentrations

19 who themselves have not been exposed to mercury,

20 display the same degree behavioral and physiological

21 aberrations as the parent generation that was exposed.

22 In other words, the toxic effects of mercury

23 exposure are passed down to our children and

24 grandchildren. That the developmental and behavioral

25 issues our children, grandchildren and those not yet
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1 born will experience may be the result of our inability

2 to significantly reduce the toxic emissions from coal

3 fired power plants to levels even below current

4 standards.

5 Collectively our data are telling us that

6 one, exposures to the developing organism by metal

7 contaminants such as mercury and lead found in the

8 emissions from coal-fired power plants induce long term

9 and even permanent behavioral deficits.

10 Two, these alterations in behavior are

11 occurring at very low levels of mercury or lead

12 exposure, far below what was previously considered

13 safe.

14 And three, future generations may be affected

15 by the inability of this generation to clean up its

16 toxic emissions.

17 In a paper published in the official journal

18 of the National Institutes of Environmental Sciences,

19 the estimated cost to society due to mercury exposure

20 alone in terms of healthcare and lost productivity is

21 over eight billion dollars. Add to this cost to

22 society of lead, cadmium and other pollutants

23 distributed into the atmosphere by the burning of coal,

24 it should be clear to all that for the sake of this and

25 future generations, it is in the nation's best interest
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1 to tighten our emissions standards.

2 The added cost to achieve the goal of lower

3 mercury emissions clearly will be money well spent.

4 MR. CLARK: Can I actually ask you a quick

5 question, Dr. Weber? The study you were talking about,

6 the very in there. The impact of mercury exposure

7 alone, what was the site for that?

8 DR. WEBER: That is the Environmental Health

9 Prospectus, I think 2009. The author is Trasande,

10 T-R-A-S-A-N-D-E.

11 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Okay.

12 While we fix this, Amanda -- thank you -- Amanda Kaley

13 and Susan Williams please. Ms. Kaley feel free to

14 start it off.

15 MS. KALEY: Okay. I am Amanda Kaley. I'm

16 from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

17 I studied Environmental Sciences and

18 Psychology at Grand Valley State University in Grand

19 Rapids.

20 And so I came here not to regurgitate any

21 statistics that you guys have heard all day, I'm sure,

22 but studying the environment and the earth in my

23 classes over at Grand Valley, I am well aware of the

24 status of our environment as I know you all are too.

25 So I came here today to be a voice to strongly
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1 encourage you guys to make the right decision towards

2 having a positive impact on the environment and

3 humanity and all the creatures that are involved within

4 it.

5 I lost my grandpa to cancer and I grew up

6 with a brother who had asthma and my grandma on my

7 other side currently has Alzheimer's, so I have -- and

8 I have a lot of other health problems within my family,

9 so in my personal life, I'm very active and healthy and

10 I'm very committed to having a healthy diet and I teach

11 dance and fitness classes. But so I do everything I

12 can to, to be healthy, but I can't control the air that

13 I breathe and I can't control the water and the

14 precious resource that is, that I treasure a lot,

15 living on the lake shore.

16 So I, I strongly encourage you guys to be

17 able to make regulations since there are none on power

18 plants right now.

19 I also -- one of my best friends, actually

20 her, her family is -- all lives in the south; Kentucky,

21 West Virginia area and they do work in the coal

22 industry and she has lost an uncle on site working and

23 has another uncle who has had his leg crushed and is

24 now on disability and another one who has black lung

25 disease, so not only are the consequences of what the
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1 coal industry is doing very harmful to other people and

2 obviously, you know babies, fish, everything everyone's

3 already been talking about, but also it's very risky

4 and harmful environment to the people who are working

5 in the coal industry.

6 So rather than supporting that, to support

7 something with a new system, a new technology,

8 something -- because obviously what we're doing now,

9 the lifestyle that we are currently living is not

10 sustainable and so we need to focus our attention on a

11 new way of doing things and putting our energy and

12 money into something that's more sustainable and will

13 create new jobs creating new systems, so thank you for

14 your time.

15 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Please.

16 MS. WILLIAMS: Hello. I'm Susan Williams.

17 I'm from Madison, Wisconsin, and I, I care deeply about

18 energy issues. I have for a long time. I, I watched

19 an energy bill, the clean energy jobs act fail in

20 Wisconsin about a year ago without ever coming to a

21 vote and I spent a lot of time thinking about why

22 exactly that happened.

23 We've heard today many, many people speak

24 about the harm that is caused by mercury to, harm to

25 people's health, to the environment, to vulnerable
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1 populations and children and hearing that, I began to

2 ask myself why, why wouldn't we regulate mercury

3 emissions? I mean, is there any possible reason why we

4 haven't already? Who would, who would support

5 maintaining the levels of mercury pollution that we

6 have now?

7 During the time I've been here, I haven't

8 heard from anybody who does oppose these standards and

9 I would like to think it's because nobody does and they

10 think it's -- what they're doing now is indefensible

11 and they've cried uncle, but I, I doubt that. I

12 suspect that there have been all sorts of written

13 comments submitted by the coal industry and related

14 industries submitted by lawyers and they decided it

15 just wasn't efficient to turn up here today.

16 And although I haven't seen those comments, I

17 can imagine the sorts of things that they might have

18 said. It will cost too much. It will kill jobs.

19 People who, people who process coal, people who mind

20 coal, people who work in coal powered electric plants,

21 they'll lose their jobs. It will cost the taxpayers,

22 that sort of thing and I can imagine that the EPA is

23 and will be under incredible pressure to water down the

24 standards that are proposed.

25 And when I imagine what these comments say, I
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1 think what they're really saying is we want to maintain

2 the status quo. This is how we produce energy now and

3 this is how we always should produce energy and I mean

4 that's understandable. The status quo is, is a

5 comfortable place to be even if it's bad. I suppose

6 that's why people stay in a bad marriage, you know,

7 it's not that great, but at least you know the rules

8 and you've got two incomes and -- but.

9 And, and you don't have to, you know, wonder

10 about the unknown and how things will be if you change

11 the ways that you've been doing things.

12 But this, you know, this country they say was

13 founded on, on entrepreneurship and innovation and

14 taking chances and that's what's vital about our

15 economy. It moves forward and, and we adapt and

16 change. Unfortunately, sometimes we need a framework

17 of regulations for that to work properly.

18 And also, it can be traumatic, I mean, new --

19 you may create new jobs, but, but old jobs are lost.

20 You may gain financially in some ways, and pay in other

21 ways, and the people who stand to pay the financial

22 cost of change are the ones who have the money and the

23 power now. They're the ones maintaining -- making the

24 campaign contributions and placing pressure on, on

25 agencies. It's not the people who will benefit from
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1 the clean energy jobs that are created later or the new

2 technology firms or you know, the plants that

3 manufacture the compliance equipment that would reduce

4 our mercury emissions.

5 So I guess what I'm, I guess what I'm trying

6 to say here is that it won't cost jobs and ultimately

7 it's not going to cost rate payers, but different jobs,

8 different jobs will be gained than exist now and we'll

9 have to wait and see what costs, what the ultimate

10 costs are. We're really banking on the future.

11 And I see we're out of time, but I would just

12 like the EPA to, to take a leap and take a chance on

13 the future, the future jobs that will be created and,

14 and the, and the costs that we will not incur any more

15 if we do regulate mercury emissions and thank you so

16 much for this opportunity to speak.

17 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. David

18 Creech and Richard Stuckey [phonetic], please. Is

19 David, is David Creech here? Yeah, here we go.

20 Richard Stuckey? Hello Richard? No. Okay. Peter

21 Orris [phonetic]. Is Peter Orris here? Okay. No

22 Richard Stuckey, no Peter Orris. How about Dr. Edward

23 Naureckas? Thank you.

24 MR. CREECH: You guys are warriors. I

25 commend you. Thank you for the opportunity to testify
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1 on this important rule. My name is David Creech and I

2 am the Director of Hunger Education for the Evangelical

3 Lutheran Church and America's World Hunger Program.

4 I come as a representative of the World

5 Hunger Program and as a member of the National Council

6 of Churches Eco-Justice Working Group.

7 The ELCA, a national denomination with over

8 four million baptized members has a long standing

9 commitment to working with and on behalf of those who

10 are poorest and most vulnerable.

11 The National Council of Churches represents

12 thirty-seven denominations and more than forty-five

13 million people around the U.S. The member churches

14 don't agree on everything, but we do agree on the vital

15 importance of this rule.

16 The rule is important to both the NCC and the

17 ELCA because mercury contamination disproportionately

18 effects those who are most vulnerable and you've heard

19 lots of the testimony to that affect today.

20 For the Ecumenical Christian community, the

21 regulation of mercury and air toxics is first and

22 foremost a moral issue. As people of faith, we are

23 called to work for justice, especially with and for

24 those who are most vulnerable.

25 In addition, we understand our role is to
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1 serve as stewards of God's great creation. The air

2 toxics addressed in this rule, including mercury,

3 arsenic, chromium, nickel, and acid gasses have been

4 shown to result in serious impacts on people,

5 particularly women and children, communities and this

6 little blue marble, we call home.

7 We believe it is unacceptable and I would

8 even perhaps go so far as to say immoral to sacrifice

9 our children's health and their future for the sake of

10 current consumption patterns and lifestyle choices.

11 Moreover the integrity of creation is a

12 precious gift from God entrusted to our care and a

13 collective responsibility.

14 You're aware of the statistics and they are

15 staggering and I won't bore them with you. You have

16 them there. I will point out that mercury

17 contamination is particularly harmful to children and

18 the unborn. Studies estimate that nearly fifteen

19 percent of women of child bearing age have blood

20 mercury concentrations higher than the level that's

21 considered safe for fetal development, putting as many

22 as six hundred and thirty thousand newborns each year

23 at risk for serious developmental impairment.

24 And the statistic hits particularly close to

25 home as my wife is now in her third trimester. We
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1 believe that every child is a precious gift from God

2 entrusted to our care and again, our collectively

3 responsibility.

4 We are supportive of the proposed rule that

5 would reduce mercury, acid gasses and other toxic

6 pollution from power plants and believe that once

7 implemented, it will go a long way in our efforts to

8 protect children, communities, and creation.

9 Families and communities have waited for a

10 long time, too long -- twenty years or so -- for these

11 standards to be put in place and so here's the ask.

12 We ask that you not weaken the standards in any way nor

13 delay the release of the final rule.

14 Thank you for making the time to hear our

15 concerns and comments.

16 MR. CLARK: Thank you, doctor.

17 DR. NAURECKAS: Thank you for having me to

18 have the opportunity to speak to you today on the

19 proposed regulations.

20 I'm Edward Naureckas. I'm an Associate

21 Professor of Medicine in the section of Pulmonary and

22 Critical Care at the University of Chicago. I'm also a

23 former investigator in the EPA sponsored Center for

24 Integrating Statistical and Environmental Sciences.

25 And we, along with a number of other researchers
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1 studied the effects of particulates on asthma and

2 again, as many researchers have demonstrated the

3 adverse affect of these particulate, particulate

4 pollution on asthma.

5 I actually, in addition to studying asthma

6 from an epidemiologic standpoint, also care for

7 patients directly; both the intensive care unit and in

8 the clinic and also have been involved in the Chicago

9 Asthma Consortium where we have been very concerned

10 with the increase in the incidents of asthma within

11 Chicago and in Illinois.

12 The recent CDC report has demonstrated

13 continued increases in asthma especially within the

14 inner city, once the statistic that could be cited is a

15 fifty percent increase in asthma among African American

16 children.

17 So I am obviously in favor of the proposed

18 regulations and would encourage the prompt adoption

19 without any weakening or any delay in their, their

20 implementation.

21 Thank you so much.

22 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Any questions?

23 MR. HUTSON: Yeah. This question is for

24 Mr. Creech. You mentioned the National Council of

25 Churches and, and united in support of the rule. Is
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1 that, is that an official?

2 MR. CREECH: This is from the National

3 Council of Churches Eco-Justice Committee, a working

4 group.

5 MR. HUTSON: Okay.

6 MR. CREECH: And so it is a arm of the

7 National Council of Churches and so far as I know

8 everybody on that committee was in agreement, this,

9 this was a united effort. We will be testifying in

10 Philadelphia and Atlanta as well.

11 MR. HUTSON: Okay. And submitting responses,

12 I mean comments?

13 MR. CLARK: Great. Thank you both. I'll try

14 one last time for Richard Stuckey or Peter Orris.

15 Either, either of you here? Okay. Sue Blain please,

16 Ms. Sue Blain and Dana March. Ms. Blaine.

17 MS. BLAINE: Hi. I'm Sue Blaine, B-L-A-I-N-E

18 and I have two sets of comments today. The first one

19 from the Labadie Environmental Organization

20 and the second, my own personal comments.

21 The Labadie Environmental

22 Organization strongly supports EPA's decision to

23 regulate mercury and other toxics under the Clean Air

24 Act. As those who live close to several of this

25 nation's dirtiest coal-fired plants and the nation's
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1 fourteenth largest, we think this regulation is long

2 overdue.

3 Per 2009 TRI records, the four coal-fired

4 plants in the metro St. Louis region produce

5 approximately sixty-five percent of the state's total

6 mercury releases from utilities and thirty-five percent

7 of the state's total seven thousand one hundred

8 thirty-four pounds of mercury, released from all

9 reporting sources.

10 The Labadie Electric Plant was

11 recently included in the 2010 EIP publication, Dirty

12 Kilowatts, America's Top Fifty Power Plant Mercury

13 Polluters. Labadie Plant reported emitting

14 one thousand, two hundred, ninety-seven pounds in 2009.

15 The Labadie Plant was the fourth highest

16 emitter of total mercury and twenty-fourth in emissions

17 per gigawatt-hour energy produced.

18 These statistics suggest both high emissions

19 and need for pollution control upgrades.

20 Ameren's Rush Island Plant operating in the St.

21 Louis region was sued this past year for not installing

22 pollution upgrades as required by law under new source

23 review.

24 Ironically, the Labadie Plant emits

25 twice the pollution of their Rush Island Plant. The
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1 Labadie Plant, Power Plant is almost forty

2 years old and they have refused to install scrubbers

3 and readily available pollution control technology.

4 Industries proven track record of

5 externalizing costs and risks to community in Missouri

6 should be seen as a reason to move forward on federal

7 regulation.

8 As we have waited for action, our communities

9 are exposed to thousands of pounds of toxic mercury per

10 year that end up in our water, air, and environments.

11 It has been estimated that the metro St. Louis,

12 Missouri, area absorbs an additional seven hundred and

13 fifty million dollars of needless healthcare costs due

14 to the pollution created by the four local plants.

15 The Great Missouri and Mississippi have both

16 been impacted by utility pollution. We need your

17 resolve and commitment to make both mercury and coal

18 ash rule strong and federally enforceable.

19 Finalizing this rule and equally protective

20 proposed coal ash rule under subtitle C regulation

21 sends a clear message to polluters that communities

22 matter most and pollution control is part of doing

23 business in a new, prosperous and sustainable America.

24 The health, environmental and economic

25 benefits of safe, clean environments are clear. We
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1 need federal regulation to ensure progress is made.

2 Now on a more personal note, my grandmother

3 sold the land she inherited from her father to Union

4 Electric, which is now right next to her farm, so

5 that the Labadie Power Plant could be constructed.

6 She sold reluctantly with the threat of eminent

7 domain seizure looming. Grandmother rationalized that

8 a power plant needed to be built somewhere and

9 trusted that the utility company would be a good,

10 considerate neighbor, taking necessary precautions to

11 protect the health of the surrounding population,

12 wildlife, air and water.

13 Unfortunately, her trust was not well

14 founded as the Labadie Power Plant is one of our top

15 polluters in the country, spewing mercury and other

16 toxins into the air. Particles settle into fertile

17 farm land and the adjacent Missouri River, placing

18 the water supply for St. Louis at risk.

19 She would be appalled that the health of

20 the local population is placed at risk so that others

21 could enjoy low electric power costs.

22 Industry does not appear to be regulating

23 and reducing their emissions voluntarily.

24 I encourage the EPA to enact federal

25 regulations to significantly reduce airborne
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1 pollutants. Meanwhile, I'm at least somewhat relieved

2 that my mother and sisters who still live on the

3 family farm, literally right next to the Labadie

4 Plant are at least upwind. Not everyone is quite

5 that fortunate.

6 Thank you.

7 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Ms. March.

8 MS. MARCH: Hello. My name is Dana March,

9 D-A-N-A, and March like the month. I am a registered

10 nurse and a pediatric nurse practitioner. For ten

11 years, I worked at Children's Memorial Hospital, for

12 five years in the pediatric intensive care unit and for

13 five years on the critical care transport team.

14 During that time, I cannot count the number

15 of children that I cared for who were diagnosed with

16 either some type of neurologic problem or a respiratory

17 disease. To see even one child struggle to take a

18 breath is more than most people can bear to experience,

19 but to see babies and children suffer as part of your

20 daily work is challenging.

21 What is more challenging is to know that the

22 toxic emissions that cause many of the diseases that

23 our children suffer from are preventable.

24 When I was in the back of an ambulance going

25 to get a sick newborn, I would review the information
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1 about the baby's medical history and try to prepare and

2 make medical plan for the type of care that I was going

3 to provide and what I was going to see when I walked

4 into the referring hospital. I was never prepared to

5 walk in and see a seizing baby lying on an emergency

6 room stretcher with his parents standing next to him

7 with terrified and helpless expressions on their faces.

8 All the parent wants is for you to fix their

9 tiny, precious new baby and while the parents are

10 asking themselves, why is this happening to my baby?

11 What caused this? My transport team and I are trying

12 to determine if the infant is breathing adequately or

13 if we need to assist his breathing by placing an

14 endo-tracheal tube and assist with his ventilation.

15 All the while, we are assessing the type of

16 seizure he is having and checking his heart rate and

17 then we must place IV's in the baby's tiny veins in

18 order to give anticonvulsants to stop the seizures.

19 This is only the beginning of a scenario of

20 hard choices that his healthcare team must make in the

21 long days that his family will have to endure.

