By: Celerah Hewes, National Field Manager, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: May 9, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0794
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for the opportunity to give testimony today. My name is Celerah Hewes. I live with my family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I am a National Field Manager for Moms Clean Air Force, an organization with over 1.5 million parents, caregivers, and family members working to protect our children’s health from the impacts of climate change and air pollution.
I support EPA’s proposed new protections against mercury and other forms of air pollution coming from coal-fired power plants. These standards are critical for protecting children’s developing brains from mercury and other toxic heavy metals, and they will help hold coal plants accountable for their pollution. I am urging the EPA to finalize the strongest possible safeguards to protect the health of children and families by the end of the year.
Mercury, a potent neurotoxin, is released into the air from coal-fired power plants, falls into our waterways, and accumulates in fish that families eat. It can cause permanent damage to the brains of babies and fetuses, leading to developmental delays, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and birth defects. Health harms from mercury exposure for adults may also include cardiovascular problems, including increased risk of heart attacks.
While most people are aware that there are toxins in some food making it unsafe to eat, it was not until I was pregnant that I was instructed to avoid fish with high levels of mercury. Any person who has been pregnant receives a list of foods that one should avoid for the health of a developing baby. Fish with high levels of mercury are always on that list and the reality is that while the impact of mercury on a growing brain can be severe, there is no safe level of mercury consumption for any person. Mercury protections have had significant public health benefits, but stronger safeguards are needed to protect the health of families across the country. That is why Moms Clean Air Force has been fighting on this issue for 12 years.
Some of the important aspects of this rule are:
- Strengthening protection from non-mercury toxics covered by MATS, such as lead, arsenic, and chromium. These toxic heavy metals are known to cause significant health impacts including fatal heart attacks, cancer and developmental delays in children.
- Reducing emissions from other health-harming air pollutants, including fine particle pollution (also known as soot), sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide.
- Requiring continuous emissions monitoring for coal plants, which means that facilities will be required to track their pollution at all times—rather than just for short, periodic emissions tests that don’t necessarily reflect the pollution actually going into the air most of the time.
We must keep mercury and other toxics from spewing out of coal-fired power plants and ending up in our air, water, soil, and food. Once again, I strongly support EPA’s proposal to strengthen the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and ask that EPA finalize these standards as quickly as possible. Our families and communities deserve nothing less.