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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

WI Factory on Nationwide "Filthy Five" for Mercury Pollution

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Thursday, July 19, 2007   

Wisconsin is home to one of the "Filthy Five" - and cleaning it up could put a big dent in the state's mercury pollution. A new report identifies a Wisconsin chlorine plant as one of five nationwide that still use mercury in their production process, making the plant the number one source of airborne mercury pollution in the state. Report author Simon Mahan with the Oceana Institute says the ERCO plant in Port Edwards could switch to widely used alternatives, and make a big difference.

"If ERCO were to switch over, it would completely eliminate about 28 percent of the state's total mercury air emissions."

Companies operating the five plants nationwide have said the costs of switching would be too high, and would lead to a less efficient process. The report points toward more than a hundred plants that have successfully made the switch.

Mahan notes that mercury hurts waterways, from streams to the oceans, and the plant is part of the reason Wisconsin has mercury advisories for fish caught in the state.

"By getting into the waterways, it can build up in fish, and whenever people eat those fish, they are possibly contaminating themselves with mercury from the mercury sources."

Mahan believes the plant should follow others around the country in switching to a non-mercury process.

"It's really essential because that mercury again can make its way into waterways and eventually on folks' dinner plates."

The report is online at www.oceana.org.




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