22 Mercury a potent neurotoxin, pollutes our air

23 and our water and because of this, more than three

24 hundred thousand babies born each year are at risk of

25 having mercury poisoning.
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1 The neurologic and developmental outcomes

2 that accompany the brain damage that occurs from the

3 toxic effects of mercury can be devastating.

4 Caring for children with neurologic

5 impairment is no easy task. Often, they require

6 constant monitoring of their breathing and procedures,

7 a strict medication schedule, OT, PT and frequent

8 doctor visits. That's without mentioning the financial

9 stress placed on families.

10 It is so sad when we hear the news that a

11 child was killed because they weren't properly

12 restrained in a car. Child restraint laws were put in

13 place to protect our children from harm.

14 Today, we have the ability to protect our

15 children in a similar way, by reducing toxic emissions.

16 This will not just protect individual children, but we

17 will also be protecting entire communities from

18 suffering and premature death. We deserve the same

19 types of prevention for our safety and our health.

20 This is why I support the EPA's rule to

21 reduce toxic air emissions from power plants. And I

22 look forward to the upcoming EPA rule to reduce green

23 house gas emissions. Thank you.

24 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much. Okay.

25 Okay. Jocelyn Travis please and Jason Duba, Duba.
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1 Jason Duba. She's -- okay. Sure, we can do Jennifer

2 Jansen. Is Jennifer here? Excellent. Jason.

3 MR. DUBA: My name is Jason Duba and I

4 appreciate this opportunity to offer my testimony.

5 Thank you for listening.

6 I'm in full support of the newly proposed

7 national regulations of mercury, acid gasses and other

8 toxic air pollutants from power plants.

9 For far too long, our air and waterways have

10 been poisoned by tons of mercury, particulates and acid

11 gasses due to fossil fuel energy.

12 I'm in favor of these regulations for a

13 number of reasons, but I will focus on the reduction of

14 negative health effects of pollution from power plants,

15 most significantly among vulnerable unborn children.

16 The health effects of mercury ingestion range

17 from headaches and skin rashes to severe neurological

18 damage. Our country's most vulnerable populations,

19 pregnant and nursing women, infants and the elderly

20 face the highest risks. Currently, one out of six

21 babies are born with harmful levels of mercury in their

22 blood and coal burning power plants are the largest

23 source of domestic mercury pollution.

24 Consumption of fish contaminated by mercury

25 is the main route of human exposure. The mercury drop
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1 from the air, into the water system where fish will

2 eventually take it up.

3 Mercury is extremely toxic to the brain and

4 nervous system, especially to the rapidly developing

5 brain of the unborn child during early pregnancy. When

6 a pregnant woman eats mercury contaminated fish, the

7 mercury in the fish enters the mother's blood stream.

8 Once in the mother's blood stream, mercury can move

9 directly across the placenta to enter the body of her

10 unborn child. One of the body's protective shields

11 against damage to the brain, called the blood brain

12 barrier, is not fully developed until the first year of

13 life, thus in an unborn child, mercury can cross this

14 incomplete barrier and accumulate in the brain causing

15 developmental disabilities and brain damage resulting

16 in lowered intelligence and learning problems.

17 This has lifetime implications. One study

18 found that the resulting loss of intelligence causes

19 diminished economic prosperity, and productivity that

20 persists over the entire lifetime of these children.

21 The unborn are also being harmed by air

22 pollution in the form of sulfur dioxide that will be

23 reduced as a co-benefit of the mercury standard. This

24 pollution has been linked to birth defects, low birth

25 rate, premature births, still births and infant deaths.
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1 My wife and I are considering having a child

2 in the future and the potential effects of mercury

3 poisoning are a concern to us. We would be safer

4 having a children if these regulations were enacted.

5 As a Christian, I believe in protecting the

6 precious life God gives, especially for those most

7 vulnerable; unborn children.

8 Thank you for considering the first ever

9 mercury regulation and saving thousands of lives from

10 toxic air pollution.

11 MR. CLARK: Ms. Jansen.

12 MS. JANSEN: Hi. I'm Jennifer Jansen from

13 Ann Arbor, Michigan. I just want to thank you for the

14 proposed limits on mercury and air toxics and urge you

15 to make them as strong as possible to protect my health

16 and my loved ones' health.

17 In the last year, I've lost multiple close

18 friends to cancer. All of whom lived in my home town

19 in Richmond, Kentucky, where coal-fired power is so

20 cheap, they say, but is also destroying the mountains,

21 head waters, communities, and our health.

22 And I was thinking about this as I was

23 writing this testimony yesterday and it occurred to me

24 that, you know, you of the EPA are in as much of the

25 business of finding a cure to cancer as anyone of the
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1 American Cancer Society or anyone at the Relays for

2 Life that I've gone to. The cure to cancer isn't going

3 to be found without reducing the incredible load of

4 toxics that are found in our bodies due to in great

5 part to the mercury and air toxics from the coal-fired

6 plants and incinerators that you have been working with

7 these last twenty years, to start to limit.

8 Coal-fired power is both prevalent and

9 invisible to most Americans and I've seen the mountains

10 where it comes from in Vince, West Virginia, and the

11 nearest boiler plant was just a few hundred yards away

12 from where I went to school for twelve years and about

13 two hundred yards away from my, where my mother worked

14 for thirty-five years, so I do hope that the boiler

15 standards will move along quickly as well.

16 But the state was also riddled with, with

17 larger plants like the ones that are being addressed,

18 are being addressed by the current standards.

19 And I've seen how, how that coal has poisoned

20 the communities and, and read about how the effects end

21 up so far away in rivers in New England.

22 So I know it's up to you to stop in and

23 finally take it to the next step and I really hope that

24 you're able to do that.

25 You know, in addition, our lungs are
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1 burdened, you know, not just cancer and the toxics that

2 build up in our bodies, but every moment when we

3 breathe, I have a hereditary progressive lung disease

4 and I just realized that last month, oh yeah I'm the

5 people they talk about. You know, people with

6 respiratory problems. I'm healthy now, but I'm not

7 going to be when I'm older and I'm exactly who they're

8 talking about and that really hit me that I'm doing

9 everything I can to protect my lungs and stay away from

10 toxic substances. I don't paint, I don't help do

11 construction on the house, I don't do, you know,

12 anything like that that might hurt my lungs, but I

13 really need your help.

14 So, I hope that we can really reduce the

15 toxics that are going to break down my lungs further,

16 so I can keep breathing even when I'm sixty, seventy,

17 and eighty years old.

18 Let's see, I just want to finish by saying, I

19 really hope you can keep up the push for strong

20 standards and, and hope you cross the finish line.

21 Thank you.

22 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you both.

23 Okay. Jocelyn Travis and Rose Joshua, please. Is Rose

24 here? Rose Joshua?

25 MS. JOSHUA: Yes.
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1 MR. CLARK: Okay. Oh I'm sorry. Wait a

2 second. You, you are Rose?

3 MS. TRAVIS: I'm Jocelyn.

4 MR. CLARK: You're Jocelyn, okay.

5 MS. TRAVIS: Yes.

6 MR. CLARK: So I was looking for Rose Joshua,

7 who --

8 MS. TRAVIS: Yes.

9 MR. CLARK: -- is not here, I guess.

10 MS. TRAVIS: She, she was just here. I'm

11 sure she's right outside the door.

12 MR. CLARK: Okay. Well, we can go ahead and

13 bring David Deprez, Deprez and then have Rose next.

14 Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. Please Jocelyn.

15 MS. TRAVIS: Thank you. Thank you. Good

16 afternoon. My name is Jocelyn Travis and I'm a

17 resident of Cleveland, Ohio. I come before you today

18 as a representative of the Ohio Conference NAACP to

19 voice my concern about the devastating effects of coal

20 fired power plants in our communities.

21 The Ohio NAACP is under the leadership of

22 President Sybil [phonetic] Edwards McNab [phonetic] who

23 is a funeral home director. She joins me and all NAACP

24 members in the State of Ohio calling for the end of

25 toxic fumes being allowed to poison, especially those
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1 who are the most vulnerable in our communities; youth,

2 those living in poverty and residents of those inner

3 city communities that are most directly affected by the

4 dangers of power plants.

5 The McNab Funeral Home is starting to see

6 such a steady increase of African American young people

7 and others dying from many unknown illnesses that the

8 term genocide is certainly at the forefront of our

9 thinking.

10 I especially want to thank you as EPA

11 representatives for allowing us to share our concerns

12 about this crisis that is occurring throughout our

13 country.

14 Our NAACP family is optimistic that you will

15 do all that is possible to ensure that our youth have a

16 future by regulating or by shutting down these coal

17 fired power plants and allowing our citizens to breathe

18 clean, fresh air.

19 Surely we can collectively come up with

20 alternate solutions to burning coal.

21 In the State of Ohio, we are challenged with

22 four failing coal plants with my hometown of Cleveland,

23 Ohio, having the sixth worst plant in the country which

24 is the Lakeshore Plant owned by First Energy.

25 The crisis in our community is that people
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1 are not aware of this plant and the toxic fumes it

2 continuously spews and the negative affect it will have

3 for many generations to come.

4 I am especially concerned that the Lakeshore

5 Plant is such a fixture in our community that no one

6 seems to notice it.

7 As a youngster growing up in the Glenville

8 community where the plant is situated, we had no idea

9 that toxic fumes were being emitted into our

10 environment. As a matter-of-fact, the very area of the

11 Lakeshore Plant was a park with the aquarium, baseball

12 diamonds, swings and a setting which allowed for the

13 socialization of many families in our area.

14 Unfortunately, now many years later, our

15 communities still does not realize the dangerous

16 effects of this plant. There are one hundred three

17 thousand, three hundred thirty-three residents

18 currently living within a three mile radius of this

19 plant with ninety point six percent being people of

20 color and eighty-five percent African American. These

21 residents have an average income of less than eleven

22 thousand dollars. There are six schools within a mile

23 of this plant.

24 The St. Clair Superior area and the

25 immediately vicinity of the Lakeshore Plant has the
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1 highest childhood lead poisoning rates in Ohio and

2 perhaps America at around thirty-five percent of

3 children tested with elevated blood levels of lead in

4 excess of five micrograms per deciliter.

5 The September 2010 Clean Air Task Force

6 Study, the Toll from Coal, shows citizens of northeast

7 Ohio have the worst level of mortality from coal-fired

8 power plants in America.

9 It is a shame that these residents have to

10 deal with this issue in addition to wondering where

11 their next meal is coming from, where to lay their head

12 or how to get medicine for their babies. Especially

13 when many of our children are dealing with severe

14 asthma, more than likely, as an affect of the toxins

15 from the plant.

16 Again, these plants are making millions of

17 dollars at the expense of those who are most vulnerable

18 and it is shame.

19 I am so grateful for the wonderful work of

20 our national NAACP Director of Environmental and

21 Climate Justice, Jackie Patterson, for the research and

22 hard work that went into developing the coal blooded,

23 putting profits before people report. It has truly

24 opened my eyes to the need to fight harder for the

25 rights of our community.
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1 I will be on a crusade to provide the

2 necessary education throughout my state to inform

3 people of the dangers of these plants. Urge the

4 enforcement of the Clean Air Act and encourage

5 legislation on the local and state levels to monitor

6 these plants and enforce regulations and standards as

7 needed.

8 My NAACP involvement has spent over forty

9 years and I am thankful for being involved with an

10 organization that is committed to making a difference

11 in our community.

12 I currently serve as a trainer for the State

13 of Ohio and I will make sure that all of our trainings

14 including a curriculum on this issue.

15 I also serve as youth advisor for all the

16 Cleveland NAACP youth and Ohio NAACP youth in college.

17 It is imperative that we involve our young people in

18 understanding the ramifications of the issues of power

19 plants.

20 I envision training these young people so

21 they can share this information to their peers. I

22 think it's also vital to have our brilliant young

23 people start looking at solutions and alternatives to

24 coal, to burning coal.

25 Another key concern in our state of Ohio is
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1 the support given to the corporations and big

2 businesses by the newly elected leadership in Ohio on

3 the state level. Unfortunately, we have a one party

4 majority in control of the Ohio House of

5 Representatives, Ohio Senate and Governor's office

6 which terrifies me in the matter of monitoring and

7 enforcement of regulations of these plants.

8 I find it appalling that our elected

9 leadership on the local and state level don't realize

10 the dangers of these plants.

11 Cleveland, Ohio, has the dubious distinction

12 of being number one in poverty in the country and

13 number two most segregated city in the country. The

14 infrastructure of our community is extremely weak and

15 cannot bear many more burdens. We need help. Please

16 tell me help is on the way. Thank you.

17 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Mr. Deprez.

18 MR. DEPREZ: Good afternoon. My name is

19 David Deprez, that's D-E-P-R-E-Z. I'm a high school

20 science teacher and my ears picked up when my fellow

21 citizen here, she mentioned curriculum.

22 For years, I have used the mercury toxicity

23 to teach unit factoring and unit conversion skills to

24 students. I am very happily burdened with the mandate

25 to raise the -- not just the environmental
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1 consciousness of students but to teach them skills

2 which will lead to what we call scientific literacy and

3 it's really, really kind of interest that we can use

4 facts and figures to change the meaning of those facts

5 and figures to more meaningful patterns of

6 understanding.

7 So for instance, my testimony is the

8 calculation that shows how 1998 mercury emissions can

9 lead to raising the toxicity of mercury in fresh water

10 to lethal levels; comment plants in the state of

11 Illinois each year produce mercury emissions that would

12 pollute three trillion gallons of water to the lethal

13 level of zero point zero, zero five milligrams of

14 mercury per liter.

15 So I would have used an overhead transparency

16 to show the calculations conversions, but I'll just

17 give you a copy here since our old fashioned technology

18 in most of our schools, overhead projector -- a light

19 box -- overhead projector is outdated by these more

20 modern computer projectors so unfortunately I have to

21 read it to you.

22 This is called the lethal aqueous

23 concentration of mercury versus Commonwealth Edison.

24 The figure of five ten thousandths of a milligram per

25 liter comes from the EPA, an organization that I have a
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1 tremendous amount of respect for.

2 In 1996, via the Letterman Science Center at

3 the Fermi National Accelerator Lab and there's a figure

4 also from the EPA. It's dated 1998, but it says that

5 the seven Illinois common coal-fired power plants

6 produce one thousand seven hundred pounds of mercury

7 per year, so using simple conversion, a pound is equal

8 to two point two kilograms, so one thousand seven

9 hundred pounds of mercury is three thousand seven

10 hundred kilograms of mercury. So that, then I have to

11 convert -- we show the students, we have to convert to

12 three billion, seven hundred milligrams of mercury. And

13 then we use a very simple cross multiplication

14 technique which I think every child in grade school

15 learns how to do; solving for X by, by scaling. So

16 five ten thousandths of a milligram of mercury per

17 liter of solution is equal to three billion seven

18 hundred million milligrams of mercury per X, so solve

19 for X and --

20 I won't bore you with the calculations, but

21 it basically boils down to X is equal to one times ten

22 to the thirteenth liters. Now that doesn't make any

23 sense to students until we convert back to the old

24 fashioned English measurement units, which you know, we

25 are burdened as science teachers to deal with the issue
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1 that we work with metric in science and there's no way

2 Americans can understand the results, so using, using a

3 very simple unit factoring matrix here, one times ten

4 to the thirteenth liter is times two point five times

5 ten to the minus one gallons per liter produces --

6 gives a result of ten -- three times ten to the

7 fifteenth gallons, so that's three trillion gallons of

8 water.

9 Now how much water is three trillion gallons?

10 Well, we'll divide three times ten to the twelfth

11 gallons by one point three times ten to the fifteenth

12 because that's how much water there is Lake Michigan,

13 so if we do a simple bit of math here, it comes out to

14 two tenths of one percent of the total volume of Lake

15 Michigan. That doesn't seem like a whole lot, but if

16 we multiply that percentage two tenths of one percent

17 per year times one hundred per Lake Michigan, we get to

18 five hundred years per Lake Michigan, so if we just

19 keep going as we go now.

20 And if this were to, this pollutant were to become

21 completely aqueous and dumped into Lake Michigan, Lake

22 Michigan would be reduced or I should say raised to the

23 level of lethal toxicity within five hundred years.

24 Thank you.

25 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Any
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1 questions? Okay. That's -- that's right. Okay.

2 Rose -- these are our last two speakers now before

3 dinner break. Sure. Rose Joshua and Auriel Banister

4 please.

5 MR. BANISTER: Thank you.

6 MR. CLARK: And, and let me just say if --

7 after these speakers, we will take a break and be back

8 at six thirty. If there's anyone who signed up for a

9 specific time slot but has not been called, please go

10 to the registration table and, and check that out and

11 again, I just want to take this moment to say before

12 these speakers begin how much we appreciate everyone

13 for how far many of you have come and, and how all of

14 you have taken time out of your busy days and schedules

15 to come and testify at our hearing and we very much

16 appreciate that.

17 So with that, Ms. Joshua.

18 MS. JOSHUA: I would like to say good

19 afternoon to the panel. My name is Rose Joshua. I am

20 the President of Chicago's south side NAACP and we, we

21 are chartered as a branch of the National NAACP to

22 represent members in the loop area on the south side of

23 Chicago in southwest where Fisk and Crawford generating

24 plant is.

25 The NAACP supports the EPA's proposed mercury
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1 and air toxic standards. The NAACP also supports the

2 Chicago's Clean Power Ordinance that requires plants to

3 safer energy production methods or shut down.

4 The NAACP report found that the coal power

5 plants, Fisk and Crawford are located in our

6 communities; African American and people of color.

7 Living close to coal emissions can lead to a

8 variety of respiratory diseases including asthma, and

9 bronchitis and can lead to premature death.

10 Over six hundred thousand Chicago residents

11 live within three miles of Fisk or Crawford and sixteen

12 K-12 schools are located within one mile of the plants.

13 You've heard the average income of, of persons that

14 live within Crawford is about eleven thousand dollars

15 and that is eighty-three percent of that population is

16 composed of people of color.

17 In the three miles surrounding Fisk, the

18 average income is fifteen thousand dollars and people

19 of color make up eighty-three point one percent of the

20 population.

