As pollution weakens Maine's beloved loons, a broader alarm sounds

They're on our license plates and in our hearts. The wild and beautiful loon, our symbol of conservation and unspoiled wilderness, shares a powerful bond with Maine's people.

A loon swims with its chick on Squam Lake in New Hampshire. For biologists, the loon acts as an ecological sentinel. Mercury climbs up the food chain, building to higher concentrations in sediment, plankton, insects and fish. Loons then absorb the toxic metal by digesting the fish. Staff photo by David A. Rodgers.

Together, they face a common enemy - mercury.

Pollution from mercury, a natural element that modern industry has transformed into a serious environmental and health risk, is literally raining down on Maine's lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.

Wildlife biologists are finding growing evidence that loons, weak- ened by mercury, are having trouble reproducing and fighting off disease.

And the presence of mercury in Maine's freshwater fish poses a serious human health risk - especially to women of childbearing age and to young children.

Yet, despite the fact that the federal government knows how to control it, mercury pollution is growing worse.

In a four-month investigation of mercury pollution in Maine, the Maine Sunday Telegram and Portland Press Herald found that loons are the species most at risk. But the problem runs much deeper:

• Mercury is drifting into the state from unregulated coal-fired power plants in the Midwest and other sources closer to home. The solutions are known. In fact, the federal government has them in hand. But efforts in Washington to solve the problem have been strangled by the electrical power industry's influential lobby and by federal politics.

• Maine officials have failed in warning the public about how much freshwater fish they should eat. A new poll, conducted for this series, shows that fewer than 2 percent of Mainers know that pregnant women and nursing mothers put their children at risk of mercury poisoning by eating certain freshwater fish.

• For years, a chemical plant in Orrington that is Maine's largest source of mercury pollution has been spewing hundreds of pounds of mercury into the environment. But state regulators have allowed the plant - which serves the multimillion-dollar paper industry and provides 69 jobs - to keep running. Meanwhile, spills of mercury waste continue - two this summer alone.

Age (individual): 15 to 30 years Age (species): Oldest and most primitive living bird, at least 20 million years old. Dives: Depths: perhaps 200 feet. Duration: up to five minutes but generally one minute. Loons are quick and mobile underwater. Diet: Mainly fish but also frogs, salamanders, crayfish, leeches and aquatic greens. Loons feed by sight, grasp prey with their bills (they do not spear prey), and swallow most prey underwater. Flight: Runway: 1/8 to 1/4 mile. Airspeed: 60 - 90 mph. Predators: Chicks: large fish, snapping turtles, and eagles. Eggs: raccoons, gulls, crows, ravens, skunks, minks and otters. Staff art

Mercury climbs relentlessly up the food chain, building to higher and higher concentrations in sediment, plankton, insects, fish and - finally - the loons that eat them.

For biologists, the loon is more than just an emblem of conservation. Because its diet consists almost exclusively of fish, which also contain high levels of mercury, the loon acts as an ecological sentinel.

Its recent problems ring alarm bells for the entire community of fish, animals and humans in Maine's northern forest region and beyond.

On every river and lake in Maine, people are warned to limit how much fish they eat because of mercury contamination. Thirty-four other states also post mercury warnings on all or some of their inland waters.

Right now, some fish are so toxic that a pregnant woman in Maine who eats them could give birth to a child who has trouble walking and talking. Children who eat too much freshwater fish could suffer damaged eyesight, sensation and muscle control.

But the most immediate threat is to the loon. As far as anyone knows, mercury itself hasn't killed any of the birds. Its effects are more subtle than a simple toxic overdose.

Weakened by their exposure to mercury, loons seem to be losing their ability to fight off diseases, elude predators and tolerate contact with humans who invade their nesting and feeding areas. That's the conclusion reached by biologists who have been studying the birds and their environment for nearly a decade.

''It won't be one of those things that becomes apparent overnight,'' said Neil Burgess, a biologist at the Canadian Wildlife Service. ''By the time you figure it out, it may be too late.''

