MERC Vermont | Advisory Committee on Mercury Pollution Meeting Minutes

First Meeting: Friday, October 2, 1998
Time: 10:15 am - 2:00 pm
Location: Burlington Municipal Waste Water Treatment Plant, Conference Room
Lavalley Lane, Burlington, Vermont

Present: (*committee members)
*Representative David Deen
*Senator Elizabeth Ready
*Richard Phillips, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
*William Bress, Vermont Department of Health
*Ric Erdheim, National Electrical Manufacturers Association
*Hollie Shaner, Fletcher Allen Health Care
*Timothy Scherbatskoy, University of Vermont
*Michael Bender, Abenaki Self-Help Association, Inc. (tentative)
Allison Crowley DeMag, American Auto Mfgrs./Wheelabrator Technologies
Terri Feeley, Downs Rachlin & Martin (NEMA)
Dale Rocheleau, Downs Rachlin & Martin (NEMA)
Sara O’Brien, Vermont Public Interest Research Group
Bill Gallagher, Working on Waste/Town of Cornish NH
Julie Hackbarth, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Solid Waste Management
Brian J Fitzgerald, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Air Pollution Control
John Miller, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Environmental Assistance
John Kassel, Secretary , Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
Chris Recchia, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Deputy Commissioner, DEC

Rich Phillips, representing the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR), opened the meeting shortly after 10:15. Following a round of introductions by all those present, the committee moved to the matter of selecting its chairperson. Senator Ready nominated Representative Deen to serve as chair. Representative Deen accepted and with the concurrence of the committee was so elected.

Representative Deen, as Chairperson, indicated his preference that committee meetings proceed in much the same manner as those of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee where agenda items are first discussed by the committee and questions directed to various parties present and then input solicited from others present as well. The committee agreed with that approach.

Representative Deen then asked committee members if there were specific items which they felt should be added to or emphasized on the committee’s agenda:

Hollie Shaner suggested development of fact sheets on mercury health effects (deferred to a later agenda)

Senator Ready was interested in seeing committee input on State Capital Fund budgeting

Michael Bender suggested the committee use elements from the New England Governors/Eastern Canadian Premiers’ 1998 Mercury Action Plan to build its agenda (deferred to a later agenda)

Following the discussion of the committee agenda, John Kassel, Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, offered a welcome and opening comments to the committee. He reiterated that the ANR and the Department of Health are available and ready to provide logistical and technical support to the advisory committee. He invited the committee to be "visionary" in its thinking and suggested two key issues where the committee could provide leadership:

first- in public outreach, by finding ways to help the public understand why mercury legislation is important and what it is doing to protect their health.
second- in developing reverse distribution concepts through the cooperation of manufacturers, retailers, consumers and waste managers.

In the ensuing committee discussion with Secretary Kassel interest was expressed by Senator Ready in gaining Administration support for placing $200K in the Capital Budget for contribution to upgrading pollution controls at the waste incinerator in Claremont, NH. Secretary Kassel indicated that it may be possible to get cost sharing agreements with the State of New Hampshire. As a counterpoint to this, Hollie Shaner pointed out that the State of New Jersey has done extraordinarily well using source separation to reduce mercury emissions from its solid waste incinerators. Michael Bender noted similar approaches have been adopted in Massachusetts’ new MSW combuster rules which have not only lower mercury emission limits, but also require source separation and calculation of cumulative impacts from mercury emissions. The Chair agreed that these should be developed in a future agenda.

Chris Recchia followed with a description of Vermont’s participation in the New England Governors’ Mercury Task Force. He pointed out that the states in the region have decided to implement the regional plan recognizing that there is a need for both emission controls and source controls. Some states have already adopted the 0.028 ug/dscm mercury emission limit that applies to large incinerators. In the discussion that followed Michael Bender noted that the emission reduction goals of a 50% in 5 years and virtual elimination by 2010 are ambitious and will require considerable efforts by the various states. In that respect, Senator Ready cautioned that she believed Vermont should only bear its proportional share of those regional mercury reduction costs. Hollie Shaner advised the group that this year the American Hospital Association had completed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US EPA to reduce hospital waste. One element of this MOU was the virtual elimination of mercury from hospital waste by 2005.

Rich Phillips concluded the Agency of Natural Resources presentation with a summary of how the Agency was attepting to implement certain provision of ACT 151. The manufacturer labeling of mercury-added consumer products rule is a short two page rule which closely follows statutory language. Rich noted that the public hearing on the proposed rule would take place in Montpelier on Tuesday October 6th. He also pointed out that in the pre-rulemaking comment period, which produced 50 distinct comments from 20 different sources, efforts to make the rule more closely follow House Natural Resources & Energy Committee wording were challenged for not adhering to the law as passed. This amendment to the Solid Waste Management Rules only addressed manufacturer labeling of mercury-added consumer products. In the discussion that followed:

Brian Fitzgerald, from the Air Pollution Control Program explained that the incinerator emissions section of the act was still under legal review and is being dealt with separately from the product labeling rule. He noted that an interpretive memorandum describing how the Agency interpreted key statutory terms (like "incinerator" and "Federal Law") would be available to the committee by its next meeting. Senator Ready voiced her hope that the Agency’s interpretation would not narrow the intent of her committee. Bill Bress also advised the group that the Department of Health would also be coming out with recommendations for the removal of mercury from schools within a month.

Two other matters were briefly touched upon by the Committee. With respect to the issue of the size and form of the Committee’s first report to the Legislature in January, the initial thought was that the report would be relatively brief (2-3 pages detailing which issues on which the committee had chosen to focus). With respect to how the committee would respond to matters relating to implementation of the labeling law, the committee indicated its interest in being kept informed about what requests were being made for alternative labeling.

Following this discussion, Representative Deen summarized the issues before the committee and suggested some priorities for how the committee deal with them. The issues, in order, were:

clarifications to the statutory language - how the Agency is interpreting that language and what changes should be made to it
the Claremont incinerator issue - what recommendations should be made to Legislature and the possibilities for agreements with New Hampshire
the ANR School Lab Cleanout project and whether the towns and districts can do it
public outreach under ACT 151 and the relative roles of state and municipalities
health risks to susceptible populations - how we are measuring it and what to do next

The Chair suggested these issues alone would more than fill the next meeting date and proposed to limit consideration to these issues for the next meeting.

Updating summaries of Agency data bases for the January report to the legislature.

Following this summary, the next meeting date was set for all day on Thursday, November 5th. This meeting will be at the Burlington Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant Conference Room.


		Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Advisory Committee on Mercury Pollution