21 Pollution from power plants is an issue of

22 racial disparity as people of color are most likely to

23 be exposed to toxins coming from plants and the impact

24 is obvious from the health outcomes. Air toxics are

25 the most hazardous air pollutants.
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1 I believe that air toxins are harmful to our

2 communities and the coal power plants should be held

3 accountable to the people. I am appalled when I hear

4 the statistics coming from the Centers for Disease

5 Control about asthma and the number of people diagnosed

6 with asthma grew by four point three million from 2001

7 to 2009.

8 From 2001 to 2009, asthma rates rose the most

9 upon -- among black children, almost fifty percent.

10 In my law practice, I have represented many

11 African Americans and other people of color, children

12 and adults. Surprisingly enough, most of them suffer

13 from asthma related diseases and most of them were

14 found to be disabled by an Administrative Law Judge.

15 Think about it. The amount of lost wages that affect

16 our communities. It becomes a domino effect.

17 If the emissions are affecting the adults in

18 our communities, then what about the children?

19 We must work to reduce and/or shut down the

20 plants that are killing our communities. Your life and

21 my life depends on it. Thank you.

22 MR. CLARK: Ms. Banister.

23 MS. BANISTER: Good evening. My name is

24 Auriel Banister and I'm a student at DePaul University

25 and an intern for the LVESO group which is
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1 the Little Village Environmental Justice organization.

2 I'm here today as a concerned citizen. I was

3 born here in Chicago and I've lived here all my life.

4 I know many people with asthma, but I never tied it to

5 the smoke, smoke stacks that I see right outside the

6 highway whenever I'm getting on and off the highway.

7 Just recently I was informed about how vital

8 this plant has been towards making the community sick

9 of which I'm working in and I found it very alarming to

10 me and, and I thought that if someone knew that this

11 was going on, then why wouldn't it have gotten out at

12 this point? I just, I just don't see how the

13 communication was left at that point, I mean you know,

14 like tourist, community members from a higher up

15 perspective and I am very happy that you all are active

16 in solving this problem and are here listening to the

17 voices of the community because it is very important.

18 After visiting Little Village and being a

19 part of the community, I find it very -- I see it very

20 vividly that the community is very tight knit and that

21 when one person is sick, it effects everyone. It

22 doesn't just affect just the household or just that

23 family, it really effects everyone because everyone is

24 concerned about why they got sick and what that's doing

25 to their household. As you know, it is a very low
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1 income community and so when times are rough, it's very

2 rough for them. And so paying for healthcare and all

3 types of other expenses that everyday households have,

4 it's very hard to, to surpass this big issue without

5 any help from a higher up force.

6 So, I think that that's pretty much all I

7 have to say. I was just a concerned citizen and wanted

8 to make my way here to speak and just let my voice be

9 heard as a youth and as someone that possibly could be

10 in, in this type of environment one day and have

11 children and not know where to go, not know what

12 environment is safe for my, for me or my family, so

13 thank you once again.

14 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Thank you.

15 Oh I'm sorry. We're going to do one more before

16 dinner. Apparently Thelma Faulkner.

17 MS. FAULKNER: My name is Thelma Faulkner.

18 I'm a retired counselor for the Chicago Public School

19 System and have worked in the Chicago Public School

20 System for approximately forty years before I retired.

21 I've worked on the south side of Chicago and

22 I've, I also live on the south side of Chicago. My

23 community where I worked is near the State Line Plant

24 in Hammond. It is a predominantly African American

25 community. It's a mixed income community and it's a
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1 family oriented area. On average, people who live

2 there have been there for at least twenty years.

3 My brother-in-law died at an early age from

4 lung cancer and we think that that was related to his

5 work in one of these plants. My husband developed lung

6 cancer after moving to Chicago in 1987, but thank God

7 he is better and, and the cancer is in remission.

8 Many of my neighbors are concerned about the

9 toxic smells and how it is affecting their children. I

10 know at least four people with asthma and other

11 breathing problems. There are several people who are

12 suffering from lung disease, cancer and other

13 respiratory problems in our community.

14 We have community meetings monthly to discuss

15 the situation and our public officials are invited.

16 Some of them attend, however there has not been much

17 action taken.

18 It is my hope that measures can be taken to

19 alleviate some of these problems. Professional people

20 who deal with the effects and dangers of air pollutants

21 are invited to our community and tell us that the death

22 rates are very high in communities of color.

23 We have, we've had educational sessions with

24 our children. We have come together with adults to do

25 posters and pictures explaining dangers and what they
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1 think they can do to help solve the problem.

2 Children have become so worried because they

3 have listened to adults talking about the pollution

4 that they have asked to meet with adults to find more

5 about the issue.

6 Studies have proven that parents who give

7 birth to children in high pollutant areas have lower

8 IQ's than others.

9 Oftentimes during the summer months, we

10 receive notification that we should stay indoors due to

11 poor air quality. We have many children in our areas

12 with learning difficulties which may have something to

13 do with the air they are breathing. I have worked with

14 children with learning disabilities over the years

15 as -- in my job as a counselor. Many of the children

16 have been evaluated with hearing, hearing disorders,

17 sight effects and other behavior disorders.

18 In my experience with children who suffered

19 from asthma and other chronic diseases, I find that

20 they are less alert, have poor attendance, sometimes

21 have discipline problems, have very short attention

22 spans and are very poor readers in many cases and some

23 have an inability to communicate properly with others.

24 Also there are poor eating habits in many

25 cases, poor socialization skills in some cases and some
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1 of the students can be temperamental due to the

2 instability.

3 In later years, some of the children have had

4 to depend on their parents for support due to their

5 disability. I have had experiences with adult children

6 who have graduated from college with degrees who are

7 dependent on their parents because they are not able to

8 function as independent adults due to their

9 disabilities.

10 Some of the children have been stated -- have

11 been tested and have high IQ's but because, as I said,

12 of their disabilities cannot function in our society.

13 Illnesses lead to challenges in holding jobs

14 in adults because of instabilities.

15 Then, this then ties with the issue of

16 children who haven't been able to gain significantly

17 quality education and employment, later becoming

18 criminals in and out of jail. The ripple effects are

19 many. For adults, the ability to be caretakers and

20 relate to their children is impacted by their chronic

21 disease status.

22 Adult ability to become involved and

23 contribute to the community issues is challenged.

24 Usually adults with health challenges in the low

25 economic level or are on public assistance, social
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1 security insurance, etcetera because they are unable to

2 be wage earners.

3 It effects cooperation with neighbors because

4 they don't have the ability to help others because of

5 their disability.

6 EPA needs to work closely with the community

7 to educate people. EPA must gain regular feedback from

8 the community through multiple means such as regular

9 meetings in the communities. Communities need to work

10 with legislatures and educate them so that they can

11 make better policies.

12 There needs to be conversations that bridge

13 labor and environmental efforts together. First and

14 foremost, we need to disseminate information so that

15 people will be educated on these issues.

16 Communities and authorities need to work with

17 plants, to pressure them to provide a safe environment.

18 In conclusion, in order to reduce the

19 pollution that are coming to our communities, the EPA,

20 city officials, national officials and plant owners

21 must work together to provide action oriented solutions

22 to reduce pollution and make the living environment in

23 communities safer. Thank you.

24 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. We will

25 suspend the hearing until six thirty. Thank you all so
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1 much.

2 (Dinner break from 5:42 p.m. until 6:38 p.m.)

3 MR. CLARK: I'm going to go ahead and start,

4 just for time purposes. I apologize that we were a

5 couple of minutes late here in, in getting ready for

6 the evening session. We're in the middle of a hearing,

7 a public hearing to look at, to take public comment on

8 our proposed rule making from March the 16th to, to

9 reduce toxic air pollution from power plants and also a

10 new source proposed, new source performance standard to

11 reduce other pollutants; sulfur dioxide, nitrogen

12 oxides from power plants as well and we, we got

13 hearings -- this one today in, in Chicago. Another one

14 today as well in Philadelphia and another hearing in a

15 couple of days in Atlanta.

16 We're taking public comment through July the

17 5th and we've got a deadline, a consent decree filed

18 with the court to have a final rule issued by November

19 the 16th, 2011, so we're on a fairly tight time frame.

20 We very much appreciate all of you coming out

21 to speak, those of you that are signed up to speak. We

22 know you've got busy lives and appreciate that -- and

23 some of you have come quite a distance, so thank you so

24 much for, for taking the time to do that.

25 My name is Jeff Clark. I'm Associate
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1 Director with EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and

2 Standards which is located in Research Triangle Park,

3 North Carolina. With me tonight, Ellen Kurlansky who

4 is with EPA's Office of Policy Analysis and Review in

5 Washington, D.C. and Nick Hutson, next to her. Nick is

6 from my office in Research Triangle Park as well and is

7 one of the architects of this rule making. Next to

8 Nick is John Mooney. John is and Doug Aburano, both

9 are from EPA's Regional Office in Chicago, Illinois, so

10 they're just from down the street here. They're local

11 folks and their region is responsible for Michigan,

12 Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana.

13 Right?

14 MR. HUTSON: You got it.

15 MR. CLARK: So I'm not -- my, my full

16 statement I think is outside. I'm not going to go

17 through it right now, mainly for time purposes.

18 The main thing I would like to say is that

19 besides that we're very pleased that you're here is

20 we're going to call you up sort of two by two and, and

21 ask that you both stay up, that you come up to the

22 table and, and give your statement and that you both

23 stay there until both have finished and we may have

24 questions for you and if not, we'll move on to the, to

25 the next, next set of two witnesses.
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1 We're trying, because of the number of people

2 that we have signed up to limit folks to five minutes,

3 so we have a timing system that you'll see when you sit

4 there. There's this little clock down here that

5 basically is, is green. It's a green light for four

6 minutes and then after the fourth minute, it turns to a

7 yellow light and then turns red at five minutes, so if

8 you could use that as a guide, we appreciate it very

9 much. Mainly just to be able to let everybody have

10 time.

11 We're going to stay until eight o'clock, but

12 if we have speakers beyond eight o'clock, we'll, we'll

13 stay as long as it takes, so if you, if you haven't

14 spoken at that point, no worries. We'll, we'll keep

15 going.

16 So with that, I'd like to go ahead and call

17 up the first two speakers for the evening session;

18 Olivia Woollam and Caroline Wooten. And guys, when you

19 come up, if you could also -- when you introduce

20 yourself, spell your at least your last name. That

21 would be useful for the court reporter, who is Chris;

22 the guy over here against the wall and as I've said all

23 day long, he's the most important guy in the room, so

24 if he's happy, we're happy, so.

25 MS. WOOLLAM: Fantastic. Well, thank you so
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1 much for having us. My name is Olivia Woollam, my last

2 name is spelled W-O-O-L-L-A-M. I'm a student at the

3 University of Chicago and I'm originally from New

4 Orleans, which as located on the gulf, one of our main

5 industry is seafood fishing and second only to tourism

6 the shipping of various grains down from the much of

7 the continental United States.

8 One of the main problems that the gulf

9 fishery associations in New Orleans has been facing is

10 increasing consumer concern with high mercury levels in

11 seafood. Personally, I have high mercury levels. It's

12 not to the point of, of excessive levels, but my mother

13 and many of my friends have high mercury levels to the

14 point of having yellow palms and hands and feet and I

15 know several people who've had to be hospitalized for

16 high mercury levels and that's considered fairly

17 routine.

18 Because of the level of seafood consumed on

19 the gulf coast and the insane amount of mercury that it

20 dumped into the gulf, between various pollutants that

21 come from both from polluters that go into the air and

22 then the rainfall that, that contains the mercury and

23 also from mercury that's in the ground water, in the,

24 in the soil itself. The food supply is incredibly

25 contaminated and that costs us a lot of money in
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1 healthcare costs. It costs us a lot of money in

2 economic costs because of consumer concerns and it,

3 it's something that I think is an issue in Chicago as

4 well, even though the seafood industry here is

5 obviously not nearly as central.

6 The, the mercury concerns are, are

7 significant here as well. The food supply being

8 contaminated is something that effects all of us and

9 the, the figures are -- I'm going to roll out I've

10 heard kind of on second hand basis. Seventeen thousand

11 people a year dying from mercury related poisoning

12 seems unnecessary when such simple steps could be taken

13 to limit mercury levels in the way that individual

14 states have taken steps.

15 Those steps on a federal level could make a

16 huge difference to the quality of life of individuals

17 and also to the safety of our consumers across the

18 United States. Thank you.

19 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Ms. Wooten.

20 MS. WOOTEN: Hi. Thank you so much for

21 having us. My name is Caroline Wooten, W-O-O-T-E-N.

22 I'm a third year student at University of

23 Chicago. I'm majoring in religious studies and this

24 year, I was one of a number of students who helped

25 start a climate activism group at our school. You can
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1 [Indecipherable] Chicago Climate Action Network. I've

2 also been part of forming a citywide youth coalition

3 with students from other universities. We're called

4 Chicago Youth Climate Coalition and we're dedicated to

5 ending the consumption of fossil fuels and

6 transitioning to a just and sustainable society.

7 I became involved in addressing the

8 consumption of fossil fuels because I'm intensely

9 concerned about global warming. I think it's the

10 largest challenge that humanity has ever faced and it's

11 fallen to my generation to address this challenge.

12 Right now, we know that burning fossil fuels

13 is destabilizing our climate and as a result hurting

14 the most vulnerable people. From hurricanes in the

15 gulf coast to fires in Russia, to floods in Pakistan,

16 and even to the recent tornadoes in Missouri as was

17 highlighted today in the Washington Post

18 [indecipherable].

19 As global temperatures rise, we know that

20 instances of such unpredictable extreme and harmful

21 weather will become more and more common. I fear that

22 if the climate crisis goes unaddressed, the values that

23 I care about as an American, equity and inalienable

24 rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

25 will either disappear or become meaningless.
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1 Here in Chicago, the student groups that I'm

2 a part of became heavily involved in promoting the

3 Chicago Clean Power Ordinance, a piece of legislation

4 that would clean up or shut down the Fisk and Crawford

5 coal plants in Pilsen and Little Village.

6 And as I became increasingly involved in this

7 effort, I began to learn more about the immediate

8 harmful effects that fossil fuel extraction and

9 consumption can have in communities where the industry

10 is located.

11 For example, studies have found that the coal

12 plants here in Chicago are the source of over forty

13 premature deaths a year and two thousand eight hundred

14 asthma attacks per year.

15 While the EPA, while the EPA regulations

16 being discussed today only address a segment of the

17 harmful emissions from coal plants, I strongly support

18 the EPA in proposing these new requirements.

19 Mercury and air toxics can cause cancer,

20 respiratory illness, reproductive problems,

21 neurological damage, immune system damage, and eye

22 irritation. These are real health problems that impact

23 real people and like [indecipherable] have long term

24 effects of the stability of our society.

25 For example, my brother teaches fifth grade
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1 in New Orleans and New Orleans is located in what's

2 known as cancer alley, a region on the Mississippi

3 where pollution from the industry located there causes

4 disproportionate rates of cancer.

5 In my brother's classroom an uncomfortable

6 portion of his students have family members, and all

7 too frequently parents, who are battling cancer and I'm

8 sure it's not surprising to learn that this impacts

9 these students' performance in school, specifically

10 their focus and motivation. Having a dying parent is

11 distracting.

12 We're willing to invest money, the

13 [indecipherable] and effort into trying to give every

14 child in this country a quality public education. We

15 do this because it's right, but also because having

16 educated citizenry is important for the stability and

17 success of our nation.

18 It seems only logical then that our

19 government should also put effort into insurance that,

20 that children live in an environment where they can

21 fully utilize their education, where they can learn

22 their times tables without having to worry about a

23 dying parent.

24 It's also important to recognize that we test

25 our young people. We hold them and their schools
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1 accountable for whether or not they're learning what

2 they should be learning through standardized tests.

3 It seems only right that we do this with the

4 fossil fuel industry. If we're willing to hold our

5 fifth graders to certain standards, we should also be

6 willing to do this with the large corporations that

7 affect their lives every day.

8 Thank you.

9 MR. CLARK: Actually Ms. Wooten, if I could

10 just ask you a quick question.

11 MS. WOOTEN: Yes.

12 MR. CLARK: Just, I lived in the south long

13 enough. I think it might --

14 MS. WOOTEN: Uh-huh [affirmative].

15 MR. CLARK: -- I'm not used to fast Chicago

16 accents so --

17 MS. WOOTEN: I'm sorry.

18 MR. CLARK: You can. Can you just tell me --

19 MS. WOOTEN: Yeah. We're you Chicago Climate

20 Action Network.

21 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

22 MS. WOOTEN: Thank you.

23 MR. CLARK: Thanks. Thank you sir. Okay.

24 Okay. Pamela Ortner and Donna Hriljac. Hope that's

25 roughly right.
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1 MS. HRILJAC: It is right.

2 MR. CLARK: Excellent.

3 MS. ORTNER: Good evening. I'm Pamela Ortner

4 from Madison Heights, Michigan, and I'm thankful for

5 the chance and the opportunity to speak today. Thank

6 you Nick for attempting to promulgate these rules.

7 I am an Occupational Health Nurse Specialist

8 and Nurse Educator. I'm working currently with

9 Healthcare Without Harm in my state as a nurse

10 advocate.

11 Healthcare Without Harm is an international

12 coalition of more than four hundred and thirty

13 organizations in fifty-two countries working to

14 transform healthcare. The healthcare sector worldwide

15 without compromising patient safety or care, so that

16 it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source

17 of harm to public health and the environment following

18 the Hippocratic Oath first do no harm.

19 I appreciate this opportunity to comment on

20 the proposed mercury and air toxic standards.

21 Healthcare Without Harm supports the EPA's efforts to

22 protect the public's health through implementation of

23 this rule.

24 Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that's been

25 used throughout healthcare in a variety of products,
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1 including thermometers, sphygmomanometers -- can never

2 get that one right -- sphygmomanometers, dental

3 amalgam, laboratory chemicals and preservatives such

4 as thimerosal, cleaning agents and various

5 electronic devices such as fluorescent lamps and

6 computer equipment.

