Maryland is requiring three coal power plants to limit the amount of mercury, arsenic and other toxic metals they release into the Potomac and Patuxent rivers starting in 2020, amid uncertainty over whether the federal government will address the discharges.
State environmental regulators issued the new water discharge permits to the Chalk Point, Dickerson and Morgantown power plants last month, replacing water pollution standards that dated to the 1980s.
Dozens of Democratic state lawmakers and environmental advocates weighed in during the permitting process last year, urging Republican Gov.
Larry Hogan’s administration to require the pollution controls immediately, rather than wait for President Donald Trump’s administration to put new federal rules in place.
A rule was set to be put in place under former President Barack Obama by this year, but the Trump administration at first put it on hold and then delayed it by two years.
That delay is in the midst of a review in federal appeals court.
Regardless of the outcome of that fight, the Maryland plants will have to scrub their water emissions of the toxic metals starting Nov. 1, 2020.
More: Maryland requires three coal power plants to limit arsenic, mercury water pollution starting in 2020