Environmental groups on Wednesday attacked a proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would allow higher levels of the metal selenium in public waters.
Environmentalists said the higher level could destroy fish populations, but a power-utility official said the proposal would replace an arbitrary limit the EPA set two decades ago.
Arthur Stamoulis, spokesman for the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, said Western Pennsylvania could particularly suffer under the new standard because its coal-fired power plants lead the nation in selenium production.
"This is a much weaker standard. It would allow 200 to 300 percent more selenium in the water," he said.
An EPA spokesman couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.
Humans need trace amounts of selenium to prevent cellular damage, regulate the thyroid and support the immune system. High levels can damage the kidneys, liver, nervous and circulatory systems.
High selenium levels in streams and lakes can kill fish and cause skeletal deformities in fish and in the birds that eat them.
The EPA currently recommends that states limit selenium in public waters to 5 parts per billion, as measured directly from a water sample. The new standard recommends a limit of 7.9 parts per million, as measured from fish tissue samples.
Stamoulis said most selenium generated by power plants in Pennsylvania ends up in fly ash that is dumped in landfills, though some is directly discharged to streams and lakes.
Stamoulis participated yesterday in a telephone news conference about the proposed regulation along with Velma Smith, research director of the National Environmental Trust.
Charley Parnell, spokesman for the Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County, said selenium has become an issue in Pennsylvania because the emission scrubbers power plants have installed to reduce sulfur dioxide concentrations also discharge selenium as a liquid. Homer City has budgeted $3 million this year to look at selenium controls, he said.
"It is a direct by-product of investing in environmental controls," he said.
The EPA based its 7.9 parts per million in fish tissue on a study conducted by Dennis Lemly, a scientist with the U.S. Forest Service.
According to the EPA's own records, however, Lemly has since said the study was flawed, and the 7.9 parts per million standard is too high.
Ed Imhoff, a former senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said that level of selenium killed about half the bluegills Lemly used as test subjects. The same levels would kill even more catfish, brook trout and other fish less tolerant of selenium, he said.
"It simply could start a cascading effect," he said.
The Clean Air Council, citing EPA data, listed the Colver Power Project in Cambria County as the largest producer of selenium in the state. Dennis Simmers, environmental engineer for the project, said the plant's actual selenium production is about two-thirds of the EPA estimate, or about 80,500 pounds per year.
Hardly any of that selenium will end up in the water because the plant mixes limestone with the ash to convert it to a cement-like substance, he added.
"Water cannot enter and pollutants cannot exit," Simmers said.