In the United States, an estimated 243 tons of mercury are released into the atmosphere each year by manmade sources. This chart shows the percentage of that mercury produced by various sources. Federal rules have been proposed to limit mercury from trash and hospital incinerators, leaving utility boilers as the largest unregulated source. Source: Environmental Protection Agency. Staff art

Gov. Angus King says the mercury threat is among Maine's worst environmental problems. Yet dioxin, a toxic byproduct of papermaking that the industry has taken steps to reduce, grabs most of the public attention.

''Frankly,'' King said, ''I think it's a more serious problem for Maine than dioxin.''

But the King administration's response has been largely ceremonial. The governor has signed a resolution calling for a study and a plan. It likely will take months, or longer, before action is taken.

In the meantime, four out of every 10 Mainers don't even know a fish-consumption warning exists, according to a poll done for this series. Fewer than 2 percent of Maine residents can name the specific groups of people the warnings aim to protect.

In a recent report on mercury, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 85,000 women in the United States each year consume enough mercury to risk damaging their unborn children.

The EPA and other government agencies have known for decades that mercury is polluting American waters. They know where most of the mercury comes from, and they even have a pretty good idea how to control it.

But the federal government has been slow to act on what it knows.

Seven years ago, when the nation's major clean air law was updated, the EPA was required to look into mercury pollution and suggest what to do about it. Its 1,700-page report was completed in 1995, yet it still has not been released to Congress - an important step, as its release would signal the official start of the process of cracking down on polluters.

Powerful interests, including the electric utility industry and commercial fishing groups, have delayed the formal release of the EPA's findings by lobbying members of Congress and agencies in the Clinton administration.

The fishing groups worry that people will stop eating what their members catch. The power companies fear they will have to sacrifice some of their profits and spend more money on new pollution controls.

The EPA now says its mercury findings should be presented by year's end. Meanwhile, the threat from mercury pollution grows.

Coal burning, a major source of mercury pollution, is expected to increase steadily as society demands more electricity to light homes and power factories. Deregulation of the power industry could accelerate the coal-burning trend.

Mercury pollution is so wide spread that 35 states - including Maine - have issued public health advisories warning people to limit their freshwater fish consumption. In Maine and five other states, the advisory covers every body of fresh water. Elsewhere, the warnings are limited watersheds or individual lakes, rivers and streams. Staff art

Deregulation will allow utility companies to compete against each other for retail customers, and whoever offers the cheapest power will win out.

Right now, some of the cheapest power available comes from coal-fired plants - especially old ones with minimal pollution controls.

Coal burning also may rise to offset the loss of nuclear power plants, which are facing shutdowns in growing numbers because of age, cost and safety concerns.

And industrial development in other growing nations, including new coal-burning plants in China and mercury-producing gold mines in Brazil, are adding to the global pool of mercury in the air.

Researchers familiar with mercury pollution wonder what it will take before government and industry finally address the threat.

''We're seeing mercury in loons. We're seeing it in fish. And we've seen it in eagles,'' says Drew Major, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ''How many more nails do we need in the coffin?''

A threatened treasure

Hundreds of Maine residents, trying to preserve what they can of that wilderness, have worked hard over the years to provide a place for the loons.

They've built nesting platforms to increase hatching rates, and they've taught many boaters to steer clear of loon breeding grounds. Others participate in an annual loon count sponsored by Maine Audubon Society.

These efforts have paid off by raising Maine's loon population to roughly 5,000 and strengthening the public's emotional bond to the bird.

When the state issued a special license plate in 1993 to raise money for conservation programs, the loon's image was stamped onto it, together with the phrase, ''A Natural Treasure.''

But mercury pollution threatens that treasure.

Wildlife biologists have found disturbing signs of trouble in loons in some of the most remote, undeveloped lakes and ponds in Maine.

One such place is Aziscohos Lake, a narrow, 15-mile-long body of water that twists and turns through the rugged mountains of northern Franklin County, not far below Maine's border with Quebec.

On a night in late July, a handful of researchers boarded a boat on Aziscohos. With the temperature dipping below 40 degrees, they crisscrossed the lake in the moonlight, stalking loons through a swirling fog.

They captured two birds in six hours, took blood and feather samples to be tested for mercury, then released the loons into the inky waters.

