[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 124 (Thursday, September 19, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6648-S6649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mr. Carper):
  S. 1528. A bill to establish a national mercury monitoring program, 
and for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment and Public 
Works.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, today along with Senator Carper, I am 
introducing the Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act. This 
bill would ensure that we have accurate information about the extent of 
mercury pollution in our Nation.
  A comprehensive national mercury monitoring network is needed to 
protect human health, safeguard fisheries, and track the effect of 
emissions reductions in the U.S. This tracking is particularly 
important in light of increasing mercury emissions from other 
countries. By accurately quantifying regional and national changes in 
atmospheric deposition, ecosystem contamination, and bioaccumulation of 
mercury in fish and wildlife in response to changes in mercury 
emissions, a monitoring network would help policy makers, scientists, 
and the public to better understand the sources, consequences, and 
trends in United States mercury pollution.
  Mercury is a potent neurotoxin of significant ecological and public 
health concern, especially for children and pregnant women. It is 
estimated that approximately 410,000 children born in the U.S. were 
exposed to levels of mercury in the womb that are high enough to impair 
neurological development. Mercury exposure has gone down as U.S. 
mercury emissions have declined; however, levels remain unacceptably 
high.

[[Page S6649]]

  Each new scientific study seems to find higher levels of mercury in 
more ecosystems and in more species, and the issue of mercury emissions 
is growing in importance around the world. At present, scientists must 
rely on limited information to understand the critical linkages between 
mercury emissions and environmental response and human health. 
Successful design, implementation, and assessment of solutions to the 
mercury pollution problem require comprehensive long-term information. 
A system for collecting such information, such as we have for acid rain 
and other pollution, does not currently exist for mercury--a much more 
toxic pollutant. We must have more comprehensive information and we 
must have it soon; otherwise, we risk making misguided policy 
decisions.
  Specifically, the Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act would 
direct EPA, in conjunction with the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. 
Geological Survey, National Park Service, the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Association, and other appropriate Federal agencies, to 
establish a national mercury monitoring program to measure and monitor 
mercury levels in the air and watersheds, water and soil chemistry, and 
in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial organisms at multiple sites 
across the Nation.
  The act would establish a scientific advisory committee to advise on 
the establishment, site selection, measurement, recording protocols, 
and operations of the monitoring program.
  The act would establish a centralized database for existing and newly 
collected environmental mercury data that can be freely accessed on the 
Internet and that is compatible with similar international efforts.
  The act would require a report to Congress every 2 years on the 
program, including trend data, and an assessment of the reduction in 
mercury deposition rates that need to be achieved in order to prevent 
adverse human and ecological effects every 4 years; and
  The act would authorize $95 million over 3 years to carry out the 
act.
  We must establish a comprehensive, robust national mercury monitoring 
network to provide the data needed to help make decisions that can 
protect the people and environment of Maine and the entire Nation.
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