The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is doing too little against mercury in rivers and lakes, says the German Environmental Aid and is taking the matter to court. The environmentalists want coal-fired power plants in particular to be obliged to clean their exhaust gases better.
Düsseldorf/Berlin (dpa/lnw) - The German Environmental Aid (DUH) wants to legally force the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to do more against toxic mercury in water. A "lawsuit for clean water" had been filed with the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster, the environmental protection organization said on Wednesday in Berlin.
In NRW, the legal limit for harmful mercury in water-living organisms is exceeded across the board. "Nevertheless, the state government has not provided any concrete measures to reduce mercury emissions in the corresponding program of measures." She should now be obliged to do so in court.
In NRW there is a particularly large release of mercury from coal-fired power plants, explained DUH Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch. The exhaust gas cleaning can be significantly improved.
According to the Federal Environment Agency, mercury is also toxic to humans. In the case of chronic stress, the substance mainly attacks the nervous system. The majority of mercury emissions in NRW come from RWE's lignite-fired power plants, the DUH continued. By installing better exhaust gas cleaning technology, mercury emissions could be significantly reduced. A company spokesman said: "RWE certainly complies with all limit values, including those for mercury."
The State Ministry for the Environment of North Rhine-Westphalia said in a statement that it would carefully examine the lawsuit and possible consequences. It confirmed that mercury concentrations in fish "are usually found to be in excess". But there are also measurements where no exceedances were found. The waters in NRW would be rated as "poor" in terms of mercury. It can be assumed "that the limit values for mercury have been exceeded due to the entry via the air and existing previous pollution".
The main source of mercury in the environment is burning coal. "Mercury emissions are therefore not locally limited." The ministry pointed out that the limit values were significantly tightened in the 2021 amendment to the Federal Immission Control Ordinance. Implementation deadlines were in some cases up to mid-2025.
"The DUH addresses a burden that has historically grown in NRW," said NRW Environment Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens). The problem of mercury must be tackled, as reports by previous state governments have made clear. "It shows how necessary it is to force and implement the phase-out of coal."
According to the OVG, the DUH filed two lawsuits on Tuesday. The first against the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is therefore about an "updating of the North Rhine-Westphalian program of measures for the river basin districts of the Rhine, Weser, Ems and Meuse to reduce the mercury input into water bodies" (Az. 20 D 205/22.AK). In a second lawsuit, the DUH is suing for the "establishment of an effective national program of measures for the Rhine river basin district to reduce the mercury pollution of the waters of this river basin district" (Az. 20 D 206/22.AK). This lawsuit is directed against the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and seven other federal states (Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Thuringia). A spokeswoman said it was unclear when the lawsuits would be decided.
