By: Julie Kimmel, Manager for Member Cultivation, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: May 9, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0794
To: Environmental Protection Agency
My name is Julie Kimmel. I live in Reston, Virginia, with my husband and daughter, and I work for Moms Clean Air Force. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
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.
My husband and I were raised in Virginia; our parents were raised in Virginia; we’re raising our daughter here. Like so many Chesapeake Bay families, we celebrate with fish and seafood. Fish is an important part of our diet and our lives.
I grew up on trout and catfish and tuna. My husband on crab and shrimp and rockfish. Separately and then together, we built traditions around fish and seafood. We host an annual crab feast for our family and friends in the summer. We celebrate birthdays with raw oysters. We plan elaborate meals around the week’s fresh catch when we’re down at the beach.
My daughter—who is one of the very few American eight-year-olds who refuses to eat hamburgers or pepperoni pizza or spaghetti or mac and cheese—has gobbled up every type of fish we’ve ever put in front of her. She can’t get enough.
Of course, we don’t offer fish to our little girl as often as she might like, and we limit our own consumption too. Because we know most mercury exposure happens through the consumption of fish. Our fish habits and traditions put my family at risk of experiencing health impacts from mercury. Health impacts like cardiovascular problems, including increased risk of heart attack, and in children, developmental delays, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and birth defects.
A strong mercury rule is vital for protecting our families and our communities from the health impacts of this harmful pollution. Over the last 10 years, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards have helped slash mercury pollution by more than 80%. But coal-fired power plants—and in particular, lignite coal plants—continue to emit dangerous quantities of hazardous air pollution, and they continue to be the largest source of mercury pollution in the United States. This tells me the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards must be strengthened.
While my family eats a lot of fish, we are not among the most impacted by mercury pollution. Indigenous communities and subsistence fishing communities that rely on fishing as a primary food source—for cultural identity or for economic reasons—can be disproportionately exposed to mercury pollution through their diet.
These communities, many of which are disproportionately impacted by all manner of air pollution too, should not have to bear the additional burden of mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants. Their children, their livelihoods, their air and water should be protected.
So once again, as a parent, I strongly support the proposal to strengthen the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, and ask that EPA finalize these standards as quickly as possible.