Opinion ID: 1651891
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mercury

Text: Appellants next contend that the levels of mercury to be emitted from the Pine Bluff Facility will constitute air pollution in that they will be harmful to wildlife and the environment. They do not contend that the mercury levels will be harmful to humans. They base their argument on what they claim is ADEQ's abandonment of Arkansas' Water Quality Standards in favor of the standard established by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is one part mercury per one million parts water. Appellees assert that ADEQ never abandoned its standard. The record reflects that the Army was first required to perform a health-risk assessment to consider risks for cancer and long-term and short-term noncancer risks. The assessment demonstrated that the expected mercury emissions from the Facility will not cause either cancer or noncancer risks. The Army then had to perform an evaluation of the potential effect of mercury emissions as part of an ecological assessment. The ecological assessment demonstrated that the predicted mercury emissions would not exceed the ecological risk-screening thresholds. Thereafter, ADEQ required the Army to perform a third assessment to determine the potential effects of mercury emissions on water bodies in the vicinity of the Facility. Because some of the local bodies already exceeded the standard for mercury under the Arkansas Water Quality Standards, ADEQ asked the Army specifically to collect fish tissue samples from those local bodies and evaluate the potential health impacts. Those levels were then added to the expected levels from the Facility. ADEQ then compared that aggregate number to the FDA's standard of one part per million. Based on this standard, ADEQ concluded that the mercury emissions would not cause harmful effects to persons who might eat fish from the water bodies. Appellants contend that the use of the FDA's standard is too lax and that ADEQ used it only because the state's own standards were too stringent. There is no merit to this point. The AHO found that the evidence showed that the expected mercury contributions from the Facility to the existing local water bodies is so small that it is insignificant. By way of example, Appellees point out that then-existing mercury levels in the Arkansas River were 0.15 parts per billion. The expected contribution from the Facility's emissions was only an additional 0.00000052 parts per billion. Appellants have presented no evidence showing that such an additional amount is harmful to wildlife. Nor have they presented any evidence to rebut the presumption that the Commission's decision is reasonable and valid and complies with all legal requirements.