The request comes only weeks before the Nevada Environment Commission decides on a proposal to step up mercury-emissions monitoring at the mines and to make that state's voluntary controls mandatory. The commission meets March 8 for a daylong public hearing in Reno.
Utah environmental regulators have been monitoring the proposal but don't plan to critique Nevada's plan. Others commenting include the Utah Waterfowl Association, the Utah office of Western Resource Advocates and a coalition of Great Basin environmental organizations, including Friends of the Great Salt Lake, the Utah Rivers Council and the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The waterfowl association, an advocate for the state's 18,000 duck hunters, says the Nevada plan has "serious deficiencies" and wants Huntsman to seek "meaningful regulations." Meanwhile, it noted in a Feb. 15 letter to the governor that Utah imposed a "do not eat" warning on two duck species - the first such warning in the nation's history - with some birds containing up to 40 times the levels deemed safe by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"Normally, we feel it is inappropriate to meddle in the internal regulations of other states," says the letter. "However, what Nevada does, or fails to do, could have a dramatic impact on the health and outdoor lifestyle of Utahns and contaminate natural resources that are a vital part of our state's identity and heritage."
John D. Ray, of the Utah Waterfowl Association, said the Governor's Office directed him to the Department of Environmental Quality, which has led the state's response on mercury.
Elyssa Rosen, policy adviser for the environmental group Great Basin Mine Watch, said it is appropriate for Utah to speak up about Nevada's proposal.
Along with being an environmental contaminant, mercury poses a public health risk, especially to children and unborn babies. When mercury biochemically transforms into its poison form, methylmercury, it builds up in the food chain and attacks the neurological system, causing retardation in the unborn and learning disabilities and behavioral problems in children.
Humans are exposed to toxic mercury most commonly by eating contaminated flesh, usually fish.
Rosen said the regulations Nevada is proposing do not ensure mercury reductions from the mines, which release the contaminant into the air when they "roast," or process, the gold ore at high temperatures.
The mines release an estimated 11 percent of all the mercury emitted in the nation, and yet those emissions are not regulated, as are power-plant emissions that also may contain mercury.
"It is the job of Utah to look out for its constituents," said Rosen. "There should be an objective of making the situation better [through the proposed regulations], and right now we are not."
Dante Pistone, spokesman for the Nevada environmental agency, noted comments already have been received from Utahns. And public input has helped change the proposed regulations.
"Our public comment process has been very open," he said. "We collect and assess all of the comments."
Rick Sprott, director of the Utah Division of Air Quality, said neither Utah nor Nevada sees the proposed regulations as the final step in dealing with the mercury from the mines.
"Generally speaking, we think what they are proposing makes sense and represents the right course of action," he said.
fahys@sltrib.com
Mercury in your air
Nevada's proposed regulations for mercury from gold mines can be seen at http://www.ndep.nv.gov/mercury.
The Waterfowl Association's letter to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. can be seen online at www.sltrib.com.
Four Nevada gold mines release as much mercury into the air as 25 average coal-fired power plants, the Waterfowl Association says, citing EPA data.
The Barrick Goldstrike mine in northern Nevada released 2,819 pounds of mercury into the air in 2003, compared with 1,385 pounds from Limestone Station in Texas, which was the nation's largest mercury emitter from a coal-fired electric plant that year, according to Great Basin Mine Watch.
