By: Lucia Valentine, West Virginia State Coordinator, 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 testify. My name is Lucia Valentine, and I am the West Virginia Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force. I am from Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and have lived in the Mountain State my whole life. 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.
Growing up along the banks of the Potomac River, I have been no stranger to the negative public health impacts heavy industry has had, particularly coal-fired power plants, on the state of West Virginia. Pollution from coal-fired power plants, specifically mercury, degrades water quality, air quality and threatens our health. Mercury from coal-fired power plants is released into the air, falls into waterways, and accumulates in fish that families eat. It is worth noting that there is NO safe level of mercury consumption. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can cause permanent damage to the brains of babies and fetuses, leading to developmental delays, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and birth defects. Additional health harms linked to mercury exposure include cardiovascular problems, including increased risk of heart attacks.
Mercury protections have had significant public health benefits, but stronger safeguards are needed to protect the health of families across the country. We need standards that will reduce emissions from other health-harming air pollutants, including fine particle pollution (also known as soot), sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide and that will require 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.
Moms Clean Air Force has been advocating for strong mercury protections for over a decade, and we strongly support strengthening MATS. 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. Our families and communities have a right to know what’s in our air—and we have a right to breathe clean air. Please finalize the strongest MATS standards as soon as possible—our children’s health must be protected. Thank you for your time today.