Power plants are major influence in regional mercury emissions

New Haven, Conn. -- The amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere in the Northeast fluctuates annually depending on activity in the electric power industry, according to researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Xuhui Lee, professor of meteorology, and Jeffrey Sigler, a recent Yale Ph.D. and now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of New Hampshire, co-authored the Yale study "Recent Trends in Anthropogenic Mercury Emission in the Northeast United States." They found that between 2000 and 2002 the emission rate of mercury decreased by 50 percent, but between 2002 and 2004 the rate increased between 50 and 75 percent. During that five-year period, overall emissions declined by 20 percent.