Gulf Power Co. representatives say the Environmental Protection Agency's new mercury emission rules, to be announced Friday, could have a multibillion dollar impact on future operational costs that will bring higher bills to ratepayers.
Spokesman Jeff Rogers said the utility has not seen the new EPA standards but reducing mercury emissions by 90 percent could result in the shutdown of three of its current coal-fired plants.
"We won't know what the impact will be until the new rules come out and we can actually evaluate them," he said. "But our feeling is that coal-fired plants would be at risk."
Rogers also estimated that the new EPA standards could end up costing Gulf Power ? and its 400,000 customers ? up to $2.5 billion and could cost parent Southern Co.'s divisions in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi as much as $18 billion.
Gulf Power, which charges the second highest rate among the Southeast's 20 major power companies, already is in the midst of a weeklong hearing seeking higher rates.
It's asking the state Public Service Commission for an additional $93.5 million a year from ratepayers ? an increase that would raise the residential customer's bill for 1,000 kilowatt hours from $127.16 to $133.46. A decision could be issued by February.
The EPA's new standards are the result of long-delayed regulations imposed by Congress to regulate toxic air pollution.
For nearly two decades, power companies have been trying to persuade the EPA to adopt less-stringent limits on mercury, but federal courts have ruled those regulations were too weak.
As a result, the EPA was given a Friday deadline to issue rules for power plants.
The regulations state that coal-fired power plants will have to cut more than 90 percent of the mercury from their exhaust emissions within three years.
Gulf Power recently built a $500 million scrubber at its Crist plant in Pensacola that removes 80 percent of oxidized mercury emissions, but the system presently is not designed to remove 90 percent.
Despite the EPA's plans to impose higher standards, local health officials say mercury levels in the Pensacola area's fish and shellfish populations do not appear to be alarming.
Ingesting shellfish and certain species of fish is the primary source of mercury poisoning in humans and can cause birth defects and other afflictions in infants.
Escambia County Health Department Director Dr. John Lanza said a May 2008 local study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that mercury poisoning of locally harvested seafood was minimal.
"The study we did with the University of West Florida took hair samples of 600 women between the ages of 16 and 49, and from those samples looked at the measurable levels of mercury they had in their systems," Lanza said. "There were just a few of the women in the sampling who had elevated levels of mercury, but the vast majority had levels that were not clinically significant. Those who did have elevated levels were told to stop eating fish."
The new EPA rules would have an even greater impact on Gulf Power's coal-fired generating plants in Panama City and Sneads.
In addition to mercury, the new rules would mandate that power companies slash arsenic, acid gases and other pollutants that can cause severe health problems.
While the higher emission standards have Gulf Power and other power companies worried, another major concern is the difficulty in meeting the EPA's three-year deadline for complying with the regulations.
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