This summer the state of Florida issued new mercury advisories for 59 saltwater fish species. Some of these fish like snook, pompano, gag grouper, red snapper, and flounder are fun to catch but also are great to eat. This new advisory adds to an existing advisory that includes all of Florida's lakes and river and its entire coastline.

More people fish Florida's waters each year than anywhere else in the United States, spending more than $6 billion on everything from fishing licenses to bait and tackle to boats and hotels, not to mention all the other indirect expenditures that make angling a boon for the state.

Fishing isn't just an economic benefit for Florida-—it's a heritage we all cherish and want to protect. This is why it upsets Florida anglers that today, all our state waters are under a warning that mercury levels may make locally caught fish unsafe to eat. Mercury falling from the air into lakes, streams and rivers contaminates everything from native fish like bass, snook, grouper and trout to our beautiful wading birds like herons, egret, and ibises. Eventually, it moves up the food chain into the folks who love to eat what they catch. Pregnant women and kids, in particular, are at risk, since mercury is known to affect the nervous system, causing delays in walking, talking and brain development. This is why it is so important that we inform young men and woman on this growing but unnecessary problem. Folks we don't have to live under the cloud of mercury consumption advisories. If our leaders do the right thing the future can be free from mercury.

To make these concerns heard loud and clear, the 66 Florida hunting and fishing groups and businesses joined in a letter circulated by the National Wildlife Federation to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt urging him to re-think the current proposal to weaken and delay mercury reduction requirements from the largest unregulated source: coal-fired power plants. In a recent National Wildlife Federation poll, 85% of Florida hunters and anglers said power plants should be required to remove mercury pollution in a decade.

Florida already took huge steps forward by forcing medical wastes incinerators, landfills and consumer products to clean up mercury and some positive results have already occurred: mercury concentrations in fish in the Everglades are dropping, but the rest of the state is still under threat.

The EPA is finally considering a proposal to cut mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants nationally and Administrator Leavitt likes to tout the proposal as the first ever mercury regulation on the utility industry. Never mind that the agency was required under the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments to develop a mercury reduction plan for power plants.

It's too little because it sets a weak initial mercury reduction of 30 percent by 2008, and then creates a cap and trade scheme that would allow dirty plants to keep polluting if they purchase pollution credits from newer, cleaner plants. That may be great for communities near those newer and cleaner plants. But communities near dirty plants would see no improvement in the amount of mercury falling locally.

It's too late because it would be 2018 before power plants would have to meet a 70 percent mercury reduction requirement. But according to the fine print, we would see no real reduction in mercury pollution until 2025 or beyond. If my math is right, kids born today would graduate from college before power plants would be required to make serious cuts in their mercury emissions.

The Bush administration argues its proposal offers a broad approach that reduces mercury pollution nationally, while giving power plants the flexibility to meet mercury limits. The plan is so flexible; it would allow some plants to do exactly nothing to reduce their mercury pollution. This mercury proposal has been fishy business from the start, with media reports of industry lobbyists essentially writing the proposed rule themselves.

We don't want to see this nation allow an entire generation to go by before we see real reductions in mercury pollution. Mercury is toxic. We know we have the technology to nearly eliminate it from power plants, and many states are moving forward to require the power industry to install the right technology to get the job done. Let's stop wasting time on a plan that caters to corporate profit at the expense of healthy children, clean water and safe fish. The time to rid the nation's power plants of mercury is now. To learn more or to get more involved contact Jerry Karnas at 850-597-2l48. He is working with Florida's recreational anglers on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation to ensure that Florida's angler's interests are served in Washington.