Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
Advisory Committee on Mercury Pollution

Advisory Committee on Mercury Pollution

Meeting #66: Friday, January 13, 2006

Time: 8:30 am to 9:30 am

Location: Laundry Building Conference Room,

Waterbury State Complex, Waterbury, Vermont

MINUTES

Members Present:

              Michael Bender, Abenaki Self-Help Association, Inc. (via telephone)

              Neil Kamman, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Water Quality Division

              Representative Carol Reed Hosford (via telephone)

              Ruma Kohli, IBM (via telephone)

              Gary Gulka, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Environmental Assistance

Guests Present:

              Jennifer Holliday, Chittenden Solid Waste Management District (via telephone)

              Karen Knaebel,Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Environmental Assistance

              Alison McKay, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Environmental Assistance

The Committee members and interested parties gathered at the Laundry Building Conference Room at the Waterbury State Complex and by conference call.  Ruma Kohli called the meeting to order.

Agenda Item 1 

Discussion of draft report regarding removal mercury-added components and possible recommendations to the ACMP annual report.

• The Committee discussed comments/suggestions submitted by Michael Bender and Allison DeMag.  Comments were in regard to the Agency’s legislative report, specifically, the mercury auto switch section.
• The Committee agreed upon the following recommendation after careful consideration of the comments/suggestions:
• The Advisory Committee supports the Agency’s recommendations in its legislative report on mercury auto switches – a mandatory switch removal requirement on vehicle recyclers and salvage yards prior to vehicle crushing; a requirement for auto makers to fully fund a switch collection and recycling program and provide outreach and education to salvage yards on switch removal; and an Agency requirement to provide outreach to salvage yards and monitor compliance and program effectiveness through reports to the Legislature. 
• In addition, the Advisory Committee strongly recommends that in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the auto switch recovery program, auto manufacturers should be required to report on the number of switches collected and recycled from each of the participating auto recyclers. This will allow the Agency to determine participation rates and capture rates.  The Agency should report annually to the Legislature  and the Advistory Committee on program effectiveness and should recommend other actions, including a defined incentive-based system,  if the program does not succeed in achieving high participation rates and switch capture rates sufficient to assure that a majority of switches are collected.
• The Committee reviewed changes made to the appliance section of the Agency’s legislative report. 
• The Committee agreed in concept with the amended recommendations in the Agency’s legislative report.  It was agreed that specific language for the Committee’s recommendation regarding this issue was to be drafted by Gary Gulka and circulated to the Committee.  
• Gary Gulka outlined the thermostat recommendations in the Agency’s legislative report.  Basically, the problem is a very low capture rate despite the offer of convenient recycling.  This mirrors the problem other states have had when offering a similar program.  This Agency report is not seeking a legislative mandate.  Instead the Agency is recommending it use special funds to run a pilot program with financial incentives.
• Concern was raised as to whether this type of program would take away funds from another project.  Mr. Gulka explained that the Agency had discretionary funds and they were intending to target this type of pilot project anyway.
• The Committee agreed on the following recommendation:
• The Committee recommends that the Agency should consider using its special fund for mercury reduction projects for a pilot program to determine whether and to what extent incentives-based programs work to increase thermostat recycling rates and further recommends that the Agency should submit a report on this to the Committee and the Legislature by January 1, 2008.
• Gary Gulka agreed to circulate the Committee recommendations in a bulleted format by the end of the day on Friday, January 13th.  The Committee agreed that all responses should be in by the end of the day on Tuesday, January 17th. 
• The Committee agreed that the draft Committee report was to be circulated via email and any responses regarding that report are due by Wednesday, January 18th. 
• Due to time constraints, the Committee decided to discuss the minutes from the meeting on January 6th, 2006 at the next meeting.

Agenda Item 2

Set date for next meeting.

The Committee agreed that another meeting was needed before April 2006.  A meeting date was targeted for end of February/beginning of March.  The exact date and time were to be determined via email.