The mercury falls from the sky with rain or snow, contaminating fish and the aquatic environment.  All of Wisconsin's 15,057 inland lakes are now covered by a fish consumption advisory warning pregnant women, children under 15, and women of childbearing age to limit their fish consumption because of mercury pollution.  No cooking or filleting techniques can remove the dangerous levels of mercury from fish flesh.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that, in very tiny amounts, damages the brain and nervous system.  Numerous studies warn that pregnant women who eat fish from high-mercury Wisconsin waters could bear children with reduced or delayed development in the areas of memory, language, and coordination depending on the amount of fish eaten.  Mercury can also harm wildlife, particularly creatures that feed on fish laced with the poison.

The Pleasant Prairie coal plant near Kenosha spewed 580 pounds of mercury during the year 2000, tops among all state power plants.  Just last year a report released by the National Wildlife Federation measured mercury in Milwaukee's rainfall at levels ten times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers "safe" in the Great Lakes and other waterways.

Other top mercury polluters include:

• the Columbia coal plant near Portage at 522.5 pounds of mercury
• the Alma coal plant at 221 pounds of mercury
• the Edgewater coal plant near Sheboygan at 219.8 pounds of mercury

"We've go a very real opportunity, from a policy perspective, to reduce the mercury," notes Looze.  The DNR, prodded by a citizen's petition, is working to develop a mercury pollution control rule that would slash mercury emissions from Wisconsin sources by 90% over the next 15 years.

The DNR mercury rule may be sent to the Natural Resources Board for approval later this year.  If approved, Wisconsin would be the first state in the country to take such a dramatic mercury pollution control step.

Click here to see a news release on the EPA data.