7 The cumulative usage, spills, breakages, and

8 disposal of these made the healthcare sector a

9 significant contributor of mercury pollution in the

10 environment.

11 However, as part of a global initiative to

12 reduce the spread and use of mercury in all aspects of

13 society, Healthcare Without Harm has led an effort to

14 eliminate mercury from the healthcare sector.

15 Over the past decade, the United States

16 healthcare sector has virtually phased out most of

17 mercury based medical devices. It's nearly impossible

18 to purchase a mercury thermometer in the United States

19 now. Thirty states have banned mercury thermometers

20 and more of a third of the U.S. population is covered

21 by state laws restricting or banning mercury blood

22 pressure devices, those sphygmomanometers.

23 The healthcare sector recognized its

24 contribution to the problem and has worked successfully

25 to clean up its act. It is past time for the coal and
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1 oil fired power plants to do the same.

2 When the original Clean Air Act was passed in

3 1970, the electric utility industry persuaded Congress

4 to not impose strict pollution controls on old power

5 plants because they would soon be replaced by newer

6 state of art facilities, yet despite, despite

7 industries promises, many of the nation's oldest and

8 dirtiest power plants continue to operate.

9 Coal-Fired power plants are the single

10 largest source of mercury air pollution, like I'm not

11 telling -- I'm telling you this for the first time.

12 You know this. According to the EPA, according to

13 report by the Environmental Integrity Project, the

14 fifty most polluting coal burning power plants in the

15 United States emitted twenty tons of toxic mercury into

16 the air in 2007. And of the top ten mercury emitting

17 power plants, all but one reported an increase as

18 compared to 2006.

19 A similar report in 2010 showed that the top

20 fifty power plant mercury emitters actually decreased

21 mercury emissions by just a little more than a quarter

22 of one percent, but twenty-seven of the top fifty

23 mercury emitters increased their emissions over 2007

24 levels.

25 Pollution controls that would dramatically
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1 reduce emissions are widely available and already being

2 used at new plants across the nation.

3 Once released in the atmosphere, mercury just

4 doesn't disappear. It settles in lakes and rivers

5 where it moves up to the food chains to humans who eat

6 contaminated fish.

7 The CDC has found that six percent of

8 American women have mercury in their blood at levels

9 that would put a fetus at risk of neurological damage.

10 No U.S. stream is uncontaminated by mercury pollution.

11 Imagine that. According to the U.S. geological survey

12 in 2009. That means that wild fish caught in even the

13 most pristine streams may be tainted with unsafe levels

14 of potent neurotoxin that can attack the developing

15 brains of children leading to permanent damage.

16 Much like lead exposure, there's little

17 scientific debate about the toxicity of methyl mercury

18 exposure. The fetus is exquisitely sensitive to the

19 effects of methyl mercury exposure in the first

20 environment, in the womb.

21 In 2005, research estimated that between

22 three hundred and fifteen thousand and six hundred and

23 almost forty thousand children each year have cord

24 blood mercury levels greater than five point eight

25 micrograms per liter, a level associated with loss of
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1 IQ.

2 They estimated that loss productivity due to

3 this amounts to eight point seven billion dollars

4 annually, but I'm not here to talk about the money that

5 we're losing through loss of productivity. I'm here to

6 talk about the cost to human health.

7 This proposed rule will save lives, protect

8 the health of millions and bring about an action that

9 is long overdue. Healthcare Without Harm has been

10 tremendously successful in leading the global

11 initiative to reduce the use and spread of mercury in

12 healthcare.

13 The energy sector can and must do the same.

14 We can and must act to make sure the promise this rule

15 proposes is kept. Thank you very much.

16 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Ms. Hriljac.

17 MS. HRILJAC: Yes. My name is Donna Hriljac

18 and H-R-I-L-J-A-C is the spelling of the last name.

19 I've lived in Chicago all of my life. I'm going to

20 make this very short since I'm hearing a lot of things

21 that I'm sure you've heard numerous times.

22 But I'd like to thank the EPA for having this

23 hearing and for allowing us to speak. I'm one of the

24 many people who have unsafe levels of mercury in my

25 blood. But I do not have palms that show it.
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1 Years ago I noticed my balance was getting

2 unsteady and I started looking for the reasons. I

3 finally found a doctor who was able to diagnose it and

4 then treat me. I still probably need to go back and

5 get retested since I do eat fish and I do eat some

6 other things and I do breathe in Chicago.

7 I've read so many times, there's so many

8 things going on with levels and children and everything

9 and it's really discouraging, but because you're on a

10 time crunch and because I think you're probably going

11 to hear the same thing over and over again, I will end

12 mine and just say thank you and I appreciate this.

13 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Reverend

14 Theresa Dear and Jim Schneider please. Reverend Dear.

15 REVEREND DEAR: Good afternoon. Thank you

16 for the opportunity to speak to you today. I speak

17 today for children, children bearing women and unborn

18 children who have no voice, no knowledge, compromised

19 immune systems and weakened defense systems.

20 For forty years, we fought for lead level

21 compliance at five percent, but five percent is

22 unacceptable because it is -- it has an pervasive

23 impact on undeveloped respiratory systems and it's

24 irreversible and untreatable influence in brain damage,

25 learning disabilities, birth defects, heart disease,
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1 and cancer.

2 The affect of a five percent lead level is

3 that we are passively writing the obituary of our

4 children before they are born.

5 A policy that supports a five percent lead

6 level prophetically eulogizes our children. EPA

7 officials and each politician who hears these concerns

8 and does nothing holds in their possession the shovel

9 that digs the grave of these children.

10 Five percent is unacceptable if one child is

11 born with birth defects. Five percent is unacceptable

12 if one child is born with a learning disability. Five

13 percent is unacceptable if a child is gasping for air

14 and missing thirty, fifty, or two days of school. Five

15 percent is unacceptable if one child dies.

16 The lead level compliance needs to be

17 redefined and updated from five percent to zero. There

18 should be a strategic policy with capacity building for

19 compliance or shut downs. There must be a zero

20 tolerance policy with regular audits and reporting

21 details of transparency and accountability.

22 I am asking that before homes are purchased

23 or rented that there is a requirement of full

24 disclosure on lead levels in the community. I am

25 asking that before children are registered for school
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1 that there is full disclosure about lead levels in

2 their community. I am asking that even as prenatal

3 vitamins are distributed, information is distributed

4 about lead levels in their community.

5 I am asking you to protect our children and

6 protect our environment and protect their future. I am

7 asking for my cousin, Brian, and my nieces and nephews

8 who suffer with asthma and are rendered powerless and

9 helpless.

10 Jesus gives us a charge from the bible and He

11 says, "That which you do unto the least of these, is

12 that which you do unto Me."

13 And so I am asking for our children. I'm

14 asking for our child bearing women and I'm asking for

15 all unborn children that you revisit this lead level of

16 five percent and redefine it to zero percent or zero

17 tolerance. I am asking because they can't change this

18 policy. They can't change the standard because they

19 are helpless and they are powerless and they are

20 voiceless. But you are not. They can't make the

21 change, but you can.

22 Thank you very much.

23 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

24 MR. SCHNEIDER: Hello. My name is Jim

25 Schneider, that's S-C-H-N-E-I-D-E-R. Thanks for
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1 letting me speak tonight. I am a resident on the north

2 side of Chicago. I'm a journalist and a lead

3 accredited professional, member of the Chicago

4 Conservation Corp. and Sierra Club and a proud citizen

5 of Chicago.

6 Built into that pride is a sincere desire to

7 encourage any action that will make Chicago as clean,

8 safe, and healthy as possible for its people.

9 So with that in mind, I'd like to say a few

10 words about the importance or what I see is the

11 importance of the EPA proposed regulatory safeguards

12 against air toxics such as mercury.

13 As a journalist, normally yeah, we certainly

14 have gone over all the facts here. I've, I've looked

15 at all the statistics that you guys have been hearing

16 all day, but one thing that really struck me, just in

17 talking to friends and family and colleagues about my

18 coming to this -- and these are people whose political

19 views are all across the spectrum. It's feelings about

20 the EPA are all across the spectrum. Everyone I talked

21 had a consistent shock that we're even having this

22 conversation, that -- you mean mercury isn't already

23 toughly regulated? Well, you know, no. This is

24 something we really need to work toward.

25 I think everyone has kind of an instinctual
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1 knowledge that mercury, in particular, is a, is a bad

2 substance. I've, you know, it's something we've known

3 for a really long time, but I think what struck me is

4 that more than half of what we're exposed to in the, in

5 the world is coming from human sources.

6 And knowing that, I think it, it goes to

7 follow that, it's time to really step up and do what we

8 can to prevent it.

9 And just as we know that mercury pollution is

10 a hazard to health and human life, we know there are

11 ways to prevent it and industry is not powerless in

12 this battle.

13 My understanding of the EPA's proposed

14 standard is that it's not based on some kind of fantasy

15 figures, it's based on real top performing facilities

16 across the U.S., so we have evidence that it can be

17 done and is being done, so as a member of a community

18 and a nation, I'm simply one of many voices who asked

19 if it's possible to reduce and even eliminate the

20 amount of toxics we're exposed to and as a result make

21 our citizens healthier.

22 Why isn't it being done? And so I applaud

23 the efforts that the EPA is going through to, to make

24 it happen.

25 You know, I realize there are costs involved
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1 for industry and for power generation and making this

2 happen, and, and but at the end of the day, what's a

3 few dollars on one end saves -- I can only imagine what

4 on the healthcare end of things and the twenty-first

5 century, we can no longer run businesses on nineteenth

6 century models.

7 Business and industry is important and vital

8 to our nation's economic health, but it can't come at

9 the cost of our citizens physical health. The

10 government has a responsibility to create a safe

11 environment for its people and provide a framework and

12 incentive for business and industry to act as

13 responsible members of the community that they inhabit.

14 It's also important to note that improving

15 these existing facilities to meet reasonable emission

16 requirements offers new job opportunities and it's my

17 sincere hope that the safeguards will be adopted and

18 acted upon. Thanks.

19 MR. CLARK: Thank you both very much for

20 your, for your statements.

21 Next speaker is Sam Dorevitch and is Susanne

22 Brooks here? And Susanne Brooks.

23 Jim, by the way, you -- by my count, you were

24 number one hundred, so what a day. There's a door

25 prize outside for you.
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1 Mr. Dorevitch.

2 DR. DOREVITCH: Thank you and good evening. I

3 appreciate your stamina.

4 My name is Samuel Dorevitch. I'm a Physician

5 and a Public Health Researcher at the University of

6 Illinois, at Chicago.

7 I trained in emergency medicine at what is

8 now the John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County. I

9 trained in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at

10 the University of Illinois at Chicago where I also

11 obtained a master's degree in Public Health.

12 For the last ten years, I've practiced

13 occupational medicine and urgent care, but primarily I

14 do research on the health effects of air pollution and

15 water pollution.

16 At the University of Illinois, at Chicago

17 School of Public Health, I teach graduate students in a

18 course called Occupational Diseases, rather than

19 providing students with opinions about the connection

20 between air pollutants and water pollutants and health,

21 my goal is to impart in students the skills needed to

22 read a series of scientific papers, evaluate the

23 strengths and limitations and to arrive at a weight of

24 the evidence conclusion about a connection between

25 environmental exposures and health outcomes.
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1 As you all know, following the epidemic of

2 mental retardation and motor abnormalities among babies

3 born Minamata Bay, Japan, in the 1950's, the

4 devastating effects of high level mercury exposure in

5 pregnant women became apparent.

6 Since then, researchers have evaluated the

7 effects of lower degree of mercury exposure in, in

8 pregnant women. Large studies have been undertaken

9 around the world in populations who eat a relatively

10 large amount of fish that have been caught in water not

11 nearly as polluted as Minamata Bay, Japan.

12 These studies utilized the gold standard of

13 observational epidemiology. They enroll pregnant women

14 and collect data about health and mercury levels in the

15 women, in their children and then follow the children

16 over time to assess their neurologic development.

17 One such cohort, that in the Faroes

18 Islands in the North Sea found that children exposed to

19 more mercury while they were in the womb, had impaired

20 brain development. A similar cohort study of children

21 in the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean

22 found that boys with higher levels of mercury as

23 infants performed worse on standardized school tests

24 years later, compared to boys with lower levels of

25 mercury as infants.
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1 A recent study conducted among children in

2 Grenada, Spain, found that children who had high levels

3 of mercury at age four, were found to have poorer

4 memory, poorer verbal abilities, poorer cognitive

5 abilities.

6 None of these individuals -- none of these

7 studies taken individually would allow us to say

8 exactly what the benefits would be of reducing mercury

9 emissions from coal or oil fired generating units here

10 in the United States. However, taken as a whole, these

11 studies clearly suggest that even at levels that,

12 fortunately are too low to cause the kinds of disaster

13 seen at Minamata Bay, subtle changes in

14 children's cognitive development remain a serious

15 concern.

16 Fish is a low fat, high quality source of

17 dietary protein. Fish consumption has substantial

18 health benefits in terms of reducing cardiovascular

19 risk. The public should not be forced to choose

20 between eating fish to obtain certain health benefits,

21 but taking on additional risks, especially children and

22 women of child bearing age.

23 Because mercury emissions from coal-fired

24 power plants wind up in the fish we eat, reducing

25 mercury emissions from power plants is an important
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1 step toward maximizing the opportunities for our

2 children to reach their intellectual potential.

3 For that reason, I applaud EPA's proposed

4 requirements for reducing emissions of mercury from

5 coal-fired power plants, two of which are located here

6 in Chicago neighborhoods.

7 In addition to reducing mercury emissions,

8 EPA's proposed requirements would also reduce emissions

9 of at least three metals that are established human

10 carcinogens, namely arsenic, chromium and nickel.

11 Emissions of another established human carcinogen,

12 dioxin would be reduced.

13 Like the reductions in mercury, these changes

14 would not have an immediately, dramatic effect, however

15 on a population level, the incidence of certain types

16 of cancer, particularly of the respiratory tract and

17 blood, should decrease following reductions of the

18 emissions of carcinogens into our air and water.

19 One area where near term benefits of emission

20 reductions should be seen, both from electrical

21 generating units as well as from news source boilers

22 would be on respiratory health.

23 Sulfur dioxide contributes directly to acute

24 worsenings of respiratory conditions, acid gasses,

25 contribute primarily indirectly as they're one of the
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1 ingredients in the toxic mix, known as fine particulate

2 matter or PM2.5.

3 As a result of reductions in these hazards,

4 near term benefits can be expected and rates of asthma

5 attacks, acute flares of chronic bronchitis and

6 emphysema as well as heart attacks and life threatening

7 cardiac arrhythmia.

8 I encourage the agency to take with a grain

9 of salt projections of widespread economic harm if the

10 proposed requirements were to be implemented. Claims

11 like this have been made following proposals that have

12 long since been implemented such as removing lead from

13 gasoline, reducing exposure to benzene in the work

14 place, working levels of particulate matter and

15 reducing emissions from mobile sources. These have all

16 been implemented and despite the doomsday predictions,

17 the relative, relevant industries have thrived and in

18 many cases, new industries that promote efficiency and

19 reduce emissions have developed and thrived as well.

20 Preventing disease and promoting wellness in

21 populations is the over arching goal of public health.

22 I enthusiastically support EPA's efforts on this front.

23 Thank you very much.

24 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Ms. Brooks.

25 MS. BROOKS: Hi. My name is Susanne Brooks,
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1 S-U-S-A-N-N-E, Brooks, B-R-O-O-K-S and I am an Economic

2 Policy Analyst with Environmental Defense Fund, a

3 non-partisan, environmental organization with more than

4 seven hundred thousand members nationwide.

5 EDF is dedicated to working towards

6 innovative cost effective solutions to environmental

7 problems, building on a foundation of sound science,

8 economics and law.

9 Thank you for the opportunity to testify

10 today, for your efforts on this rule, and especially

11 for your attention so late in the day.

12 EPA's proposed mercury and air toxic rule for

13 power plants will provide long overdue health

14 protection for all Americans. EDF supports the

15 proposed rule, yet given the availability of cost

16 effective, made in America technology solutions, urges

17 the agency to strengthen the standards for coal-fired

18 power plants to secure even greater health and

19 environmental benefits.

20 Over two decades ago, the U.S. Congress took

21 the vital step of identifying mercury and other toxic

22 contaminants as harmful and hazardous air pollutants as

23 part of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. In the year

24 2000 after years of careful study, the EPA determined

25 that it was appropriate and necessary to control
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1 mercury and other toxic air contaminants from power

2 plants.

3 Now over twenty years after the Clean Air Act

4 Amendments, EPA's proposed rule represents a long

5 overdue and critical step in the right direction toward

6 protecting American human health by reducing mercury

7 and air toxics from the largest unregulated source;

8 coal-fired power plants.

9 As we've heard many time today, mercury is a

10 toxic heavy metal that contaminates water bodies across

11 the nation, threatens the development of newborn and

12 children and contributes to the risk of heart disease.

13 Human exposure through consumption of contaminated fish

14 and shell fish can harm the brain, heart, kidneys,

15 lungs and immune system of people of all ages. Unborn

16 babies and young children are particularly vulnerable

17 since mercury exposure can impair normal brain

18 development, reducing IQ and damaging the ability to

19 learn and think later in life.

20 Hundreds of thousands of U.S. newborns are

21 affected by mercury each year. According to the EPA's

22 national listing of fish advisories of 2008, nearly

23 half of all U.S. river miles and lake acres were under

24 water contamination advisories; eighty percent of which

25 were issued because of mercury contamination.
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1 According to EPA, the proposed rule will

2 prevent ninety-one percent of the mercury in coal

3 burning power plants from being admitted into the air.

4 The health benefits of these regulations will benefit

5 Americans across the country. EPA estimates that when

6 carried out, these pollution reductions will annually

7 prevent up to seventeen thousand premature deaths,

8 eleven thousand heart attacks, a hundred and twenty

9 thousand asthma attacks, over twelve thousand hospital

10 and emergency visits and provide various other health

11 benefits.

12 These benefits are particularly critical for

13 minority and low income populations who are

14 disproportionately impacted by asthma and other health

15 conditions.

