The Idaho Board of Environmental Quality has voted 5-0 to pursue new rules that would toughen state regulations of mercury emissions, reversing its rejection of a similar petition five months earlier sought by environmentalists. This time, Monsanto Corp. and the Idaho Conservation League (ICL) joined to support more stringent regulation of large mercury discharges.
Monsanto mines phosphate in Southeast Idaho’s Caribou County and processes it into elemental phosphorus near Soda Springs. Its P4 Production LLC plant in Caribou County is Idaho’s largest source of mercury, which can accumulate in fish and cause brain damage and learning disabilities in young children.
The board’s decision sets in motion the process to write new rules. Although new board-approved rules are subject to legislative approval, they go into effect unless both the Idaho House and the Idaho Senate vote them down. In past years, the ICL has led environmental groups to argue for tougher regulations on mercury.
Last February, Monsanto helped lead an effort to keep IDEQ from regulating major mercury polluters, but it decided to proactively work with the ICL and state regulators to resolve the issue. IDEQ board members then unanimously killed a rule that would have asked industries to voluntarily install best-available technology for removing mercury from smokestacks.
Monsanto Engineer Mick McCullough said his company wants to reduce overall mercury pollution, but not target levels of mercury in lakes and fish near large polluters.
The Idaho Association of Industry & Commerce, the state’s most powerful business lobby, previously has been neutral on the issue. Monsanto is now attempting to persuade other major Idaho industries to sign on. None of those companies would be affected unless they opened a new operation that discharged large volumes of mercury. The J.R. Simplot Co. is considering participation.
Some industry leaders have suggested if Monsanto wants to limit its emissions, it should make a separate deal with the state, avoiding a new regulation system. But Monsanto and the ICL say that would allow new plants to come to Idaho without regulation.
Regulations now allow a company to discharge as much as 100,000 pounds of mercury, and limit mercury inhalation by workers and plant neighbors. Monsanto’s discharges from its Soda Springs plant range from 600 to 700 pounds a year. Potlatch’s lumber plant in Northern Idaho had planned to add a new process that would have increased its mercury emissions in 2008, but backed off after the ICL opposed the change.
Meanwhile, Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter says he will not allow the U.S. Department of Energy to store up to 17,000 tons of toxic mercury at the Idaho National Laboratory in Eastern Idaho, which would include excess federal stockpiles and commercial supplies. He expressed disappointment that he had not been told by federal officials that the 890-square-mile Idaho National Laboratory was a possible site.
Idaho is one of seven designated potential sites. Other states under consideration are Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Missouri, and South Carolina, where federal defense or nuclear sites are operated. A final site or group of sites will be named on Jan. 1, 2010. DOE is accepting public comments through Aug. 17 as part of developing an environmental impact statement.
Mercury – a dense, metallic element – has been used in gold mining and manufacturing chlorine, caustic soda, batteries, and thermometers. Its use has been in decline because of its link to health issues, including pulmonary and neural disorders. Disposal of electronic equipment poses problems because computers, televisions, and other devices contain toxic materials such as mercury, lead, and PCBs.
The U.S. still exports surplus elemental mercury, the purest form, often to developing countries with less restrictive environmental regulations. Then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama sponsored a bill last year to ban mercury exports beginning in 2013. The bill was subsequently signed by President George W. Bush.