Defense Department Favors Mercury Storage Over Sales

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Defense Department Favors Mercury Storage Over Sales

Advocates support DoD's recommendation for long-term storage of

VIRGINIA, FORT BELVOIR, Apr. 18 -/E-Wire/-- The Department of Defense has issued an environmental report recommending long term storage-- rather than continuing sales-- of 10 million pounds of surplus mercury held by the federal government. Advocates applauded the Defense Department's preferred option for the long-term storage of stockpiled mercury.

"Surplus mercury should be placed indefinitely in monitored storage as a dangerous waste--and not masked as a commodity and marketed at home or abroad," said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project. "We applaud the common sense approach taken by the Defense Department at this time."

The Defense National Stockpile Center recently completed the draft version of its Environmental Impact Statement for managing the federal government's stockpiled mercury. The EIS identified three options for handling the mercury â selling the mercury on the open market, leaving it in its current locations or consolidating the mercury at one central location for long term storage of at least 40 years. While consolidated storage is preferred, officials say that all options will remain on the table until the final decision.

Up until 1994 when its sales were suspended, Defense stockpiles of mercury flooded the world market with mercury, keeping the price of mercury cheap and encouraging haphazard use and release. Today, the U.S. can satisfy all of its domestic needs for mercury via recycling--and is exporting three times as much as it imports.

"DoD's recommendation for storing mercury should also be applied to commercial sources as well," said MPP's Bender. "While the U.S. phases out mercury uses, it continues to allow mercury exports--knowing full well the risks posed when the mercury returns in the form of atmospheric deposition, consumer products and contaminated fish."

Mercury is a highly persistent and toxic pollutant that bioaccumulates in the environment and can cause serious human health, wildlife and ecological effects. When inhaled, mercury can cause serious short and long-term damage to the central nervous system.

The 4,436 metric tons of DNSC mercury is stockpiled at locations in or near New Haven, Indiana; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hillsborough, New Jersey; and Warren, Ohio. The Draft EIS evaluates a range of locations and has identified three other locations for possible use as a long term storage site; the Utah Industrial Depot in Tooele, Utah, the Hawthorne Army Depot in Hawthorne, Nev., and the PEZ Lake Development in Romulus, N.Y.

The DNSC has schedule several public hearings on its draft EIS mercury management plan, with public comments accepted until July 18, 2003. A draft version of the EIS can be viewed online at http://www.mercuryeis.com

Mercury Policy Project

Michael Bender, MPP,

http://www.mercurypolicy.org

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