16 These enormous health benefits are also, also

17 translate to real economic benefits since healthier

18 Americans means lower healthcare costs, fewer missed

19 work days and sick days and enhanced worker

20 productivity.

21 EPA estimates the proposed rule will yield

22 monetized net benefits of up to a hundred and thirty

23 billion dollars every year once the rule is in place.

24 The benefits will outweigh the cost by

25 between five and thirteen times, meaning that every
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1 dollar spent to reduce pollution, Americans get five to

2 thirteen dollars in health benefits and of course, this

3 is a conservative estimate since not all the benefits

4 of the proposed rule could be quantified.

5 Each time that EPA has considered new clean

6 air standards, it has been challenged with claims that

7 meeting the standards would not be feasible or

8 practical or affordable. And yet time and after, the

9 reverse has proven true. Benefits have overwhelmed the

10 costs which have been consistently lower than

11 predicted.

12 For example, the actual cost of the Clean Air

13 Act Amendments turned out to be around twenty percent

14 of initially projected costs and the actual cost of the

15 acid rain, SO2 reductions were around twenty to thirty

16 percent of initial forecasts.

17 Seventeen states, including Illinois, have

18 already established mercury limits for coal plants.

19 Since 1999, mercury air emissions from U.S. coal-fired

20 power plants have decreased by almost twenty-seven

21 percent, driven by federal policies including these

22 state standards.

23 Illinois state standards places it ahead of

24 the game. Despite the state's progress, however,

25 Chicago residents and others within the state remain
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1 vulnerable to pollution from outside its borders. A

2 recent EDF analysis identified the top twenty-five

3 mercury emitting coal plants in the nation. Twenty are

4 located within fifty to a hundred miles of some of the

5 largest metropolitan areas of the country, including

6 Chicago.

7 Further, other coal plants on the list of the

8 top twenty-five are located in nearby stated including

9 Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Nebraska and one

10 hundred percent of the Great Lakes and their connecting

11 waters were listed under EPA's national listing of fish

12 advisories in 2008.

13 Federal EPA action is clearly critical for

14 the health of residents of Illinois, the Great Lakes

15 region and nationwide.

16 EDF looks forward to submitting more detailed

17 comments to EPA. Thank you again for the opportunity

18 to testify and for all of your efforts on this critical

19 rule.

20 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Oh yeah. Okay.

21 Thank you both very much. Allison Fisher and Sherry

22 Leonard. No? Okay. Okay, no I'm sorry. So, it's

23 supposed to go in that order, okay. Oh I apologize,

24 okay. Allison Fisher and Brian Perbix please. That's

25 all right. Allison Fisher is not here. Okay. Can we
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1 go to Sherry Leonard then? Is Sherry Leonard here?

2 MS. LEONARD: Yes.

3 MR. CLARK: Okay. You're, you're on.

4 Mr. Perbix, feel, feel free to start when you're ready.

5 You first. Sure.

6 MR. PERBIX: My name is Brian Perbix, that's

7 Brian with an I, Perbix, P-E-R-B-I-X. Thank you for

8 the opportunity to testify. I am a Community Organizer

9 with the Prairie Rivers Network. Prairie Rivers is a

10 statewide river conservation organization that seeks to

11 protect the health and beauty of rivers and streams of

12 Illinois for the people, fish and wildlife who depend

13 on them to survive.

14 Today the EPA has heard testimony from

15 hundreds of citizens who support proposed rules that

16 would cut mercury pollution ninety-one percent by 2015

17 from the nation's coal-fired power plants. The largest

18 unregulated source of mercury to the atmosphere.

19 As an advocate for clean water and healthy

20 river communities, Prairie Rivers network applauds the

21 EPA's decision to issue standards for mercury emissions

22 from power plants achievable by maximum achievable --

23 no, achievable maximum achievable control technologies.

24 This is a major step in the right direction.

25 These air pollution rules represents
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1 significant progress for clean water in Illinois

2 because when it comes to toxic and persistent

3 pollutants like mercury, air pollution quickly becomes

4 water pollution.

5 As a state, we have one hundred and twenty

6 thousand miles of rivers and streams and three hundred

7 and sixteen thousand acres of lakes and they have all

8 been severely polluted by mercury. The airborne

9 mercury compounds that are deposited on the surface of

10 our rivers and lakes are quickly transformed into

11 methyl mercury, a potent toxin, that bio accumulates in

12 the food chain posing major health risks for wildlife

13 and for the people who rely on locally caught fish for

14 food.

15 In Illinois, the problem is so serious that

16 in 2002, the Illinois fish contaminant monitoring

17 program issued a statewide advisory for predator fish

18 in all Illinois waters due to elevated levels of methyl

19 mercury in fish tissue. The advisory applies to

20 predator species that include all species of black

21 bass, stripe bass, white bass, hybrid stripe bass,

22 walleye, sauger, saugeye, flathead catfish, musky,

23 northern pike, as well as numerous others in highly

24 polluted sites.

25 Over the past decade, Prairie Rivers network
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1 has pushed for the adoption of strong mercury emission

2 standards that would protect our rivers and streams.

3 Unfortunately this has been a long struggle. The rules

4 that are now under consideration will accomplish what

5 the EPA should have done ten years ago under section

6 one twelve of the Clean Air Act and power industry

7 interests not been put ahead of the health of our

8 citizens.

9 Tragically, the delay has meant that Illinois

10 power plants could continue to pump mercury and other

11 hazardous pollutants into our air.

12 Data collected by the EPA's toxic release

13 inventory on emissions of power plants informs us that

14 from 2000 to 2009, Illinois power plants released

15 thirty-eight thousand, four hundred twenty-six pounds

16 of mercury compounds into the air in addition to tens

17 of thousands of pounds of other hazardous compounds

18 including carcinogens such as nickel, chromium,

19 arsenic, and polycyclic aromatic compounds.

20 We can say with certainty that a significant

21 portion of the mercury -- of that mercury has now found

22 its way into the fish that inhabited our rivers and

23 lakes.

24 In the Illinois EPA's 2010 integrated water

25 quality report, none of the rivers and streams assessed
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1 by IEPA fully supported fish consumption and in

2 seventy-eight percent of streams assessed for fish

3 consumption, methyl mercury levels in fish were

4 identified as the cause of this impairment. Similarly

5 only point one percent of the lakes assessed fully

6 supported fish consumption and in eighty-four percent

7 of the lake acres assessed, methyl mercury levels in

8 fish were identified as the cause of this impairment.

9 As the rules under consideration acknowledge,

10 methyl mercury is a highly toxic chemical whose effects

11 on the central nervous system are severe and well

12 established. Mercury exposure in vulnerable

13 populations is widespread as the Centers for Disease

14 Control have estimated that at least one twelve women

15 of child bearing age in the U.S. have unsafe levels of

16 mercury in their blood.

17 However, mercury is not just a threat to

18 human health. It also has biological and physiological

19 effects on many species of wildlife that rely on

20 healthy rivers and streams.

21 Studies indicate that in many species of

22 fish, fish size, weight, and reproduction are

23 negatively impacted by mercury exposure.

24 The toll on fish eating birds including

25 mallards, red-tailed hawks, and the common loon are
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1 also well documented and include eggshell thinning,

2 reduced hatchability due to increased embryo mortality

3 as well as other effects.

4 Mercury has also been shown to impact the

5 survival, reproduction and growth of river otters which

6 is a serious concern here in Illinois. Where once on

7 the verge of extinction, otters have recently returned

8 to our rivers.

9 Keep in mind that wildlife -- here in

10 Illinois, wildlife associated recreation, including

11 fishing, hunting, and bird watching contributed two

12 point three billion dollars to the state's economy in

13 2006. That's according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

14 Service.

15 The continued assault of mercury on the

16 environment threatens not only human health and the

17 health of wildlife, but also this major contributor to

18 the state's economy at a time when we can all ill

19 afford it.

20 Fortunately, we already know that we're

21 requiring plant specific emissions controls can provide

22 significant benefits when addressing local mercury

23 problems, such as these. The Florida everglades are a

24 well known case study where the levels of mercury

25 contamination in largemouth bass and other wildlife
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1 declined by sixty to seventy-five percent after an

2 intensive effort in the 1990's was initiated to clean

3 up municipal and medical waste incinerators.

4 Cleaning up mercury in our environment can be

5 done. It should have been done already and now is

6 absolutely the time.

7 In closing, EPA's proposed rules to regulate

8 mercury and other hazardous emissions from power plants

9 will significantly improve water quality and public

10 health in Illinois.

11 I appreciate your consideration of our

12 comments and I respectfully urge you to adopt these

13 strong standards to limit mercury and other toxic air

14 emissions from power plants. Thank you very much.

15 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Ms. Leonard.

16 MS. LEONARD: Yes. My name is Sherry

17 Leonard. I am from Muscatine, Iowa. I come too as a

18 concerned citizen of our community where we are having

19 problems with our economy as well as our health

20 problems are coming from different pollutants in our

21 area. Grain processing happens to be the one that I'm

22 addressing today.

23 We have several people in our community that

24 are very ill. As of, I believe it was last year. They

25 were out of attainment thirty-five times within the
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1 federal regulation limits.

2 These -- excuse me a minute. These are

3 readings came from a monitor at the Franklin Elementary

4 School where they have now merged with -- they have

5 another school that merged with them from the area down

6 by the GBC. We have two hundred and seventy five

7 students there and those children are being affected as

8 they're getting off the bus and going out to play on

9 the playgrounds.

10 The threshold has been doubled the limit that

11 it should be by the federal regulations. I'm asking

12 that you please to keep the EPA on their toes and

13 please to help keep our community healthy and safe

14 because at this present time it is not and we need all

15 the help we can get, so I pray that you will take into

16 consideration to keep the regulations where they are.

17 These children cannot afford to be ill.

18 They're missing a lot of time. There are a lot of

19 nebulizers used in our community and it's not fair.

20 Our economy is not well because they do not give

21 building permits to our community due to the fact that

22 it's over the threshold of pollution and I'm -- I

23 myself have been exposed to asbestos, the company I

24 work for, and so I too have problems with my lungs, so

25 when the levels are high, I am ill.
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1 I lost a daughter to -- and this is, actually

2 helped me to step forward and try to do more for our

3 community due to the fact that we have a lot of

4 ailments there and I will do whatever I have to do to

5 continue the fight and I appreciate your time.

6 I think that's all I have to say today. I

7 thank you very much.

8 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Questions? Thank you

9 both. Okay, well I'm a little unclear here. What

10 about, what about her?

11 MALE: She didn't show up.

12 MR. CLARK: Okay. First thing is, for folks

13 who signed up to speak tonight, if you haven't heard

14 your name, and you -- you just need to be sure that you

15 check in at the, at the desk there to get in, in, in

16 the queue. Okay. So if you're planning on speaking

17 and you haven't checked in out front, just please do

18 that.

19 The next speakers would be Marianne Flanagan

20 and Jessica Brackett. Nope, we haven't had -- yeah.

21 MS. FLANAGAN: My name is Marianne Flanagan

22 and I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak here

23 tonight. I've lived in the Chicago area all my life.

24 The past year or two, I guess I've become kind of an

25 armchair activist and I learned quite a bit about
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1 pollution and many of the environmental problems that

2 we do have by going on the environmental sites, such as

3 Defenders of Wildlife and many others and that's the

4 reason I'm here tonight.

5 I was just appalled at the statistics that

6 I've been reading. For example, every year power

7 plants release three hundred eighty-six tons of toxic

8 pollutants. Seventy-thousand of those are mercury,

9 arsenic, lead, dioxin and acid gasses.

10 We know that they're neurotoxins and

11 carcinogens leading to brain damage in infants,

12 learning disabilities, asthma, and heart disease.

13 Coal burning power plants dump more mercury

14 into the air than all the other industries combined.

15 They're responsible for seventy-two percent of the

16 mercury emissions.

17 We all know it's one of the most toxic

18 substances there is. I was shocked when I found out

19 that only one gram of mercury in a twenty acre lake can

20 render the fish unfit for human consumption.

21 We all see mercury warnings in every grocery

22 store that we're at now for the fish that we eat. It

23 alters the ecosystems of our waterways. It poisons the

24 food we eat and it's affecting our commercial and sport

25 fishing in this area.
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1 Women of child bearing age have unsafe

2 mercury levels in their blood stream. This can lead to

3 brain damage and learning disability in children and as

4 an Assistant Head Start Teacher, we see some of these

5 children coming in that have these learning

6 disabilities.

7 The pollution in the air has led to an

8 increase in asthma and heart disease. It's caused an

9 elevation of [indecipherable] leading to ozone alerts

10 in the summer. I have friends that cannot even come

11 out when the ozone is high because of the way it

12 effects their asthma. When my son was growing up, he

13 was subject to bronchial spasms which were like acute

14 asthma attacks due to pollutions and sulfates and

15 things that are in the air.

16 Although I live in Des Plaines, one of my

17 concerns is the way this effects the emissions in the

18 national parks. The Great Smokey Mountains park have

19 cited many problems stemming from power plant emissions

20 including plant damage, degrading of high elevations,

21 streams and soil and the obscuring of scenic views.

22 The heightened structure of the mountains and

23 weather patterns trap these pollutions. They cite a

24 forty decrease in the winter and eighty degree decrease

25 in the summer.
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1 Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico burns

2 enough coal to fill ten Empire State buildings per

3 year. It is the largest source of air pollution in New

4 Mexico. It's near national parks and Indian

5 reservations. The emissions there produce an unnatural

6 haze that effects the health and environment on a daily

7 basis.

8 We deserve to breathe clean, healthy air and

9 we deserve to enjoy our national parks.

10 Recently, the Tennessee Valley Authority has

11 agreed to phase out eighteen plants and install modern

12 pollution controls on thirty-six others. This will

13 greatly reduce emissions for the national parks and the

14 people living in that area. If they can do it, there's

15 no reason why it can't be done across the country.

16 On a personal note, I remember a time when

17 things like installing pollution controls or research

18 costs for new drugs were considered a part of cost of

19 doing business. Our power company is owned by an

20 energy giant that has millions of dollars of profits

21 every year. They get subsidies from our government,

22 but they don't have any money for pollution controls on

23 their plants. It's time that this was, again, a part

24 of the cost of doing business instead of something to

25 be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher rate
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1 or prices and significantly compromised health just so

2 their stock holders can have bigger dividends. Thank

3 you.

4 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

5 MS. BRACKETT: Good evening. My name's

6 Jessica Brackett and I come from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

7 I'm sure today, you've been inundated with the economic

8 and health statistics related to mercury pollution and

9 other air pollutants.

10 And I wanted to share with you some personal

11 stories that I've collected and I'll start with my own.

12 Specifically, I want to share with you a

13 moment in my life. It's one of those moments in life

14 that one does not forget. I was driving into Cedar

15 Rapids, also known as the city of five smells due to

16 the pollution. It was on a Spring evening just after

17 the sun had set. The sky looked like a painting as the

18 City lights lit up the pollution in the sky. But

19 instead of basking in the awesomeness of the bright

20 colors in the sky, I cried.

21 I cried because I was reading When Smoke Ran

22 Like Water, by Dr. Devra Davis. This book presented a

23 history of air pollution and its health and economic

24 effects on communities and I realized that the city in

25 front of me would have been a perfect case study.
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1 I cried because my family and my friends live

2 under that deadly smog. I cried because in that moment

3 I realized that the true cost of doing business is not

4 being paid by those who are making the profits.

5 Instead, the true cost is being paid by the average

6 citizen. The average citizen who is grateful for the

7 existence of those businesses even if they pollute,

8 because hey, it's a job.

9 And today, as much as any time before now,

10 jobs are what we need.

11 But even with that gratitude, they will be

12 paid back with increased rates in cancer, heart and

13 lung ailments, and birth defects.

14 It was in these few moments that I knew that

15 the polluting entities needed to be held accountable

16 for the harm that they were doing as well as the good.

17 It wasn't until recently that I realized that

18 Cedar Rapids didn't necessarily have the worst air

19 quality in the state as many people assume. In fact,

20 for the past few years, Muscatine, Iowa, has violated

21 the national ambient air quality standards more times

22 than any other city in the state.

23 And so I collected some stories in Muscatine

24 and I'd like to share them with you. I learned the

25 smog that settles over the city can change the color of
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1 the paint on the cars and the sidings of the houses.

2 I learned about children who don't want to go

3 outside because the air hurts their eyes and throats

4 and children who are not able to play outside for fear

5 of an asthma attack.

6 I learned from a seasoned teacher that

7 children, children with illnesses on the autism

8 spectrum has visibly increased over the years.

9 I've learned that on some streets in

10 Muscatine, you can stand on the corner and if you're

11 standing there with somebody who has lived there long

12 enough, they can point at every house and there's a

13 story of illness, of sickness, of chronic poor health.

14 I've heard elders of the community say that

15 this is the way that's its always been and it's not

16 going to change.

17 My hope is that each of you take a moment to

18 recognize what your defining moments are. The moments

19 that have brought you here to be one of the decision

20 makers. And as you are presented with this opportunity

21 to move forward with the proposed rule, my hope is that

22 the true cost of polluting the air and the rest of the

23 environment is what guides you.

24 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Our next

25 two speakers, Paul King and Joyce Blumenshine. Is Paul
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1 King here? Oh I'm sorry. I didn't see you. Okay.

2 Mr. King.

3 MR. KIM: Hi. Actually it's Paul Kim, K-I-M.

4 MR. CLARK: Oh I'm sorry. It came to me as

5 King, so I apologize for that.

6 MR. KIM: Oh, okay. First of all I want to

7 thank you all for taking the time to be here into the

8 evening and for those of you who traveled out here,

9 thank you for that as well.

10 So as I believe that many of us in this room

11 know, there are a lot from other parts of the Midwest.

12 The company, the energy company Midwest Generation is

13 currently operating two coal plants in Chicago; the

14 Fisk and the Crawford coal plants in addition to four

15 other coal plants that they run in the rest of

16 Illinois.

17 And Midwest Generation has been very much

18 opposed to our efforts to clean up these coal plants.

