Sierra Club Takes Stand on Mercury Pollution

Pittsburgh Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak teamed up with the Sierra Club to push for the Environmental Protection Agency regulating mercury pollution. Rudiak, and other council members and staff submitted hair samples as part of a nationwide program by the Sierra Club to raise awareness about the dangers of mercury. The element is a neurotoxin that can be detected in human hair.

Rudiak says coal-fired power plants are the main source. "They release things like mercury and arsenic into the air. And these pollutants actually rain down into our lakes and our streams. And they are eaten by fish, which consequently, we eat as well."

Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, Executive Director of Women for a Healthy Environment, says mercury is know to pose health risks. "Mercury at high levels may damage the brain, kidneys and the nervous system. Mercury in the mother's body passes to the fetus via the placenta. According to the CDC and the EPA, at least one in twelve and as many as one in six American women have enough mercury in their bodies to possibly put a baby at risk."

The EPA is considering enacting tighter regulations for mercury and other air toxins. The Sierra Club and PennFuture will be sending a bus of people to Philadelphia on May 24th to for public testimony. The Sierra Club pressed the state to begin regulating mercury in 2006, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that it needed to be done nationally.

Stuck Barge Carrying Flammable Coal Oil

About 1,100 students of the Sto-Rox School District were evacuated by police because of one of the barges stuck at the train bridge near Neville Island is carrying flammable coal tar oil with the chemical benzene.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Alanna McGovern says the current on the Ohio River broke some of the wires connecting the barges to a towing vessel this morning. "the current then took the four barges down to the back channel of Neville Island when they came to rest on the railroad bridge."

Of the three other barges that broke loose this morning, one carrying steel coils sank, another carrying coal passed by and an empty barge is also stuck.

McGovern says that the barge has a double hull and does not appear to have been breached. She says that the coast Guard is working with the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety to free the barges.

Local Union Rallies for Clean Coal

The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 154, who build and maintain coal-fired power plants, held a rally during morning rush hour near their offices on Banksville Road to raise awareness for clean coal technology.

President Barack Obama called for "rapid commercial development and deployment of clean coal technologies" in a presidential memorandum on February 3, 2010, and the Department of Energy is investing billions to study and implement such technologies. Earlier this month, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu awarded $1 Billion for the world's first coal-fueled, near-zero emissions power plant to be built in Illinois.

But Raymond Ventrone, the Boilermakers' business manager, says although organized labor put the Obama administration into office, Vice President Joe Biden failed to mention coal at the National Building Trades Conference in April, which made Ventrone question the administration's commitment to coal, which he says is so important in Pennsylvania.

Ventrone says almost 1,000 members at this morning's rally got their message out, but if they don't get the reaction they're looking for, they'll take their concerns to Washington.