States' perilous mercury stocks may find a federal repository
WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts and other states may soon find a safe place to retire their stockpiles of dangerous mercury collected from thermometers, school science labs, and automobiles.
A Bush administration draft document calls for a strategy to manage all excess mercury stocks outside the federal government, ranging from industrial supplies to those picked up in neighborhood recycling drives.
Arleen O'Donnell , the acting commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection , yesterday called the new position a breakthrough, saying states have long requested that the federal government safely oversee all mercury supplies.
If the recommendation becomes policy, she said, "that will be the first tangible sign we've seen to a long-term commitment to dealing with mercury stockpile issues."
Mercury has grown into a major health hazard over the years. When mercury vapor is released into the air, rain carries the toxic substance into waterways, where it enters the food chain, moving from aquatic organisms to fish to humans.
If ingested, mercury can cause developmental problems in children and neurological damage in adults. Many states, led by those in New England, have tried to safely remove all mercury from houses and businesses.
Last month, the US administration decided to keep the Department of Energy's 1,206 tons of mercury in storage for safekeeping, rather than trying to profit from selling it, according to a letter from Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman to Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat. The letter was first reported in the Chicago Tribune.
The draft document, which preceded Bodman's letter, called for the storage of Energy Department stocks, as well as for developing a plan to manage all nonfederal sources of mercury.
The decision not to sell the federal government's mercury comes at a critical moment in efforts to reduce the trade of the substance around the world.
Next month, the governing board of the United Nations Environmental Program, meeting in Nairobi, will consider plans to reduce the supply and demand of mercury.
Mining operations in poorer countries from South America to Africa have created strong markets for mercury, which can be used in an amalgam to separate gold from ore.
In the United States, local collections of mercury from homes, schools, and businesses are turned over to recyclers, who in turn sell it for other uses, including the manufacture of fluorescent light bulbs.
But environmental concerns have led many light bulb manufacturers to stop using the substance; this has reduced the domestic market.
For the past decade, states have been pushing for the federal government to stockpile the toxic substance, fearing the loss of the secondary market.
A Department of Energy spokesperson did not return a call requesting comment.
Massachusetts collects between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds of mercury a year, said Mark Smith , deputy director of the state office of research and standards. He said the state program has picked up "hundreds and hundreds" of mercury samples from Massachusetts schools in the past three years, including a flask from one school that weighed more than 50 pounds. "They were using it as a doorstop," Smith said.
"States have really been trying to get the attention of the federal government on this for several years," said Michael Bender , director of the Mercury Policy Project, an advocacy group based in Montpelier . "The timing of this decision couldn't be any better," because of the meeting in Kenya, he said.
In his letter to Obama, Bodman said the Energy Department's surplus mercury will stay in storage.
The Department of Defense holds 4,890 tons of mercury; it and the Department of Energy had stockpiled the substance to make nuclear weapons.
The Bush administration draft document said that the Energy Department's decision should start a process to "develop options for management of its remaining non-federal stocks of mercury."
John Donnelly can be reached at donnelly@globe.com 
