Many Wood River Valley residents will recall the proposal by San Diego-based Sempra Energy to construct a 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant at a site in the Magic Valley region nine miles northeast of Jerome.

Ultimately abandoned by the company in 2006, the $1 billion idea nonetheless galvanized Idahoans of all backgrounds and political affiliations to come out and fight the proposal. Not long after Sempra's pullout from the area, the Idaho Legislature approved a two-year moratorium on such power plants.

In doing so, the legislators cited the mercury emissions these plants send aloft as just one of the reasons to proceed cautiously when considering such proposals in the future.

Now imagine the equivalent of 160 of these coal-fired power plants spewing similar mercury-laden emissions into the air over populated southern Idaho.

Sound far-fetched? Not according to Justin Hayes, program director for the Idaho Conservation League.

During a lecture at the Hailey Public Library Thursday, Dec. 13, Hayes told a small crowd of local residents that such a scenario is in fact a reality.

Arriving like a storm cloud into the state is a large plume of mercury-a toxic element considered to be especially harmful to pregnant women and children-Hayes said.

"This is a human health issue," he said.

Hayes said the main source of the large mercury plume is 25 gold mines located in a relatively small area of northern Nevada.

"The scale of mining in Nevada is really something to beheld," he said.

Hayes said that up until a few years ago, state and federal officials in charge of enforcing environmental regulations in northern Nevada relied upon a voluntary testing program to monitor emissions from the mines. He said the results of the program indicated very little mercury emissions.

But that picture began to change after Hayes and other ICL staffers used portable mercury monitoring equipment to test the air near the Nevada mines. He said the results were staggering and contradicted the results provided by the voluntary monitoring program.

Full Story: http://www.mtexpress.com/story_printer.php?ID=2005118490

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