19 They've opposed the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance

20 which, which my friend Caroline spoke about earlier and

21 that ordinance has wide support from groups all over

22 Chicago and it was only asking them to bring these

23 plants, the plants in Chicago up to national standards

24 and especially at the last hearing, last month, they

25 really brought out the big guns when they actually
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1 bussed in workers, not only for -- from the Chicago

2 plants, but also from plants all over the state and we

3 will continue that fight.

4 So it's a little bit funny for me to say that

5 I, I feel kind of proud of them for something that they

6 did back in 2009. That is to say that they saw, in

7 this instance at least, the need to upgrade their

8 plants to modern standards.

9 Following an agreement with the Illinois EPA,

10 Midwest Generation installed mercury controls at all

11 six of their Illinois plants resulting in an eighty

12 percent reduction in levels of mercury emitted from

13 their plants.

14 According to an Illinois [indecipherable]

15 report from 2005, their plants emitted one thousand

16 eight hundred and twenty-four pounds of mercury in 2003

17 before these controls were, were implemented.

18 Now as someone else said before, according to

19 this, the Sierra Club, one gram of mercury is enough to

20 contaminate twenty-acres worth of lake and, which you

21 know, make -- rendering the fish inside it inedible for

22 humans and the result of this move would be -- was to

23 every year rescue three point three million acres of

24 lake surface from these unacceptable levels of mercury

25 contamination and save many lives in the process.
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1 So I'm not sure why these, these victories

2 can't be replicated nationwide. If it's been done in

3 Illinois, which is a very difficult state to do

4 politics in as, as I think some of you know, I'm not

5 sure why we can't do it in the rest of the country.

6 Reducing mercury levels is a smart choice for

7 us to make. There was a time when we didn't know how

8 bad mercury is for human beings. My friend's mother

9 tells me how when she was a child, they used -- well

10 they, they had these children's toys that had little

11 blobs of mercury in them and if they broke, you can,

12 you could play with the blobs of mercury, push them

13 around the kitchen table or just hold them in your

14 hand. Maybe some of you remember that, those days.

15 And you know, the same was true of things

16 like lead paint, radium paint, DDT, agent orange,

17 asbestos, tobacco, [indecipherable] and the list goes

18 on. We need to use science. We need to use science to

19 make educated choices about what kind of air we want to

20 breathe and what kind of water we want to drink.

21 Our victory is here and Illinois have shown

22 us, not only the path to the future, but also what's

23 politically possible -- what is politically possible

24 and feasible. I urge the EPA to regulate mercury as it

25 is proposed and to act in the best interest of the
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1 people whom it has been entrusted to protect.

2 The whole nation will be grateful and will be

3 inspired if you do this. Thank you for your time.

4 MS. BLUMENSHINE: Good evening. My name is

5 Joyce Blumenshine, B-L-U-M-E-N-S-H-I-N-E. My gratitude

6 to the panel members of EPA for being here in Chicago.

7 Thank you very much for coming to our State of

8 Illinois. I live a hundred fifty miles south of here

9 in the City of Peoria on the beautiful Illinois River

10 Valley where there are high bluffs. Thirty miles south

11 of Peoria is Pekin, Illinois, and that is a hometown of

12 a woman for whom I have respect; author, lecturer,

13 researcher, Sandra Steingraber.

14 Ms. Steingraber came to Peoria and spoke

15 twice for us in our efforts to contest a hazardous

16 waste landfill because of concerns for our air and land

17 quality. She talks about our environmental crisis as

18 fundamentally a crisis of family life. This is in her

19 nationally renowned book Living Downstream

20 And I can attest to seeing this as many

21 people have spoken to you today about if you have a

22 co-worker call who happens to be a single parent of

23 several children and say that she has pulled off the

24 side of the road to, due to an asthma attack and hear

25 the panic in her voice. Gives you great pause to
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1 wonder of the personal impacts and also then her lost

2 time at work due to air quality.

3 I have two friends who have retired after

4 serving gallantly as teachers and researchers for many

5 years and they are spending their retirement taking

6 care of their autistic son.

7 None of us know perhaps right now what is

8 the critical tipping point in our own chemical burden

9 that we bear that causes something to go awry that will

10 cause our own health problems.

11 Dr. Sandra Steingraber refers to this as

12 toxic trespass. She talks about the involuntary

13 chemical pollution that we all endure and a great part

14 of this right now is that rule that you're considering.

15 In my Peoria hometown area, we have three old

16 coal-fired power plants. Just outside of Pekin is the

17 Ameren Duck Creek Plant; a hundred pounds of

18 mercury per year from your very helpful EPA toxic

19 release inventory.

20 The [Indecipherable] -- I'm sorry, the Edison

21 International Powerton Plant south of Pekin, has one

22 hundred forty-one pounds of mercury in 2009 and then

23 also there's an E.D. Edwards Plant in Bartonville,

24 close to my town; about five miles away. Two hundred

25 twenty-one pounds of mercury in 2009.
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1 So for 2009, from your EPA tier, that's forty

2 hundred sixty-two pounds of mercury and our river

3 valley down from us in the City of Peoria with a

4 hundred and seventeen thousand people, our metro area,

5 two hundred fifty thousand people, with the prevailing

6 winds coming toward these populated areas.

7 With our beautiful river, the recreational

8 areas, and now our national resources are the

9 Emiquon Preserve restored area. This was a huge

10 riverside wetland that Nature Conservancy's developing

11 to improve fishing and wildlife.

12 So I am here today to appeal to you to

13 continue with all diligence and belated progress, to

14 fulfill your mandates with your proposed mercury and

15 air toxic standards. Please finalize these regulations

16 without delay. We are depending on you. Thank you

17 very much.

18 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you both. Okay

19 Maureen McCue and Susan Lannin please. Ms. McCue.

20 DR. MCCUE: Okay, we'll switch.

21 MR. CLARK: No, I'm sorry.

22 DR. MCCUE: It's okay. My name is Maureen

23 McCue. I'm a Physician and a Professor at the

24 University of Iowa. I'm the Medical Officer for

25 Johnson County Iowa Public Health Board, the
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1 Coordinator of the Iowa Physicians for Social

2 Responsibility, so I'm kind of speaking in all of those

3 hats.

4 PSR has about thirty thousand members across

5 the country.

6 I'm also a mother and a grandmother, so I'm

7 definitely speaking in that hat as well.

8 The toll from coal you've been hearing all

9 day long. I don't think I could give as good a report

10 on the many asthmatic patients I've treated over the

11 years, but you've certainly heard what it means to be

12 there with a very sick patient, whether it's the

13 mother, the grandmother, or the lineup of the children.

14 So many of us go to great lengths to maintain

15 our health, yet in spite of all of our efforts, all of

16 us have relatives or friends or patients who have

17 diseases that are being caused by air pollution.

18 Air pollution is now, as you know, as has

19 been recited, linked to six of the top seven causes of

20 death among Americans including premature mortality

21 from all causes; asthma, chronic bronchitis, lung

22 cancer, myocardial infarction, congestive heart

23 failure, fatal anomalies of heart rhythm, stroke, and

24 has been mentioned with regard to lead and mercury,

25 obviously the loss of intellectual capacity.
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1 And this list, as you know, as we've heard

2 all day comes from very well respected peer reviewed

3 studies that are being published in leading medical

4 journals, emerging data which I haven't heard, also

5 suggests that type II diabetes and possibly Alzheimer's

6 disease may also be linked to air pollution. As you

7 know, these are also epidemics that we face; very

8 costly epidemics.

9 Coal-fired power plants, as has been said,

10 but I think needs to be said again and again, emit

11 three hundred and eighty-six thousand tons of hazardous

12 air pollutants including the fine particle materials

13 which are inhaled very deeply into the lungs and

14 possibly across the blood brain barrier, possibly get

15 into the circulation and are linked to numerous

16 diseases.

17 And in fact, the emissions from coal and oil

18 fired power plants contain eight-four of a hundred

19 eight-seven hazardous air pollutants. We've been

20 talking primarily about mercury and lead, but the list

21 is very long and includes the carcinogens that we've

22 heard about and the metals and acid gasses, all of

23 which combine to form many of these fine particles that

24 induce the diseases that we've been talking about.

25 They account for forty percent of all
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1 hazardous air pollutants being spewed from point

2 sources, that we're all forced to breathe; you, me, all

3 of us including the people who own these factories,

4 these plants.

5 And you know that the risks of breathing air

6 toxics from outdoor air in many of these localities

7 close to the plants contributes nearly thirty percent

8 overall. Cancer risk, I mean these are risks that are

9 really unacceptable for our population.

10 The Clean Air Act, as you know, has led to

11 large improvements in the quality of air. It has

12 brought about significant reductions in mortality. It

13 did cost something. It cost about half a trillion

14 dollars to put in the emission controls originally

15 required, however the estimated benefits range up to

16 about twenty-two trillion.

17 In other words, for every dollar that we put

18 into emissions controls to clean our air, there was a

19 health benefit of about forty-four dollars.

20 There's still lots of room for improvement as

21 people have been talking about. As you know, probably

22 still, about a hundred and twenty-five million

23 Americans live in counties where air quality standards

24 are not being met. Some of them, of course, being in

25 Iowa as we've just heard.
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1 So continued and further controlling of these

2 pollutants as we've been discussing, would make

3 significant strides in lowering lifetime cancer,

4 cardiovascular, respiratory, immune system risks.

5 In particular, I'm here sort of talking,

6 reminding people about the risks to children. Most

7 safety assessments right now for any kind of toxic

8 exposures are based on the affect chemicals have on

9 adults. Children are not little adults. They breathe

10 more, they spend more time outside, they have more

11 fragile respiratory tracks and so we're talking about

12 kids at school and in Iowa, some of our city's rank

13 among the worst of the worst and we don't think of Iowa

14 in those terms, but the EPA, along with USA Today in

15 2009, you probably read it, did the study of a hundred

16 and twenty-eight thousand schools to determine the

17 levels of toxic chemicals outside.

18 And regarding Iowa schools in Cedar Rapids,

19 Des Moines, Waterloo, and Muscatine ranked among the

20 worst of the worst. I was actually quite shocked

21 myself to learn that. They all ranked in the bottom or

22 lower ten percent of the U.S. schools.

23 These communities that are most heavily

24 affected, have high air toxics like the acid gasses and

25 the mercury nearest to the power plants.
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1 In Iowa, almost two thirds of our children

2 live within thirty miles of a coal plant.

3 Just to cut -- for my time, just to remind

4 people that the hidden cost of burning coal to produce

5 electricity in terms of health costs primarily are

6 sixty-two billion each year, or about a hundred and

7 fifty-six million for each coal plant. These are costs

8 that we bear, that the companies don't bear. And these

9 aren't numbers. These are people. There our families.

10 They're our neighbors, children, the elderly, the, the

11 vulnerable populations that we've been talking about.

12 These are premature deaths of real people.

13 These pollutants pose very significant, very real

14 health threats to every one of us, from brain damage in

15 the newborns that we heard about earlier to all the

16 different diseases that eventually manifest in the

17 adults.

18 My children, my grandchildren, your children,

19 your grandchildren are all being exposed to these very

20 toxic emissions, just so we can boil water to turn a

21 turbine.

22 Our children and their children will inherit

23 a nightmare if we don't continue to tighten down these

24 standards. I don't think this is your wish for them.

25 This is not my wish for them and like everyone else
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1 that you've heard this afternoon, I strongly urge you

2 to go, move forward quickly with these regulations.

3 I have a couple of articles and things that

4 we've worked on with the peer reviewed materials if

5 anybody would want them.

6 MR. CLARK: We would actually and if we

7 could, if we could leave them at that -- if you don't

8 mind leaving them at the front desk, that would be

9 perfect.

10 DR. MCCUE: Not at all.

11 MR. CLARK: And can I ask you also, did you

12 spell your last name?

13 DR. MCCUE: I'm sorry. I didn't not.

14 MR. CLARK: That's all right.

15 DR. MCCUE: McCue, M-C-C-U-E.

16 MR. CLARK: U-E. Okay. Great. Thank you

17 for that. You get the microphone back.

18 MS. LANNIN: My name is Sue Lannin,

19 L-A-N-N-I-N and I'm testifying as an individual.

20 I've worked downtown and lived in Chicago

21 since 1974 in neighborhoods on the south, west, and now

22 far north side of the City and I appreciate this

23 opportunity to speak in support of the Environmental

24 Protection Agency's proposed rule to significantly

25 reduce mercury pollution and other air toxics that are
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1 emitted from coal-fired power plants.

2 As a mother and aunt, I'm very concerned

3 about how exposure to these pollutants can cause

4 reproductive problems, neurological damage, compromise

5 immune systems, and lead to a host of other health

6 issues, including premature death from cancer,

7 respiratory or heart ailments.

8 I live across the street from a school that

9 works with children who suffer from autism and severe

10 learning disabilities. I witness daily how just

11 walking from the bus and up a set of stairs challenges

12 these children.

13 I am in favor of EPA's proposed rule because

14 I believe that by implementing these standards, we as a

15 society have much to gain. Fewer lives will be cut

16 short. Time and resources that would have had to be

17 spent at medical appointments can be directed instead

18 to other endeavors.

19 Implementing the proposed standards will help

20 prevent an estimated seventeen thousand deaths and

21 twelve thousand hospital visits annually.

22 We are late unfortunately in curbing the

23 pollution from coal-fired power plants. They have

24 been allowed to emit copious amounts of mercury and

25 other dangerous pollutants into our air far too long.
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1 There are now mercury advisories on all

2 Illinois rivers, lakes and streams and indeed, on most

3 waters through the United States. The condition of our

4 air, land, and water resources are inextricably linked

5 with the health of our environment and its inhabitants.

6 Coal plant operators must clean up their

7 emissions. Allowing them to continue to pass these

8 harmful pollutants into the air we breathe and onto

9 land and water is a form of subsidy that we, and our

10 environment, can ill afford.

11 Thank you very much.

12 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you both for

13 your testimony. Tim, Tim Sutherlin and Kristen Vyhnal

14 please. And let me just ask if the following people

15 are in the audience, if they could go to the

16 registration desk; Ann Marie Dunlap, Janet Bohn,

17 B-O-H-N and Ross Richmond. Oh did we call Janet

18 earlier? You know what, we did. That's right.

19 Okay. Anyway, thank you for that. I

20 apologize. Mr. Sutherlin.

21 MR. SUTHERLIN: Yes, my name is Tim

22 Sutherlin, it's S-U-T-H-E-R-L-I-N. I'm a concerned

23 citizen. I live here in Chicago. I have lived in the

24 past in southern Indiana and Alabama. I'm not an

25 expert by any stretch of the imagination on the issues
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1 that are before you today, but I am an off and on again

2 environmental activist and a reasonably intelligent

3 fellow, I'd like to think, so I sometimes do a little

4 research on my own.

5 And I want to start off simply by saying that

6 I support this proposed rule. I think we need to stop

7 putting this stuff in the air. It gets in the air,

8 people breathe it, animals breathe it, we eat the

9 animals, it gets in the water. It's much more

10 dangerous to put this stuff in the air.

11 So this is not only a necessary regulation,

12 set of regulations, it is, actually a very long overdue

13 set of regulations considering the fact that the EPA

14 had the authority to do this when the 1980 -- I'm

15 sorry, when the Clean Air Act was passed in 1990 and

16 it's taken up to this point to get this national

17 regulation done.

18 But I do have a concern. And it is another

19 environmental concern and that is I am concerned about

20 the regulation of coal fly ash. The -- I know that

21 this is an apples and oranges kind of situation for you

22 guys because I'm going to talk about regulation under

23 the Resource Conservation Recovery Act of the ash even

24 though you're here considering a regulation under TOSCA

25 and I understand that I'm going off in a different
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1 direction.

2 But I'm specifically concerned about the fact

3 that the ash is going to potentially become

4 significantly more toxic because what you're doing is,

5 for the most part, most of these plants are going to

6 install technology which is called carbon injection

7 from what I understand and that is basically causes

8 these particulates, particularly the mercury to bond

9 with the carbon and then become part of the ash, the

10 fly ash.

11 Now some of you in the audience may have

12 remembered back in 2008, there was this horrific

13 accident in Tennessee, the Kingston facility, the TVA

14 facility where they had a slurry pond and it ruptured

15 and the fly ash which was mixed in with water,

16 basically came in and damaged and wrecked a bunch of

17 homes and everybody was concerned about the toxicity

18 and so forth and after that happened the EPA undertook

19 some inquiries and then promulgated some new rules, but

20 what they didn't do, what they chose not to do and

21 correct me if I'm wrong, is regulate the ash as

22 hazardous under RCRA. They chose, instead,

23 to regulate it as non-hazardous material.

24 So my concern is this, if you're going to do

25 something that you know is potentially going to make
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1 the ash more toxic, don't you think that we might then

2 have to follow on and revisit the issue of how you're

3 going to deal with the ash afterwards? And that's

4 basically my comment.

5 Like I said, I know I'm mixing apples and

6 oranges here, but it's just a, it's just a concern.

7 And if you -- you know what, as I said earlier, I'm not

8 an expert, so this may be complete nonsense. But.

9 MS. KURLANSKY: Well, we are interested in

10 that actually and we are working very closely with that

11 office because there is a relationship, as you said.

12 That rule however, is also between proposal and final.

13 MR. SUTHERLIN: Right.

14 MS. KURLANSKY: So it's only a proposal.

15 They've proposed two options. One would be to regulate

16 it as hazardous and the other is to regulate it as

17 non-hazardous waste.

18 MR. SUTHERLIN: Okay. I'm sorry. I

19 missed -- I understood that we were moving, basically

20 moving in the direction of not treating it as

21 hazardous. Maybe this, this as you say, is going to

22 impact that decision because it may change the

23 character of the ash.

24 MS. KURLANSKY: Yeah. There hasn't been a

25 decision as to where to go with the --
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1 MR. SUTHERLIN: Okay. Thank you very much

2 for your time.

3 MS. KURLANSKY: Unlike this rule, it's not on

4 a court ordered deadline, so it's moving a little bit

5 more slowly.

6 MR. SUTHERLIN: Yeah. It's been a while

7 since that process started, so thank you.

