NEW STUDIES HEIGHTEN CONFLICT ON MERCURY CONTAMINATION, SOURCES

Environmentalists and the electric utility industry are pushing competing studies in the latest face-off over mercury pollution, with environmentalists lamenting widespread toxic mercury contamination in fish and the industry claiming power plants generate almost none of the mercury in the environment. Recent data EPA compiled showing nationwide mercury contamination in fish is evidence that the Bush administration must require power plants to reduce emissions of the compound faster and more steeply than they are currently proposing, the U.S. Public Research...