Mercury Policy and Regulations

1. Mercury Policy and Regulations Biying Gao, Elliot Hayden, Lizzie King

2. Mercury - What is it and where it comes from - Forms of Mercury - Elemental, Inorganic and Organic     - Methylmercury - Sources of Mercury     - Natural sources     - Anthropogenic         - Combustion         - Manufacturing         - Mining     - Re-mobilization EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (1997). Mercury Study Report to Congress. Volume VI: An Ecological Assessment for Anthropogenic Mercury Emissions in the United States

3. Exposure to Mercury - Environmental Effects     - Ecosystems         - aquatic         - terrestrial     - Bioaccumulation - Health Effects     - Consumption of fish     - Dental amalgams     - Spills, Products, Airborne Mercury     - Minamata Disease EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (1997). Mercury Study Report to Congress. Volume VI: An Ecological Assessment for Anthropogenic Mercury Emissions in the United States

4. Direct Effect Environmental standards Indirect Effect Procuring/Using Mercury Releasing Mercury Air • Commerce • Obtainment • Excise Tax • Import Tax • SCMC Act • Transporting • HMTA • Using Products -FIFRA -FFDCA Biota • Water Mercury: American Regulation Overview

5. United States Clean Air Act, Background • Specifies national standards for ambient air quality (NAAQS) • “Criteria" air pollutants are six commonly found chemicals found nearly everywhere in the United States where there is air pollution • Criteria for setting allowable levels of "criteria" air pollutants based off of minimally acceptable environmental/human health damages, rather than econometrically-derived emissions level • Additionally, sets National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP's), which in 1990 began to follow a different criteria: emission levels EPA deems to be 'achievable' (i.e. MACT)

6. Clean Air Act Amendments 1990 • Establishes market-based approach to regulating emissions, including emissions trading and performance-based standards • Prior to 1990, EPA promulgated rules under the CAA for hazardous air pollutants "HAPs" one chemical at a time • Between 1970 and 1990, EPA establishes rules for only seven (7) chemicals • The 1990 Amendments required EPA to identify categories of industrial sources for 187 listed toxic air pollutants, given that a single industry releases multiple chemicals at given time

7. EPA's Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) Standards • Performance-based standards  • Require sources to meet emission levels based on abatement achievement by cleanest facilities  • these levels establish the baseline, or "MACT floor", that other firms within source category must meet 

13. Clean Air Act-State Level • Under the Title V Operating Permits program, states may impose emissions fees up to $25/ton of emissions for all chemicals. • Individual states may impose specific mercury emissions limits on individual facilities. • Fact: 21 states have adopted or are working on rules that will require more mercury reduction than the federal rule, including coal-producing states such as Illinois and Pennsylvania . • http://ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/07March/RL33535.pdf

14. Anecdotes: Indiana • Emissions from coal-fired power plants are by far the biggest source of mercury emissions in Indiana —5000 pounds per year.  Indiana has the fourth highest mercury emissions in the country (total U.S. emissions are approximately 96,000 pounds per year).

16. Anecdotes: Indiana (continue) • Indiana Code IC 13-20-17 - Restrictions on Batteries Containing Mercury • This law restricts the sale and distribution of batteries containing mercury. • Indiana Code IC 13-20-17.5- Mercury and Mercury Products Law • This law restricts the sale of mercury-added novelties, thermometers, mercury compounds, and equipment for use in school laboratories, and the general sale of mercury-containing commodities. • Universal Waste Rule Guidance [PDF - 45KB] (329 IAC 3.1-16, incorporating 40 CFR 273) • The Universal Waste Rule is a modification of the Hazardous Waste Rules, enacted under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which is designed to reduce regulatory management requirements so as to foster the environmentally sound recycling or disposal of certain specified categories of commonly generated hazardous wastes.

17. Fish Advisories • For exposure of mercury from the ingestion of contaminated non-commercial fish, primary responsibility falls upon the state and local government • consumption advisories • group/location specific • information symmetry as a policy tool

18. Environmental Standards for Mercury--Water

19. Clean Water Act • Technology-based effluent limits • Water quality standards for pollutants including mercury • Permit system:national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) • Publicly owned treatment plant (POTW) Regulatory Mechanism(s): effluent limits, effluent fees (WI), permits, operating requirements, control requirements, monitoring/reporting

20. Mercury use regulations  - Commerce-related regulations  - Obtaining Mercury - Excise Tax: Internal Revenue Code of 1986         - Import Tax: Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States         - Strategic and Critical Materials Stockpile Act - Transporting Mercury - The Hazardous Materials Transportation Act - Using Mercury - Minnesota: use-restriction law - Product-related restrictions   - Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)      - Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) - Reporting requirements - SARA §312 (threshold planning) - Michigan

21. Global Background: Control of Mercury Global convention • Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution and The 1998 Aarhus Protocol on Heavy Metals • Mercury waste guidelines under Basel Convention • International trade in mercury under Rotterdam Convention UNEP Global Mercury Negotiation and Partnership • Global Legally Binding Instrument on Mercury • UNEP Global Mercury Partnership Action Priorities

22. Questions or Recommendations