8 MS. VYHNAL: Hi there. My name is Kristen

9 Vyhnal, that's V-Y-H-N-A-L. I want to thank my

10 companion here for bringing up something excellent and

11 I just want to start with some more detail, small scale

12 stuff.

13 I'm thirty-one, single, no children, probably

14 won't have any, sixty thousand dollar income last year,

15 hundred and twenty thousand dollars in student loans.

16 I am middle class America. I like to run. My best

17 friend likes to bike. We really like having clean air

18 to breathe, so day to day particular matter is kind of

19 a big deal for us. I've had asthma in the past, viral

20 or related. It's not fun. Please keep our air clean.

21 Second, as far as lead and other heavy

22 neurotoxins. I'm a veterinarian. That's my student

23 loans and on occasion I get to see animals that have

24 heavy metal toxicity. Usually they come in when they

25 are seizuring, when their level of aggression has
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1 become so severe that the owners cannot handle them.

2 I usually diagnose their heavy metal toxicity

3 with abnormalities on the blood screen. It is not

4 standard to go searching for lead as part of a general

5 chemistry. So only once we have the inkling of heavy

6 metal toxicity due to CBC are we going to test for lead

7 and such.

8 You can imagine, but based on the small

9 number of animals that we test, that there are many

10 more out there who we do not test.

11 Same goes for children. And it is only after

12 I speak with the owners, oh your pet has lead toxicity

13 that they start to notice yeah, you know, before he

14 started seizuring, he was kind of a little bit off,

15 stumbling around. Before he became intimately

16 aggressive, he used to be a pretty focused dog and now

17 he's kind of ADD, so speaking of our kids, ADD, ADHD,

18 unknown numbers who are exposed, etcetera. You get

19 where I'm going with that.

20 On the regulatory side, I'd like to refer you

21 guys to an article on Midwest Generation. Chicago

22 Tribune, February 21. This isn't about mercury, this

23 is more just about I believe the fine particulate

24 matter scrubbers. So they were supposed to be

25 installing scrubbers. After the latest elections,
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1 there was some hope that maybe the republican Congress

2 would prevent any sort of regulations from being

3 passed and Midwest announced that oh no, wait they're

4 not going to install those. Since the plan was already

5 there to install them, I'm sure that the money that

6 they had gotten to install those probably came from

7 billing the consumers, us. Now that they're not

8 installing them, I'm sure that that money is going to

9 the CEO's.

10 I really doubt that they are actually hiring

11 new people and creating new jobs. The money was there

12 for the scrubbers. Scrubbers would have created jobs

13 and helped. All of us have to breathe the air.

14 Lastly, I'd like to refer you to some

15 research by Dr. Jessie Lepak, that's L-E-P-A-K. He has

16 some articles that came out 2007, 2008, looking at

17 mercury levels in various fish, in various situations.

18 Turns out that when you change the whole food chain in

19 there, it changes the amount of mercury levels in the

20 fish, so what you may think is a safe level of mercury

21 going on right now in this stream, in this lake, may

22 not be when you have an introduced species. When you

23 remove an introduced species, when you actually start

24 looking the mercury levels in the fish we eat as

25 opposed to the mercury levels in the fish that are
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1 commonly caught and tested for mercury.

2 Okay. Thank you very much.

3 MR. CLARK: Thank you. You guys have any

4 questions? Thank you guys. Okay. Okay. Melissa

5 Mullarkey and Alexandra Sipiora.

6 FEMALE: Can I leave written comments at the

7 desk out front?

8 MR. CLARK: Yes.

9 MS. MULLARKEY: Good evening.

10 MR. CLARK: Hi.

11 MS. MULLARKEY: Melissa Mullarkey, it's

12 M-U-L-L-A-R-K-E-Y. I'm a Policy Associate at Recycled

13 Energy Development. We're a Chicago based firm that

14 seeks to reduce green house gas and other types of

15 emissions profitably. We do that by partnering with

16 manufacturing and industrial firms in order to increase

17 industrial pollution -- in order to decrease industrial

18 pollution and increase efficiency. Wow.

19 We appreciate the opportunity to comment on

20 the proposed rule and we applaud the EPA's efforts and

21 really applaud the fact that you recognized the value

22 of efficiency in the proposed rules.

23 My comments address two areas of the rules

24 pertaining to combined heat and power or CHP. First,

25 it's appropriate for EPA to recognize the environmental
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1 benefits of electricity generated by efficient CHP, by

2 accounting for onsite generations, avoidance of line

3 losses from the transmission and distribution of

4 electricity.

5 We believe, however, the five percent benefit

6 is far too low.

7 Second, we believe that plants that seek to

8 comply MACT by installing clean CHP should be

9 explicitly granted the opportunity for a one year

10 extension.

11 To the first point, the rules should provide

12 a benefit greater than five percent for CHP's avoidance

13 of transmission and distribution losses.

14 CHP's environmental benefits should be

15 recognized including its ability to cut line losses and

16 displace less efficient electric only generation.

17 We believe however, the suggested five

18 percent benefit is too low. Line losses from centrally

19 generated electricity now average about six and a half

20 percent nationally and that number can rise to about

21 twenty-percent during peak times. This costs the U.S.

22 grid about twenty-six billion annually.

23 Studies from Carnegie Mellon and

24 MIT have shown that one megawatt hour of local

25 generation like CHP can displace up to one point four
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1 seven megawatt hours of central generation suggesting a

2 forty-seven percent benefit for efficient CHP.

3 These numbers imply the benefit CHP should

4 receive should be well above five percent.

5 In addition to being more efficient and less

6 polluting, CHP projects significantly reduce line

7 losses. They free existing transmission capacities

8 and provide less expensive back up electricity and

9 generates sustainable base load power.

10 To the second point. EPA should clarify that

11 facilities seeking to incorporate clean and efficient

12 CHP are explicitly eligible for the one year compliance

13 extension. The most efficient and effective compliance

14 option is to install natural gas-fired CHP.

15 CHP developers and environmental engineering

16 firms however worry that three years may not be

17 sufficient time for boiler owners to design, permit,

18 and install a CHP system.

19 EPA regulations already recognize the same

20 potential delays for owners seeking to install add on

21 pollution controls allowing those owners to petition

22 for a one year extension for the installation of those

23 controls.

24 We urge EPA to clarify that CHP can be deemed

25 controls, thereby allowing the same one year extension
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1 to apply for any potential facility facing compliance

2 that is seeking to install efficient CHP or clean

3 waste heat recovery.

4 Absent this clarification, facilities may be

5 deterred from pursuing these technologies. They can

6 ultimately lead to greater fuel savings and emission

7 reductions.

8 RED understands that EPA is operating under a

9 tight time line, given that the rule is supposed to be

10 published November 16, which I think is even a smaller

11 time line than you had for industrial boiler MACT, and

12 so we really appreciate the opportunity to provide oral

13 comments.

14 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Ms. Sipiora.

15 MS. SIPIORA: Hello. My name's Alexandra

16 Sipiora and I am a, a graduate student at a local

17 university and right now I am greatly suffering from

18 mercury and arsenic poisoning and I am a member of

19 MENSA and I usually make A's in school, like a three

20 point seven three and the summer semester when I

21 contracted the mercury and arsenic poisoning, I ended

22 up getting a failing grade and had to take a leave of

23 absence.

24 And now it's iffy if I'll get my degree and

25 the reason I'm wearing a respirator is because the
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1 mercury has made me hyper allergic to everything. I'm

2 wearing the mask and already the air freshener in the

3 room is starting to bother me. It doesn't keep

4 everything out.

5 And I developed [indecipherable] coordination

6 to the point I no longer drive and when I lived out in

7 the suburbs, I rode my racing bike and enjoyed it.

8 So I was hoping you would take into account

9 the human cost and retrofit the plants to avoid spewing

10 mercury and arsenic into the air. Thank you.

11 MR. CLARK: Thank you very much. Any

12 questions? Ms. Mullarkey, if you could hang on just

13 one second.

14 MS. KURLANSKY: I didn't get the name of

15 the -- I think you said the company that you worked for.

16 MS. MULLARKEY: Sure. Recycled Energy

17 Development.

18 MS. KURLANSKY: Okay. Thank you.

19 MS. MULLARKEY: Thank you.

20 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Ms. Mullarkey, we

21 won't let you leave.

22 MR. HUTSON: You, you had some, you had some

23 really good points and I hope you'll provide more

24 detailed comments, you know, written comments.

25 MS. MULLARKEY: Oh definitely.
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1 MR. HUTSON: Good, good.

2 MS. MULLARKEY: But with you being right here

3 in a our backyard -- we had to take this opportunity.

4 MS. HUTSON: No, no. Yes, yeah.

5 MS. MULLARKEY: Thank you.

6 MR. CLARK: Thanks. Next speakers Matt

7 Runquist and Kevin Carol please. Okay. You are?

8 MR. CAROL: Kevin Carol.

9 MR. CLARK: Kevin. Okay. So no Matt? How

10 about Adam Burke. Okay. Thanks. Go ahead, Mr. Carol.

11 MR. CAROL: Hi. Thanks. My name is Kevin

12 Carol. I'm a resident of Chicago and I'm here to speak

13 in support of the proposed EPA standards on mercury and

14 air toxics. This is pretty much going to be anecdotal

15 just because of where I grew up and where I live now.

16 I grew up in western Pennsylvania. There

17 were two coal-fired power plants within two miles of my

18 home. One was in Springdale, my hometown, and was

19 operated by the western Pennsylvania power company. It

20 has since closed.

21 The other one was located in Cheswick,

22 Pennsylvania in an adjacent town and was operated by

23 Duquesne Light. There's a new operator there now and

24 I'm not sure of the name, but it was Duquesne Light

25 back in the day.
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1 I remember the smell of the smoke on days

2 when there was little wind and the particulates and

3 pollution that fell on everything that was left

4 outside. I've seen what air pollution at these coal

5 fired power plants can do to those living near them.

6 I have two brothers with respiratory

7 ailments, a sister with cancer, tumors in her lungs and

8 numerous nieces and nephews with asthma and other

9 breathing problems.

10 Now here it is almost forty years later. I

11 live in Chicago which is home to two of the oldest coal

12 fired power plants around. The Fisk Generating Station

13 and the Crawford Generating Station. Both are located

14 in predominantly working class Latino neighborhoods

15 with a lot of grammar and high school aged children.

16 Crawford Station has a relatively short smoke

17 stack and sometimes I can see, rarely, but sometimes I

18 can see the smoke hanging low in the air over the

19 Little Village neighborhood where it is adjacent to.

20 It reminds me of what my hometown of Springdale looked

21 and smelled like back in the 1970's when you could

22 literally taste the air.

23 The other power plant here in Chicago is the

24 Fisk Plant which is located in the Pilsen neighborhood.

25 It's got a taller stack on it and is located a mile or
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1 two from west of Lake Michigan. The prevailing winds

2 are often from the west and sometimes you can see the

3 plume of smoke. It's really steam in the winter time,

4 but you know the pollutants are in there. And it's --

5 you can see it pushing out over the lake.

6 I won't go into the health effects of

7 mercury, arsenic, and the other toxins that, that I

8 know are in those plumes, but common sense tells us

9 that these metals and other toxins are being deposited

10 into our Lake Michigan, not the industry's Lake

11 Michigan. It's everybody's Lake Michigan. They're

12 being consumed, these toxics are being consumed by the

13 fish as well as by the people who eat them. They're

14 being built up year after year in one of the world's

15 largest sources of fresh water, which I think is a

16 shame.

17 Now I know that those who are opposed to

18 these tighter regulations are quick to say that it

19 places undo economic cost on the industry. My

20 understanding is that the EPA's own studies have

21 concluded that for every dollar invested in reducing

22 these pollutants, five to thirteen dollars in health

23 benefits are realized. Maybe not to the industry, but

24 to the society as a whole.

25 Aside from the economic argument, I would
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1 like to point out that the EPA stands for the

2 Environmental Protection Agency not the coal-fired

3 power plant protection agency.

4 Study after study show that Americans are

5 willing to pay the price for clean air and clean water,

6 but too often all we hear about is the heavy burden

7 increased regulation will place on industry, which

8 passes the additional cost onto consumers anyway.

9 The industry has fought tougher pollution

10 standards for decades and yet all of us pay the price

11 in terms of health, water, and air quality and quality

12 of life. I have seen it both as a child and as an

13 adult.

14 So now I'm urging you to adopt these proposed

15 standards for power plants. Thank you.

16 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

17 MR. BURKE: Thank you. My name is Adam

18 Burke, B-U-R-K-E. I'm here with a group from

19 Muscatine, Iowa, where a group of coal plants and other

20 industries have almost ruined that town for new

21 business growth and some of the residents there are

22 suffering from it.

23 I became involved with the Muscatine area

24 when I wrote an article for Midwest Energy News and we

25 found out that one of the monitors there had been
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1 malfunctioning that was recording sulfur dioxide levels

2 and some of the data had to be thrown out and so I hope

3 with this new rule and regarding mercury and other

4 toxic pollution, pollutants that enough monitors are in

5 place to account for malfunction.

6 My guess is that if we had more monitors for

7 all pollutants in, across the country, we'd find more

8 areas that are out of attainment. So I hope that

9 that's part of this new rule.

10 It may also surprise some of the EPA people

11 who are here that most people in this country, I think,

12 probably believe that mercury is already regulated.

13 Does that seem like it's -- I see some nodding heads

14 over there, so I'm going to take that as a --

15 MR. CLARK: Let me just interject.

16 MR. BURKE: Yeah.

17 MR. CLARK: It is, it is regulated from a

18 variety of industrial sources; medical waste

19 incinerators, municipal waste combustors,

20 [indecipherable] gold mines, --

21 MR. BURKE: But if you said, if you said --

22 MR. CLARK: -- [indecipherable] not this, not

23 this [indecipherable].

24 MR. BURKE: Not from power plants.

25 MR. CLARK: Not from power plants, that's
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1 right.

2 MR. BURKE: Okay. And I think if you said

3 that to most people, if you put it in a poll across the

4 country, people would say of course we're regulating

5 mercury. And, and here we're finally getting around to

6 it, so thank you for ending the free ride that we've

7 been giving polluters on this matter.

8 MR. CLARK: Thank you.

9 MR. BURKE: Thank you.

10 MR. CLARK: Let me try again on Matt

11 Runquist. Is Matt here? Okay, we'll pass on Matt and

12 then move on to Marybeth Gardam and Richard Stucky.

13 MS. GARDAM: Good evening. I'm Marybeth

14 Gardam. That's G-A-R-D-A-M I'm a member of Women's

15 International League for Peace and Freedom based in Des

16 Moines. It's an international organization founded by

17 Jane Adams from Chicago here.

18 WILPF's members are extremely concerned about

19 the ever declining condition of our nation's water

20 which is directly affected by air pollution.

21 WILPF works on social justice and economic

22 justice issues of water and air quality as it effects

23 the most vulnerable Americans.

24 The facts that Maureen McCue of Iowa PSR and

25 others made are difficult to argue. It's compelling
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1 documentation that Iowans particularly are becoming ill

2 and dying needlessly because of the already compromised

3 condition of our air and water.

4 Disproportionately the old, the young, and

5 the poor are most affected by this profit at any cost

6 cancer on the environment, but increasingly, all of us

7 are affected. If the regulations for air particulate

8 are further relaxed, or if the EPA is further weakened,

9 we will all pay the price, either in direct results

10 which is more seriously ill Americans or in indirect,

11 unintended consequences; for instance, higher medical

12 costs, higher indigent care costs, higher insurance

13 costs for all of us. Illnesses that further degrade

14 our children's educational experience and ability to

15 succeed or quality for skilled employment.

16 Air quality that makes it impossible for our

17 kids to play, our athletes to compete, our tourist to

18 recreate outside in Iowa without risking our health.

19 Coal-fired power plants use about two point

20 two billion gallons of water per plant per year.

21 Enough water for a city of two hundred and fifty

22 thousand people.

23 Earlier today, I'm sure you heard from energy

24 industry officials, men and women who get paid well to

25 tell you how vital it is not to change anything.
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1 Because in this status quo world, they are healthy and

2 comfortable and well heeled. They are paid to tell you

3 how catastrophic change is to the energy distribution

4 system will be. We came here from Iowa on our own

5 time, paid by no one, representing not thousands of

6 employees, but nearly three million Iowans that

7 couldn't come.

8 On both sides of our political spectrum,

9 people agree that it is government's most critical role

10 to keep citizens safe. The operative part of safe in

11 these hearings seems to be the word acceptable. What

12 level of pollution is acceptable.

13 Not just acceptable to Iowans with great jobs

14 who can afford to live and send their children to

15 schools in the suburbs, but acceptable to Iowa families

16 already dealing with expensive heart rending family

17 health issues.

18 I'm here to demand that our government in the

19 form of EPA continues to be authorized to keep our

20 citizens safe, to preserve our health, to use every

21 tool available to do so.

22 They also serve and protect who monitors and

23 regulates. It's an important role and we hope that

24 those of you who stand guard at the door of

25 unsustainable, profit driven, suicide energy plants and
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1 say, no, not on my watch. Well, keep on saying that.

2 The country's vulnerable citizens will thank

3 you and in time, so will the children and grandchildren

4 of those captains of industry too. If we continue to

5 invest unlimited resources into the status quo, nothing

6 will change.

7 Besides mercury, one of the other chemical

8 minerals released by coal plants is cadmium and that

9 rang a bell with me. French impressionist painters

10 mixed paints using cadmium and finally the chemical

11 was banned because the artist had a really bad habit of

12 licking their brushes to sharpen the edges of it and

13 make sharper lines and they were dying at alarming

14 rates from cadmium poisoning. Too many of them were

15 becoming poisoned.

16 Let's act now to save all of the creative

17 individuals our coal pollution is keeping from their

18 destiny and from coloring our world.

19 After all you've heard about the suffering of

20 American citizens, families, communities, waterways and

21 wildlife, why wouldn't you do this? It's, it's just

22 the right thing.

23 And I, I just wanted to ask when the deadline

24 is for filing electronic comments?

25 MR. CLARK: July the 5th.
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1 MS. GARDAM: Okay. Thank you very much.

2 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Mr. Stuckey.

