"Report: Coal Plant Would Add 'Harmful' Amount of Mercury To Chesapeake Bay"

"A proposed coal-fired power plant in Surry County would add 'significant and harmful' amounts of mercury and other pollutants to the Chesapeake Bay and several river systems in coastal Virginia already suffering from excessive mercury levels, a study released Wednesday concludes.

Commissioned by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group, the study says the proposed plant in the town of Dendron, an hour west of Norfolk, would damage the James River, the Pamunkey River, the Great Dismal Swamp, the Blackwater River, the Nottoway River and the Roanoke River. Parts of these waterways are under health advisories due to high samples of mercury in some fish species that people eat."

Scott Harper reports for the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot October 14, 2009.