Don't Let the Sun Go Down On a Good Idea

As the mercury keeps shooting out of JEA's coal-fired plant, you have to ask, as residents in the Sunshine State, why don't we have more clean, steady-rate inducing solar power? JEA has some solar generation, and it seems to be successful...

According to Joy Ezell from TRUE - Taylor Residents United for the Environment, "Did you know that JEA has to have a solar plant to power 26 schools and city hall because of a lawsuit settlement with Sierra Club? The solar plant is operational - and is featured in the documentary 'KilowattOurs' - with Susan Hughes, spokesperson for JEA, practically clicking her heels about how wonderful it is and how great it's working. They say they power City Hall and 26 JAX schools with solar power - Florida
Sierra Club negotiated this plan with JEA after the Northside Generating Station's terrible problems with mercury forced the shut down of the first power plant, then they cranked up the new one."

So why not more solar power? Every killowatt generated by solar power means less coal needs to be burned means less mercury fouling our fair city.

Is Jacksonville more backwards than Fayetteville, Arkansas?

Fayetteville, Arkansas has a sustainability director and Jacksonville does not! Fayetteville, Arkansas!!! What happened to "The Bold New City of the South"? According to Newsweek, ("Mayors Take the Lead"), 435 mayors, Republican and Democratic, in Red States and Blue, from the crunchy coasts to the conservative heartland, have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Jacksonville has not. Forget about "Boldly going where no man has gone before." Jacksonville won't even boldly go where many others have been.

By signing on, these mayors are saving their cities money! For example, by converting stoplights from incandescent bulbs to LEDs that use 80% less energy and last six to 10 times longer, Arlington, Texas, expects a projected windfall of more than $250,000 a year. New York City will realize savings of $6.3 million a year once the initial investment is paid off. That's your tax money we could be saving.

Of course, by making this move, we'd be saving energy too. Which hopefully means less petroleum coke would have to be burned, and therefore less toxic mercury would foul our city.

A reminder: why we need to lower mercury emissions...

Mercury Falling has been going on for a while now, covering a range of topics. So as not to lose sight of our original goal, urge JEA to agree to lower mercury emissions by the same amount it raises rates, let's take a look again at why we must lower Jacksonville's mercury emissions...

JEA had the highest mercury emissions (1,037 pounds) in the state in 2005, according to the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory. In 2003, JEA's St. Johns River Power Park and Northside Generating Station were the largest power plant mercury polluters in Florida. Duval County topped the list of Florida counties with the highest level of power plant mercury emissions, 599 pounds - or 20% percent of the state's total power plant mercury emissions. In Florida, power plants emitted 2,982 pounds of mercury in 2003. Florida ranked at 11th in the nation for the highest levels of power plant mercury emissions. 91% of all reported mercury air emissions in Florida were from power plants. Studies show that mercury bioaccumulates and biomagnifies more quickly in wetlands areas than in other areas. JEA's plants are in a wetlands area, a fact.

Much of the mercury (a harmful bio-accumulative neurotoxin) in Florid's humid climate tends to fall in the region nearest the the coal plant. JEA's plants emit a constant rain of mercury onto our region. Currently every body of water, inshore and offshore, is under fish consumption warnings for mercury. Health impacts are most notable in the old and the young, especially fetuses. Autism, IQ loss and other developmental disabilities have been linked to mercury exposure and are reaching epidemic levels.

Please, take just two minutes RIGHT NOW, and write the mayor and City Council and urge them to get JEA to lower mercury emissions by the same amount it raises rates.

Jacksonville leads the state in toxic mercury emissions thanks to JEA. Is JEA's solution to build an even dirtier plant in Taylor County?

As Mercury Falling has said, Jacksonville has the dubious distinction of emitting more toxic mercury than any other county in the state. Mercury Falling's solution to drop this heinous distinction is to emit less mercury. Is JEA's solution simply to make another Florida county even dirtier than its make Duval?

And is this what is behind our continous rate increases? According to Joy Ezell from Hope for Clean Water, "Six rate increases over the past four years - to build up money to build the Taylor Emphysema Center." That is Joy's name for JEA's plan to build "an 800 megawatt pulverized coal fired power plant in Perry, in Taylor county, FL - the Taylor Energy Center - which will be a larger - (three 800 megawatt units) mercury emitter than Jacksonville's Northside generating coal plant. We understand that there have been no articles or letters to the editor of the Jacksonville paper, so folks over there don't know what JEA is up to...."

Is this where the money from our rate increases is going to? According to Taylor County local Gale Dickert, "JEA is over here offering $10,000 grants to our community for "environmental education" and "outdoor recreation", etc. while folks in Jax are paying through the teeth for their electricity -- and JEA has imposed a 20% increase on their backs to cover their expenses for this coal plant ---and the grants they are giving away to groups in Perry."

Who will lead us?

Well, so far we've seen no real leadership on the city or state level to clean up mercury emissions. What can we expect on the national level?

According to National Resources Defense Council Senior Attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "They (the Bush Administration) plan to treat mercury pollution from power plants as non-hazardous even though mercury is one of the world's most dangerous substances. Why? So that those plants can keep pumping mercury into our air., where it rains down on lakes and oceans and winds up in the fish we eat."

For more information on NRDC, visit www.nrdc.org

The only thing worse than burning coal is burning tax money

According to TIME magazine, cities can save money and energy (and, thus, in Jacksonville's case, emit less toxic mercury into our community) by lighting public places with LEDs. LEDs use 40% electricity than the high-pressure sodium bulbs they replace and can go five or more years without upkeep, while traditional bulbs must be replaced every 18 moths. Raleigh has already taken a step in this direction, as has Times Square, stadiums, and airports. Why hasn't Jacksonville?

As TIME suggests, "If your city is still burning tax money on old lights, ask the mayor why." You can email Mayor Peyton at jpeyton@coj.net

What you don't know can hurt you

Florida ranks fifth-highest in nation for cancer causing chemical releases, so says a recent report from Environment Florida on the latest federal Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). Environment Florida is an important environmental group affiliated with FL Public Interest Research Group (FL PIRG).

If that's not bad enough, the EPA might be working to keep this data secret in the future, according to Environmental Florida. The TRI report comes out once a year, however, EPA wants to stop making this report public. EPA doesn't want the public to know how toxic our environment has become, as they've stripped the rules on emissions to help new coal plants go on line, the group said.

If EPA keeps these numbers hidden, how will we know how much mercury emissions JEA is spewing? Florida is famous for government in the sunshine, this sounds like government in the Dark Ages.

To see what toxins Jacksonville is releasing, click here. (Use zip code 32206 for Jacksonville, or your local ZIP Code. And you can learn more about this group at EnvironmentFlorida.org