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260,000 POUNDS OF TOXIN IS IDLE AT DEFUNCT CHEMICAL PLANT By Murray Carpenter, Boston Globe ORRINGTON, MAINE, USA, 1 December 2000 -- - The silvery liquid sits unused in the basement of a defunct chemical company: 260,000 pounds of mercury in multi-ton tubes. When the HoltraChem chlorine plant closed in September, it left behind a potentially dangerous legacy, the largest stockpile of this toxic metal in the Northeast. Mercury, the naturally occurring metal used in household thermometers and thermostats as well as chemical plants, is also a potent neurotoxin increasingly targeted by environmentalists and lawmakers. But yesterday - the same day the governor of Massachusetts announced support for sweeping new mercury reduction laws -the Maine Department of Environmental Protection issued its approval for the HoltraChem mercury to begin leaving the plant, after which it will be refined and sold on the open market. The decision marks a frustrating close to two months of attempts by environmental officials and Maine Governor Angus King to retire the mercury safely. The prospect of the HoltraChem mercury returning to circulation is raising the ire of environmentalists across the region. Forthem, the decision represents the loss of a rare opportunity to mothball 130 tons of toxic metal. And more broadly, it highlights the growing policy gap around mercury, a legally traded metal that is also a potent poison. ''We need to stop viewing this material as a commodity,'' said Michael Bender of Vermont's Mercury Policy Project. ''We need to start viewing it as a dangerous waste.'' The damaging effects of mercury have long been known: It can cause brain damage and learning disorders. Even a smallamount ingested by a pregnant woman can impair fetal development. The phrase ''mad as a hatter'' is derived from thechemical's effects on 19th-century hatmakers, who used mercury in the felting process. Concern has grown in the past few years as mercury contamination warnings have been issued for lakes across the country, where the metal has been found in fish. This past summer, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that 60,000 American children are born each year with neurological problems from mercury exposure. Unlike some pollutants, mercury tends to build up in the environment, becoming more toxic as it encounters bacteria on lake bottoms, and concentrating as it moves up the food chain. High mercury levels in fish have prompted fish consumption advisories in all New England states. At the local and regional level, lawmakers are moving to respond. Boston has outlawed mercury thermometers, as has the state of New Hampshire. The Cellucci administration yesterday announced plans to file a bill to reduce mercury emissions and to outlaw mercury thermometers statewide. But industrial stockpiles of mercury such as those in the HoltraChem plant are proving a far thornier issue. In large quantities, mercury can be almost impossible to remove from circulation. Environmental officials and King have been trying for two months to figure out a safe way to dispose of the HoltraChem stockpile - an amount larger than the entire US export of mercury in 1999 and 1998 combined. HoltraChem's Orrington facility was one of a dozen domestic chlor-alkali plants, the largest industrial users of mercury in the country. The plant used mercury and electricity to split salt water into chlorine gas and sodium hydroxide, which it sold to paper companies up and down the Penobscot River. HoltraChem's September closing took its workforce and the DEP by surprise. Suddenly, the state found itself with one less polluter, but 130 tons of hazardous waste sitting idle. At a meeting of New England's regional environmental commissioners shortly after the plant closed, the commissioners decided to bid on its purchase. Connecicut DEP commissioner Arthur Rocque Jr. pledged that Connecticut would fund up to half the estimated $100,000 it would cost to buy the metal. Rocque, who had just kicked off a campaign to collect 2001 pounds of mercury in Connecticut next year, said, ''The whole notion of collecting a gram at a time and letting 260,000 pounds float away was something I wasn't really interested in.'' Within two weeks, King wrote a letter to US Defense Secretary (and former Maine senator) William Cohen, asking the Pentagon to purchase HoltraChem's mercury and add it to the nearly 9 million pounds safely stored in the country's strategic stockpile. The Maine governor and environmental groups reasoned that it would be a cheap, effective way to keep the mercury off the market and out of the environment. Mindy Lubber, the regional administrator for the federal EPA, even met with a Department of Defense lawyer in New York in October to discuss the request. But the Pentagon refused, stating in a letter that federal law ''does not allow the Department to store or dispose of toxic or hazardous material not owned by the Department,'' except in cases where the public would be in imminent danger. ''Even with the best of intentions we can't just step in and take possession,'' said Defense Department spokesman Lieutenant David Gai. Mercury is a publicly traded commodity, he said. State regulators say that even if they could buy the mercury to take it off the market, they don't have a place to store it safely. Mike Belliveau, of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, called the Department of Defense rejection ''a toxic slap in the face to Maine's and the global environment.'' King's spokesman, John Ripley, agreed. ''The policy doesn't seem to jibe with what we need done,'' he said. The mercury stockpile issue is bound to come up again as more of the country's 11 remaining chlor-alkali plants close or convert to cleaner chemical processes. One, in Kentucky, will need to unload 400,000 pounds of mercury next year when it converts to a new technology. Terri Goldberg of the Northeast Waste Management Association said her group has drafted model legislation for states to reduce mercury in the waste stream. As states and municipalities pass mercury reduction laws, Goldberg said, ''there's a real need for a cogent federal policy to retire mercury and pull it out of the market.'' That's disputed by Rob Goldsmith, whose company, D.F. Goldsmith of Evanston, Ill., has a contract to purchase HoltraChem's mercury. There is no significant difference, whether it's acquired by the US government or a manufacturer, he said. ''Our customer will then get it from someplace else,'' he said. Goldsmith would not name his client, but many suspect the metal is bound for India, which has one of the largest mercury thermometer plants in the world, and is one of the world's biggest mercury importers. Richard Stander, who lives near Penobscot Bay and has pushed for the HoltraChem plant to clean up its discharges for years, called the export to a less developed country ''a kind of environmental racism.'' Stander is helping organize a rally at the plant gates on Dec. 9 to call attention to the mercury problem. Regardless of where it goes, says Belliveau, the mercury is not done polluting. ''We have to stop this circle of poison,'' he said. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a `fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. 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