The principal researcher, David Evers, a wildlife biologist from Freeport, has been catching and testing loons from Nova Scotia to Alaska since 1991.

The loons from Aziscohos and other lakes in western Maine, such as Flagstaff and Umbagog, have some of the highest mercury levels recorded anywhere.

Seventy percent of the male loons caught in Maine and New Hampshire have mercury concentrations that biologists regard as critical - capable of damaging their health or ability to reproduce.

To make matters worse, Evers has seen mercury levels in loon feathers rise at a rate of 4 percent to 10 percent a year since his work began.

''Maine is a hot spot for mercury,'' Evers says. ''When we do our loon work across the country, that's clearly what we find.''

In the United States, mercury levels in loons increase from Western to Eastern states, reflecting prevailing wind currents and the concentration of industrial sources in the Midwest and Northeast.

The levels found in wildlife are measured in parts per million, a concentration so small it's difficult to comprehend. To make a concentration of 1 part per million, a tablespoon of mercury would have to be dissolved in 3,906 gallons of water.

The highest concentrations found in adult loons have been 35 parts per million, while the lowest have been less than 1 part per million.

But small amounts of mercury can have an impact:

• Last summer, at a lake in Ottawa National Park in Michigan, Evers watched a nest fail when a male loon with high mercury levels wouldn't sit on the eggs to incubate them, even after the female left to feed.

• Researchers at Tufts University, studying loon carcasses recovered in Maine and New Hampshire since 1988, found high mercury levels in birds that had suffered fatal puncture wounds in fights with other loons. That suggests that mercury may reduce the loon's ability to maneuver and defend itself.

• In the same period, Tufts researchers also found high mercury levels in birds that died of aspergellosis, a bacterial respiratory infection that kills an unusually high number of loons in the Northeast.

• When other birds in captivity are exposed to mercury at the levels found in some Maine loons - which die in captivity - the reproductive rates of the other birds drop dramatically.

In the face of a sudden, severe or prolonged stress from one or more of these other threats, the loon population could collapse, experts say.

''My gut feeling in talking with people across the country is that we're seeing an impact,'' Evers says. ''Is the loon population able to withstand that impact? That's the coin toss right now.''

Affecting the food chain

The bacterial action gets stronger when water levels fluctuate, so the highest levels of mercury are being found in lakes formed by dams. In some Maine lakes, water levels change by 30 feet over the seasons as dams open and close to release water for electric power production.

Highly acidic lakes also seem to have higher mercury levels.

Mercury is a threat not just to the loon but to other species in Maine. Since loons are a sentinel, standing atop the food chain, biologists who study them learn something about the health of the entire community of plants and animals in which the bird lives.

''If they're suffering from some problems, there's a pretty good chance the entire area is suffering from the same problems,'' says Major, the wildlife biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

People eat fish, and face some risk from mercury as well.

Thirty-five states, including Maine, have warned people to limit their consumption of freshwater fish because of mercury contamination. In three states - Maine, Michigan and New Jersey - the warnings apply to all inland waters. Other states have advisories in selected areas.

Maine issued its warning in the spring of 1994, after an EPA program found pervasive mercury contamination in a statewide sample of 120 lakes.

Ironically, the highest mercury concentrations were found at Hodgdon Pond in Acadia National Park, a site that attracts millions of visitors a year who want to get in touch with nature at one of Maine's most beautiful spots.

Scientists and environmental regulators have known for years that mercury levels in the nation's air and water might be rising.

When the Clean Air Act was updated in 1990, Congress ordered the EPA to write a mercury study to help public officials decide whether regulations were needed to protect the environment and public health from mercury.

EPA's seven-volume report, covering 1,700 pages, estimates that U.S. industrial activity releases 245 tons of mercury into the air each year.

That's about two-thirds of total mercury emissions, with the rest coming from natural sources like volcanoes or other soil disturbances.

Ninety-eight percent of the industrial emissions are produced by household or medical waste incinerators, coal-fired power plants or commercial boilers and manufacturing processes.

Some of the mercury released into the air settles out close to its source. Some drifts for great distances.