3 MR. STUCKEY: Good evening. My name is

4 Richard Stuckey, that's S-T-U-C-K-E-Y. I'm a life

5 member of the Sierra Club and a member of various other

6 organizations environment, but I'm here, here for

7 myself, my family.

8 I appreciate the opportunity to speak in

9 strong support of the proposed EPA regulations to

10 reduce hazardous air pollution from power plants.

11 In the forty years since the EPA was created,

12 your regulations have saved millions of lives by

13 enforcing clean air and water standards. More than one

14 point seven million asthma attacks and a hundred and

15 ten billion dollars in health care costs were saved in

16 2010 alone through your efforts and thank you for that.

17 The strong air toxin standards from the EPA

18 that you're proposing will protect Americans from

19 life threatening air pollution and help clean up the

20 air and create jobs and continue the long list of

21 contributions that you have made to the health and

22 economy of the country and thank you for that too.

23 Millions of tons of air toxins are released

24 annually from coal powered power plants. Mercury is

25 particularly harmful component of the air toxins
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1 recognized by, as a powerful neurotoxin that adversely

2 impacts the function, development of central nervous

3 systems in both people and wildlife. Approximately six

4 hundred and thirty thousand babies are born every year

5 at risk from developmental problems because of prenatal

6 mercury exposure.

7 But mercury is not only a risk to people and

8 we've heard a lot about the risk to people, but I would

9 like to point out it's also a major risk to wildlife.

10 High levels of mercury have been found in many species

11 in many habitats.

12 Besides the economic problems that result

13 from harm to wildlife such as the risk to honey bees

14 and other pollinators which cause huge economic

15 problems, we should regard the impact to wildlife from

16 the extinction of hundreds of species every year as a

17 like canaries in the coal mine.

18 The wildlife is warning us of the future

19 problems that lie ahead for us if we do not heed the

20 warning we're getting now from them.

21 The proposed EPA standards are based on

22 existing technologies. The proposed approach closes

23 loop holes and establishes a level playing field for

24 power plants that have installed good pollution

25 controls so they will not be disadvantaged compared to
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1 competitive plants that have no pollution controls.

2 The imposition of reasonable standards would

3 also level the playing field for renewable resources,

4 sources of energy making them more competitive so they

5 can -- so, so long as coal-fired generators can pass so

6 much of their cost onto the public by dumping their

7 filth and poisons into the public air at no cost,

8 renewable energy sources have -- that do not create

9 pollution, will always be at a huge disadvantage.

10 Finally, the EPA proposed standards will be

11 great for the economy creating thirty thousand short

12 term construction jobs and nine thousand long term

13 utility jobs just in the current electrical industry

14 and these numbers I believe do not include the jobs

15 that will be created in renewable economy where such

16 things as a smart grid, which I believe will cost

17 two point six billion in the Illinois alone will create

18 many, many jobs as well as the jobs created by wind

19 farms and solar plants which will finally become

20 economically attractive as they should be.

21 Thank you again for proposing sound and cost

22 effective standards. I encourage you to implement your

23 proposal as quickly as possible and resist the pressure

24 from those in industry who only care about this

25 quarter's earnings per share and care nothing for the
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1 harm they're causing to the country. Thank you very

2 much.

3 MR. CLARK: Thank you both. Grace Pai and

4 Bob Rosenstein [phonetic] please.

5 MS. PAI: Thank you for the opportunity to

6 testify tonight. My name is Grace Pai, and that's

7 P-A-I and I'm a student, I'm a first year student at

8 the University of Chicago.

9 I'm originally from Los Angeles so I moved

10 here pretty recently, this Fall and a few months ago, I

11 became involved with the effort to pass the Chicago

12 Clean Power Ordinance. As part of my efforts, I

13 personally met with two [indecipherable] men on the

14 south side of Chicago to encourage them to vote for the

15 ordinance in favor of it.

16 I met with them mainly to express the huge

17 importance of this ordinance in regulating the two

18 power plants and in forcing them to take responsibility

19 for the huge health impacts and pollution that they

20 cause.

21 So both Aldermen that I spoke to

22 eventually said that they would support the ordinance

23 and they would vote yes. However, when an official

24 hearing was held for the ordinance, it did not come to

25 a vote because the committees that were presiding over
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1 it decided that it was too controversial to vote for on

2 that day, so the Aldermen that I talked to didn't even

3 have a chance to express their support and try to pass

4 this ordinance.

5 So I'm telling you this story because I want

6 to emphasize the need for federal regulation because

7 even though Chicago as a city, has Aldermen who are

8 trying to pass regulations that would really support a

9 clean, a clean environment and clean air for people to

10 breathe in the City, it's not, it doesn't always work

11 out. I mean politics is complicated that way as I have

12 discovered first hand.

13 So I completely, obviously, support the, the

14 regulations that the EPA has proposed and I really urge

15 you to impose as strict regulations as possible because

16 cities like Chicago need you to.

17 Thank you very much.

18 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Mr. Rosenstein.

19 DR. ROSENSTEIN: Oh my name is Dr. Bob

20 Rosenstein. I'm a member of the Sierra Club, Union of

21 Concerned Scientists. I do volunteer work with Chicago

22 Clean Power Coalition and I'm a member also of the

23 American Physical Society in Chicago and the

24 American Chemical Society.

25 I'm not speaking for any specific
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1 organization, but just deeply concerned about the

2 environmental climate and energy issues, so I coming

3 down to speak briefly on that.

4 I certainly support strongly the

5 implementation of the EPA ruling on the control of the

6 toxic substance discharge. I also, you know, the

7 mercury and arsenic -- I heard at a conference Saturday

8 something I didn't realize that the coal mining and the

9 coal emissions are also related to radioactive release.

10 I didn't realize that radon gas is released in the

11 coal mining and that there is radioactivity in the

12 particulate discharges.

13 So I, I certainly support as a parent and

14 concern for our young people that we mitigate these

15 particulate emissions.

16 Now in the past, I spoke briefly on short

17 occasions to our current Mayor Rahm Emanuel

18 when he was campaigning how I felt about passing this

19 Clean Power Ordinance and to the former Mayor at a

20 reception last November. I urged his support for that

21 measure. And, and -- but there are other, there are

22 other reasons I'm concerned as well.

23 I, I -- the issue which concerns me most is

24 mitigating the climate stability. I don't think unless

25 we get off our coal kick which is one of the major
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1 emitters of the green house gas, that we're going to be

2 able to reach the goal that responsible scientist like

3 Dr. Jim Hanson [phonetic] has said, Senator Barbara

4 Boxer who's Chair of the Environmental Committee that

5 we must reduce our green house gas emissions by eighty

6 percent by 2020 if we're to have a good chance of

7 maintaining the resiliency of the climate.

8 One of the consequences, I understand, in

9 terms of health hazards of the, the climate

10 deterioration is that the mosquitoes that bear malaria

11 are gradually moving northward and it's also my

12 understanding that Britain's preparing for an outbreak

13 of malaria because of the climate instability that will

14 be induced by our continued emissions.

15 I feel that if the EPA is able to regulate

16 coal discharges of toxic substances and help make

17 renewables more competitive with the cheap former

18 polluting energy, we can move substantially in our

19 country towards clean renewable carbon free energies

20 and use this as a basis for developing, be more

21 competitive of the global economy and helping other

22 countries like China, which are putting on

23 [indecipherable] coal-fired power plants with examples

24 of what we can do here.

25 How can we expect other countries to not put
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1 up coal-fired power plants if we don't clean up our own

2 act.

3 So I think that the process and the rules

4 that you're doing will be a viable step in moving

5 towards that goal of carbon neutral renewable energies

6 and be good in the long run for our business and

7 industry, make ourselves more competitive with the

8 global economy and help the globe mitigate the onset of

9 climate instability so that future generations in the

10 United States and elsewhere in the world would have a

11 viable future.

12 So I try to do what I can with these various

13 organizations to speak on behalf of this and work as I

14 can to bring about this goal of sustainable renewable

15 carbon neutral energy.

16 Thank you very much for your time and keep up

17 your good work at the EPA in implementing these very

18 important rules for all our citizens.

19 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you both.

20 Carol Chaplan -- Caplan, I'm sorry. Carol Caplan and

21 Chris Didato. And if there's anyone else that would

22 like to speak whose name we haven't called, right now

23 these folks are set up to be our final two witnesses

24 for the hearing. If there's anyone else that would

25 like to speak, if you could sign up outside, that would
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1 be great. If you don't mind just giving them your

2 name, your name -- I'm sorry -- outside, that would be,

3 that would be super.

4 So Carol.

5 MS. CAPLAN: I teach yoga and meditation as

6 part of my living and watching you guys up here, I kind

7 of want to --

8 MR. CLARK: I'm sorry.

9 MS. CAPLAN: Uh-huh [affirmative].

10 MR. CLARK: If you could, I just got the

11 signal. If you could just say your name and spell it.

12 MS. CAPLAN: My name is Carol Caplan, last

13 name C-A-P-L-A-N. I kind of want to have to want you

14 to stretch and wake up and breathe, but I have more

15 important things to say.

16 So thank you for the opportunity to speak

17 this evening. My name is Carol Caplan. I'm here as a

18 Green Faith fellow and as a member and leader of a

19 faith community that has deep commitment to

20 environment.

21 I'm also here as a concerned mother and as a

22 daughter. In 1987, my father was diagnosed with a

23 brain tumor. And of the seven types of brain cancer

24 that were delineated at that time, only two were

25 thought to be genetic. The rest were thought to be
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1 environmentally caused.

2 When he died a year and a half later at the

3 age of fifty-seven, I was left wondering what those

4 environmental causes might have been, so I studied and

5 clearly, as you are well aware, air pollution is one of

6 those causes.

7 Green Faith is an interfaith environmental

8 organization with works -- which works with leaders

9 from a range of religious communities; Christian,

10 Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist. To educate and

11 mobilize these communities for environmental

12 leadership. Green Faith is a leader in the fast

13 growing religious environmental movement with fellows

14 like myself in over twenty states nationwide.

15 I am here in Green Faith's behalf to express

16 strong support for the proposed air toxics rule and on

17 behalf of the over ten thousand people of faith

18 nationwide who have signed Green Faith's petition in

19 support of this rule.

20 We will be delivering these signatures to

21 Administrator Jackson's office in Washington within the

22 next two weeks after hundreds of congregations

23 nationwide have finished inviting their members to sign

24 on with their support.

25 Our support is based on two teachings shared
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1 by the world's great religions. These teachings;

2 respect for creation and protection of society's most

3 vulnerable communities represent a clear moral

4 foundation for this rule. In recent years, religious

5 group have begun to awaken to their responsibility to

6 care for the earth and as part of this awakening, we

7 have become increasingly aware of the disproportionate

8 level of environmental degradation which falls on

9 people of color and lower income communities. Our

10 country's environmental justice communities.

11 The interfaith community shares a commitment

12 to a just and equitable society for all people. And

13 this commitment extends and includes the environment.

14 It is wrong that residents of the EJ

15 communities which are located closest to so many of the

16 power plants which would be affected by the air toxics

17 rule, it's unfair that they're exposed regularly to

18 unhealthy and unsafe levels of air pollution, pollution

19 which harms their health, shortens or ends their life

20 and deprives them of the opportunity to reach their God

21 given potential in life.

22 For these reasons and many others, we support

23 this new rule. It will clearly protect the health and

24 the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents of

25 these most vulnerable communities as well as our own.
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1 We appreciate that the EPA recognizes this.

2 Let me close on a more personal note. Six

3 years ago, the Synagogue which I served on as a Board

4 President, the Jewish Re-constructionist Congregation

5 here in Evanston, Illinois, and we began the process of

6 building our new spiritual home. We chose to put our

7 beliefs about the importance of environmental

8 stewardship and justice into action in a very concrete

9 way. And I'm pleased and very proud to say that we

10 became the first religious facility in the United

11 States to earn LEED platinum status.

12 Our Synagogue is very proud of this

13 accomplishment, but we're also clear that our

14 individual action alone, though important, is not

15 enough to address the challenges on the scale which we

16 all face. To meet these challenges, we need rules such

17 as this new air toxics rule that will protect human

18 health and the environment on a larger scale.

19 I thank you again for the opportunity to

20 testify in support of this new rule. It is now up to

21 you and we hope it will be implemented without being

22 weakened in any way. May the prayers of our hearts

23 join the actions of our hands as we work together to

24 bring a lasting sustainability into being.

25 MR. DIDATO: Hi. I don't have a song to sing,
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1 but I probably should have practiced I guess.

2 I saw it online that someone was singing a

3 folk song. It seemed pretty entertaining.

4 And well I'm just a Chicago resident and I

5 think that toxics such as mercury or other types of --

6 you know, materials that are released by, by power

7 plants such as coal or other type of power plants.

8 They need to have standards, tough standards and I

9 think the standards that are being proposed are in the

10 right direction.

11 Over various times there have been, you know,

12 different complaints about like in Chicago a chocolate

13 factory that's not too far from here and the EPA, you

14 know, was willing to step in, but when it came to

15 trying to control, you know, coal, it's been very

16 gradual.

17 The coal-fired power plants has been kind of

18 gradual and nothing has really taken hold you know, in

19 terms of holding them to some kind of a high standard.

20 And people's lives and people's health are at risk, so

21 I'm glad to see that EPA is trying to propose some

22 tough standards against power plants that have been

23 operating for years and years without such standards.

24 Thank you.

25 MR. CLARK: Excuse me. Also, Chris if you
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1 could say your name spell it.

2 MR. DIDATO: Christopher, Chris Didato,

3 D-I-D-A-T-O.

4 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Thank you both very

5 much. I think our last speaker will be Bonnie Atkins.

6 Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Well

7 Bonnie, we said we'd stay here until the last speaker

8 spoke, so you can go on all night if you'd like to.

9 MS. ATKINS: Well thank you. I didn't plan

10 on being the last, but I really appreciate you giving

11 me this opportunity.

12 I'm here tonight to speak not my words but on

13 behalf of a friend of mine. I'm from Muscatine, Iowa,

14 and Wanda Manseray [phonetic] is not here tonight and

15 can't be here because she's not well enough to make the

16 trip.

17 Wanda has lived in Muscatine several years

18 and she's a generational person that's been there and

19 her family and this is her story.

20 In our efforts with CLAM, which is Clean Air

21 Muscatine, we met this woman in our first community

22 meeting and here's how it goes.

23 There is not a lot of fighting going on in my

24 neighborhood. Mostly it's very quiet. You may hear a

25 dog bark every once in a while and when I was younger,
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1 there would be children everywhere; playing, riding

2 bikes, running around, just having fun.

3 Today, my neighborhood is almost silent. I

4 live just off of Oregon Street which is right across

5 the street from GPC, Grain Processing Company.

6 Today, it's February 22, 2011. I went

7 outside to my van. That's when I saw it. Like so many

8 times that black smoke bellowing out of the pipes. A

9 dark cloud is blowing the stinking smoke across my

10 house.

11 The smoke is coming from that factory which

12 is located at the end of my street. It is hard to

13 breathe. My lungs cry out for help. My eyes burn and

14 say, rinse me with water. My heart is pounding and

15 pumping blood faster while fighting the enemy attacking

16 my body.

17 Last night, the smell kept me from sleeping

18 because it seeps through the windows and doors. The

19 fumes move through each room of my house and I wake up

20 lots of nights struggling to breathe.

21 People say that GPC will clean it up. We'll

22 clean up the air. I dare say many years have passed,

23 yet I have not seen much change. The grain from the

24 car, from the air covers my van and in the winter when

25 it snows, I don't see pristine white snow. I see
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1 yellow snow and eventually black snow.

2 The winter snows come and go. It falls

3 whenever you're outside. I have to wear a mask over my

4 mouth if I go outside.

5 My daughter left last Spring. She had

6 breathing problems and her doctor asked her if she

7 lived next to a factory. She said yes, GPC.

8 Myself, I cough all the time, my nose runs,

9 my doctor's trying to find out why. My dad died last

10 April of stomach cancer. I found out that he had some

11 kind of growth in his colon during the years that he

12 worked at GPC.

13 The elementary school has closed down. It's

14 just three blocks north of my house.

15 I work for the Muscatine Salvation Army in

16 the summer programs, five years.

17 We would take the children outside across the

18 street to the park, but when the smoke moved in over

19 the park, the children would cry because their throat

20 and their eyes burned. You've heard that story

21 already.

22 They said it hurts and it smells bad.

23 Sometimes there's a smell in that air that smells like

24 the toilet. Will someone please clean up the air for

25 children's sake and the people that are left?
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1 Wanda has lived there for a number of years.

2 This is a problem that's in Muscatine and I've been

3 listening to family stories and I'm the one that talked

4 about when you go and visit with people, they can

5 point -- if you go to your neighborhood and you talk to

6 people, they can say so and so lives over there, there,

7 there this, there, that.

8 When these folks in the bowl of Muscatine,

9 which is next to GPC and just down the road from the

10 coal burning plant, they point to their neighbors and

11 say, he had lung cancer. She died of breast cancer.

12 Their dad had -- can't breathe, can't come out of the

13 house. They have nebulizers lined up like we have

14 plants in the windows.

15 That's the kind of life that we're living in

16 Muscatine. I've lived there thirty-five years. I came

17 in and saw a vibrant working community. We now have a

18 community that is literally dying on the vine and GPC

19 is one of the biggest polluters we've got and we're

20 tied in with that group with two big coal burning

21 plants.

22 I urge you to please enforce the rules you

23 have. I live by rules and everyone else in this room

24 and in our country lives by rules and it's time to

25 bring these people to justice. Make them follow the
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1 rules please.

2 So thank you for your time and I speak for

3 Wanda, I'm sure she would say thank you very much for

4 hearing my story. So thank you.

5 MR. CLARK: Thank you. Well again, I think

6 from our standpoint, we just very much want to thank

7 everybody. The folks from Muscatine that have come and

8 people that have come from Michigan and Wisconsin and

9 Champaign Urbana and across, across the region. Thank

10 you all and further St. Louis and on. Thank you all

11 very much.

12 At this point, the hearing is adjourned.

13 (Off the record.)

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