What Places Are at Risk From Mercury Pollution?
Texas has the dubious honor of having seven plants amongst the fifty dirtiest with five of those being in the top ten. Alabama has two plants in the top ten and four in the top fifty. It also has the greatest offender within its borders. Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin and Arkansas round out the other mercury-plagued states. Minnesota gets an honorable mention for having only one plant on the list but that plant being of the dirtiest ten. The Grandaddy of All Mercury Polluters The Southern Company’s Miller plant, located in Alabama, is the biggest polluter overall, releasing nearly a ton of mercury into the air in 2007, 14% higher than their 2006 total. The Southern Company owns eight plants of the dirtiest fifty. Most of them are located in Alabama and Georgia. The Effects of Coal-Fired Plants Coal-fired plants account for 40% of all mercury emissions, the largest single source of mercury in our air. Low-level mercury poisoning is so pre