In Maine, state regulators who have reviewed the EPA's work believe that much of the mercury found here drifts in from Midwestern or Atlantic states. But Maine also has local sources, including the state's four trash incinerators and an aging chemical plant in Orrington.

The Orrington plant uses mercury to make chlorine gas and a corrosive chemical known as caustic soda, two substances used widely by the Maine paper industry.

The company says it saves the paper industry $10 million a year in freight costs because of its proximity to Maine paper mills. It says it can't afford to switch to modern technologies that use no mercury.

And the King administration, which has courted the paper industry because of its impact on the Maine economy, allows the plant to continue releasing mercury into the air and the Penobscot River.

Criticism delays report

Yet the findings still have not been given to Congress. The EPA had planned to submit the report in April 1996, but the agency backtracked just days before the deadline, and held off for yet another scientific review.

The report has been heavily criticized by the National Fisheries Institute, a trade association for commercial fishermen. As a group, these fishermen provided $38.6 billion worth of seafood products to U.S. consumers in 1995.

In September 1995, the institute complained to the EPA and the Department of Health and Human Services that the report reached flawed conclusions on the health risks of mercury exposure by eating fish.

The institute said forthcoming studies of fish-eating populations will show that the EPA was overestimating the mercury risk.

It said the report ''will create a problem where none exists, with the fallout being consumer confidence in our industry's products.''

The institute's complaints were echoed by the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates commercial seafood. Several U.S. senators, including Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and Maine's Olympia Snowe - both Republicans - called on the EPA to withhold sections of the report dealing with seafood safety.

The senators said the EPA should wait for more scientific studies to be completed on mercury exposures from fish consumption.

The Edison Electric Institute, part of a utility lobbying group that spent $5.5 million fighting and lobbying against the EPA's new standards for smog and soot, also opposed release of the mercury findings.

It contended that the EPA overestimated the amount of mercury released by power plants. The institute also said the EPA report failed to incorporate new information downplaying the health effects of low doses of mercury.

Mercury emissions into the environment actually have declined in recent years, the electric institute says, as the toxic metal has been phased out of use in paints, many batteries and other consumer products.

''Our feeling about the mercury report in the draft version is that they were not using the most appropriate and relevant science to date,'' said Linda Schoumacher, a spokeswoman for the institute.

The utility lobby's concerns have been picked up by members of Congress.

Sen. Robert Byrd, a Democrat whose home state of West Virginia is a major coal producer, urged the EPA in April 1996 to delay the release of its report.

Mary Nichols, the EPA's top air quality official, said it was prudent to delay the report for one more scientific review because of the criticism.

But others disagree.

They include Howard Fox, a lawyer for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, an environmental group that has sued the EPA to submit the report to Congress. He accuses the EPA of caving in to lobbying pressure.

''I think it's unprecedented for the agency to say that new science must be created before it can issue a report,'' Fox said. ''I think there are interests that believe it's very much to their advantage not to have any suggestion made that mercury is a problem.''

Indeed, the Science Advisory Board, a federal panel attached to the EPA that reviews all agency studies, has already backed the mercury report.

The clock is ticking

But those regulations, if enacted, may take years to go into effect.

In the meantime, the clock is ticking. The amount of mercury that drifts into Maine and settles on its lakes and ponds will almost certainly increase.

The federal government projects a steady rise in coal consumption through the year 2020, as more electrical power is produced to fuel the national economy.

Utilities stand on the verge of deregulation. They'll be competing against each other across broad geographic areas, trying to gain customers by offering the least expensive power available.

For biologists concerned about loons and other wildlife - and the ramifications their problems hold for people - the situation creates a compelling demand for more understanding, more knowledge of how mercury affects the environment.

Because of the problems found with the loon, researchers over the summer broadened their investigation by capturing live osprey in Casco Bay and testing them for mercury. Bald eagles, mergansers and kingfishers also will be watched.

At Acadia National Park, work has begun on tree swallows, which feed on insects from ponds in the park with high mercury levels.

Evers, the wildlife biologist who leads the research into mercury and Maine loons, has little doubt biologists will find that the impact of mercury pollution extends well beyond the symbolic bird.

''It may not be a crisis,'' he said. ''But maybe we ought to regulate it now - before it becomes a crisis.''