Pressure Mounts On MPCA To Address Mercury Pollution

October 31, 2014- Minnesota activists are pushing the state to move faster to reduce mercury pollution in the St. Louis River. More than 100 people attended a citizen’s forum last month. There are unusually high levels of mercury pollution in the St. Louis, the largest U.S. tributary to Lake Superior and a headwater of the entire Great Lakes system.

Methyl mercury is a form of mercury that accumulates in aquatic life, becoming more concentrated as it moves up the food chain, ending in humans who eat fish. A Minnesota Department of Health study found that 10 percent of infants born in the Lake Superior region have levels of mercury in their bodies that can cause brain damage and other health issues.

Many activists are still concerned about the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s decision 18 months ago to drop out of a multi-government mercury-reduction effort. At the time, the agency said a model the plan was using would not provide enough information to analyze the complex river system.

The MPCA instead launched a study of the St. Louis and four other rivers in northern Minnesota that have high mercury levels. The study aims to uncover key causes of the problem. Sulfate is known to play a role; so are water levels and temperatures, wetlands and dissolved organic carbon. However the agency doesn’t have enough money to do sampling in the St. Louis River, but instead directed $743,000 to sampling in the Roseau River. The MPCA says it can use what it learns on the Roseau to help it understand the St. Louis. Many people saw it as more of a delay than a next step.

Read the full minnpost.com post here.

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