Today communities around the globe will celebrate World Oceans Day as an opportunity to learn more about our ocean and take action to help conserve it. This year the celebration is bigger than ever with hundreds of family-friendly events at aquariums, zoos, museums, exciting online events and strong prospects for a new youth movement to protect the ocean.

"A record number of aquariums, zoos, and museums are providing ways on World Oceans Day for their visitors to get inspired and take personal action to help our world's ocean," said Bill Mott, director of The Ocean Project. "World Oceans Day provides an opportunity for people across the country and around the world to celebrate our ocean connections, do more for ocean conservation, and learn more 

Could the construction of power plants in Shanghai make it less safe to eat fish caught in the Everglades?

That's the difficulty Florida's environmental managers are grappling with as they try to write the state's first limits on mercury pollution in rivers, lakes and coastal waters.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has begun a series of meetings around the state to establish the maximum acceptable level of mercury for the state's waterways, where the silvery metal is a pervasive contaminant that has led to extensive advisories against eating too much of certain fish species.

But as officials explained at a meeting Tuesday in West Palm Beach, the mercury in Florida's waterways comes from sources around the world, from the coal-fired power plants being built in huge numbers in China to the exhaust pipes of cars chugging up Interstate 95 in Broward County.

"It really is a national and a global issue," said Trina Vielhauer, chief of the department's Air Regulation Bureau. "We certainly are looking at Florida sources, and we're expecting folks to do what they can. But global and national sources are important."

Mercury is one of Florida's most persistent and dangerous pollutants, capable of causing neurological problems, memory loss, deafness, blindness, mental retardation and personality disorders. It presents the greatest danger to children, pregnant women and women who plan to become pregnant because it can damage the nervous system of the developing child. From 2005 to 2010 there have been 89 confirmed cases of mercury poisoning in Florida, with the vast majority thought to be linked to eating fish.

Warnings are in place throughout the state, with 12,994 square miles of marine and fresh water bodies classified as impaired for mercury, along with 2,903 miles of rivers, streams and canals. High mercury levels are particularly pervasive in South Florida, where they cover most of the Everglades, as well as various streams and lakes.

Of all the mercury falling on the United States, 87 percent comes from outside the country, with two thirds of the worldwide total coming from Asia, said Jan Mandrup-Poulsen, administrator of the watershed protection section of the department.

"If we were to look at all the mercury sources in Florida and turn them all off, we wouldn't solve the mercury problem in Florida," he said.

But David Guest, managing attorney for the Tallahassee office of Earthjustice, which sues on behalf of environmental groups, said the state's attempt to blame the bulk of the problem on other countries was ridiculous and allowed state regulators to avoid imposing tighter controls on the Florida power plants responsible for much of the mercury.

"It makes it looks like you're doing something when you're really not," he said. "This is not real. This is not a regulatory program aimed at mercury reduction, even though there are mercury advisories around the state and it's a serious problem, especially in the Everglades."

State officials say mercury from Florida sources has declined sharply, with major drops posted by power plants, trash-burning facilities and other sources.

There are several reasons for South Florida's pervasive mercury problem, state officials said. The region's frequent lightning storms claw mercury from the air to the ground. Its power plants and heavy traffic contribute to the mercury problem. And the vast wetlands of the Everglades are good at transforming mercury arriving from the air into an organic form called methylmercury that can be absorbed by organisms at the bottom of the food chain.

The state plans to submit its proposed mercury limits in September to the Environmental Protection Agency for approval. After that, the state will draw up a plan for implementing the limits.

Although they say much of the problem is out of Florida's hands, state officials said the EPA could use the limits them to reduce emissions from power plants, cement kilns and other sources around the United States. And down the road, the United States could use the limits as the basis for international treaties limiting mercury emissions.

We don't have any authority outside Florida," Vielhauer said. "But we have been working with EPA, which does have influence on what happens in the rest of the country."

dfleshler@tribune.com

, 954-356-4535

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