WASHINGTON – Seven Northeastern states, including Rhode Island and Massachusetts, have filed a petition calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help reduce the mercury pollution that contaminates fish in the region’s lakes and streams, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management said in a statement today.

The filing was made by the six New England states, the state of New York and the nonprofit New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC), under an obscure provision of federal law that “requires [the] EPA to craft agreements to resolve multi-state pollution issues,” the DEM said.

Under that provision – Section 319(g) of the federal Clean Water Act – EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson must respond to the petition “by convening a management conference including all states that are a significant source of the mercury in Northeast waters,” and arriving at an agreement among those states to reduce pollution levels and improve the water quality in New England and New York, the states contend.

“It is our belief that eliminating our fish-consumption advisories deserves to be a national priority,” the seven-state water-pollution control group wrote in a cover letter for the 237-page petition filed yesterday with the EPA.

“This unprecedented multi-state action underscores the determination of the Northeast states to resolve the problem of contaminated fish and to address the main cause: mercury deposited in the Northeast from sources outside the region,” the DEM said in a separate statement, adding: “Multiple research studies have shown that the majority of mercury in the states’ waters now comes from out-of-region sources such as coal-fired power plants, whose mercury emissions drift to the region on air currents and then fall directly into waterways” or are carried there by runoff.

“A significant reduction in the mercury reaching our waters from sources outside the region is essential,” the pollution-control group wrote. About 70 percent of mercury deposit in the Northeast states originates outside the United States, the regional water-pollution control group said, citing figures based on the EPA’s Regional Modeling System for Aerosols and Deposition. Of the rest, only 52 percent comes from the Northeast states, the regional group added in a fact-sheet that accompanied the petition.

“We’re delighted they have taken this step,” Michael Bender, who leads the Montpelier, Vt.-based Mercury Policy Project, told the Burlington Free Press.

High mercury levels in freshwater fish – despite nearly a decade of mercury-reduction efforts by member states, including Rhode Island efforts to recycle mercury from switches, thermometers and dental amalgams (READ MORE) – have spurred fish-consumption advisories for more than 10,000 lakes, ponds and reservoirs and 46,000 miles of rivers across the Northeast. Mercury “is a potent neurotoxin that poses risks to human health. Exposure to this toxic metal occurs when humans consume fish that contain mercury’s most toxic form, methylmercury” the interstate water-pollution group wrote.

The problem is more acute for some fish species than for others. Bass, pike and pickerel tend to be especially high in mercury, while black crappie and eel pose a lesser contamination risk and trout are relatively safe, EPA publications indicate. In Rhode Island, women who are nursing or pregnant, or intend to become pregnant in the next year, are advised to eat no freshwater fish from local waters, except for stocked trout, the DEM said.

The new action builds on the regional mercury-reduction plan – the Northeast Regional Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report, calling for a 98-percent reduction in atmospheric emission of the toxic metal – that was approved in December by the EPA’s regional offices in Boston and New York City. (READ MORE) “Given the consistency of mercury levels in fish throughout the region, and the regional consistency of mercury inputs from the atmosphere … the collaborative approach among the states is a logical and effective way to address the problem,” the EPA said at the time.

The seven states also have collaborated in past mercury-reduction actions. For instance, in June 2006, they were parties to a 16-state lawsuit challenging the legality of the EPA’s Clean Air Mercury Rule. That rule – overturned by a federal appeals court early this year – would have banned mercury-reduction targets that aimed to pare emissions by more than 70 percent, and would have delayed those reductions until 2018.

The New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC), based in Lowell, Mass., is a nonprofit agency founded in 1947 to facilitate regional clean-water efforts. It is overseen by a panel of 35 commissioners, five from each member state, who hold their seats by gubernatorial appointment or virtue of their positions in home states. Additional information – including the new petition and the Northeast Regional Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load report approved by the EPA December – is available at www.neiwpcc.org.

Additional information about mercury pollution issues in the region is available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s District 1 (New England) office in Boston at epa.gov/region1. For information about the benefits of eating fish, or to learn about fish-consumption advisories nationwide, visit epa.gov/mercury.