| Montreal, 28/02/2005 – On February 24, pursuant to Article 14(2) of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) of North America issued a determination requesting a response from the United States to submission SEM-04-005 (Coal-fired Power Plants), filed with the Secretariat on 20 September 2004, by the Sierra Legal Defence Fund and Waterkeeper Alliance on behalf of Friends of the Earth Canada, Friends of the Earth-US, Earthroots, Centre for Environmentally Sustainable Development, Great Lakes United, Pollution Probe, Waterkeeper Alliance, and Sierra Club (US and Canada). The Submitters allege that the United States is failing to effectively enforce the federal Clean Water Act against coal-fired power plants for mercury emissions and discharges to air and water.
On 16 December 2004, the CEC Secretariat determined that the original submission contained sufficient information for some, but not all, of its assertions and gave the Submitters 30 days to re-file a submission with sufficient information regarding the submission as a whole. On 18 January 2005, the Submitters provided additional information focusing on coal-fired power plants in ten states - Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. The Submitters claim that emissions from those power plants represent almost 60 percent of US mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants and that the experience in those ten states is "reflective of the broader problem in the U.S." The Submitters clarify that the submission covers the period 1993 through 2004.
In accordance with Article 14(3) of the NAAEC, the United States has up to 60 days to provide its response. Thereafter, the Secretariat will review the submission in light of the United States' response to determine whether it warrants development of a factual record.
Please visit the Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters page for more information.
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