NJ Apellate Court Backs DEP's Tough Mercury Rule

New Jersey citizens won a significant victory over mercury emissions and now the State can go after not only coal fired power plants and waste incinerators, but now includes iron and steel smelters.

TRENTON, New Jersey, April 23, 2007 (ENS) – In a unanimous decision, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey has affirmed the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's regulations to protect people from the impacts of mercury emissions from iron and steel melters.

The decision, released by the court April 13, allows the state to move forward with its efforts to address four of the largest in-state sources of mercury - iron and steel melters, coal-burning power plants, municipal solid waste incinerators, and medical waste incinerators.
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The Steel Manufacturers Association, a national association representing iron and steel melters, and Gerdau Ameristeel, of Raritan, the owner of two New Jersey facilities, challenged the regulations. They claimed that the requirements were too stringent, but the court disagreed, finding that the state had acted well within its “broad authority to issue health-based regulations.”

Iron and steel melters, the largest New Jersey-based source of mercury emissions, emit an estimated 1,000 pounds of mercury into New Jersey's environment every year.

The full ENS article is here.

And NJ Attorney General hails the victory. From Legal Newsline;

New Jersey Attorney General Stuart Rabner says his office recently cleared a major legal hurdle in defending the state's regulations on mercury emissions.
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"This decision confirms the state's authority to protect the health of our citizens by enacting tough rules to reduce dangerous mercury pollution," Rabner said.