MERC Vermont | Advisory Committee on Mercury Pollution Meeting Minutes

Fourteenth Meeting: Thursday February 10, 2000
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Location: Vermont Statehouse, Ethan Allen Room
115 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont

Members Present:
Hollie Shaner, Fletcher Allen Health Care
Michael Bender, Abenaki Self-Help Association, Inc
William Bress, Vermont Department of Health
Richard Phillips, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources

Guests Present:
Jessica Ballantyne, guest
Jen Holliday, Chittenden Solid Waste
Theresa Feeley, National Electrical Manufacturers Association
Julie Hackbarth, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Waste Management Division
Jerry Morris, Auto Manufacturers Alliance
Karen Knaebel,Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Environmental Assistance

The Committee members and interested parties gathered in the Ethan Allen Room of the Vermont State House, 115 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont and the meeting was called to order by Hollie Shaner.

Agenda Item 1-
Accept minutes of the January 12^th and January 24^th meetings and changes to today’s agenda

Minutes from the January 12, 2000 and January 24, 2000 meetings were reviewed and accepted with no changes.

The items listed in the "Executive Summary" of the Committee’s January 2000 report were reviewed for prioritization to be used as a guideline for the Committee’s 2000 work plan. The Committee discussed useful methods to prioritize the recommendations and used a process with the items listed in the executive summary of the report to determine if the recommendation:

The Committee determined that "ongoing" initiatives should be set aside in a separate category. It was also decided that items 1 and 7 under the "Other Initiatives" section should be included in the Legislative Initiatives for purposes of evaluation of priorities in conjunction with the Committee’s work plan.

The seven "legislative initiatives" were ranked by the Committee to determine the degree of political opposition to each recommendation. The seven recommendations above were ranked as "1" having the least opposition to "7" having the greatest as follows:

*Recommendation*	*Rank*
Amendment of the mercury law	3
Restrict sale of mercury fever thermometers	5
Stringent mercury emission standards for incinerators	4
Future elimination of solid waste incineration	6
Comprehensive mercury legislation for next session	7
Funding for the continuation of Vermont Monitoring Cooperative	2
Funding for dairy manometer collection, replacement and disposal program	1

In the Executive Summary of the Committee’s January 2000 Report the "Other Initiatives" were discussed and reviewed as to whether the initiative required Funding, if it would require some type of Education, if it was an Ongoing initiative and if it was National in scope. The following is a list of the "Other Initiatives" and the Committee’s ranking below. Comments in parentheses are additional information relevant to discussion by the Committee on the specific initiative.

Funding for the continuation of Vermont Monitoring Cooperative. (This item was addressed in the legislative recommendations)
Coordination of information outreach between the Agency of Natural Resources and the Department of Health.
A statewide survey to assess consumption rate of ocean fish in sensitive populations.
Continued support of School Science Lab Chemical and Mercury Clean-Out Project.
Funding and development of mercury education and reduction programs. (Agency formed a task force which is looking at mercury education-committee’s recommendations will influence what areas will be focused on)
The development of mercury training programs on mercury device removal. (Suggestion from solid waste districts for 4 full day training sessions - per year - $10,000 estimated cost)
Funding of a dairy manometer collection, replacement, and disposal program. (Revisit possible additional funding amount - is $15,000 adequate?)
Development and funding of a collaborative fever thermometer exchange and mercury-free thermometer give-away program. (Primary cost is to purchase thermometers-10% of Vermont’s population - approx. 60,000 people at $3. Per thermometer - $180,000 - provide money to Health Department for low income populations- ban an important contributing factor - some solid waste districts have already done exchange programs)
Educational outreach programs to the health care community to encourage reduced use of mercury fever thermometers and other mercury-containing medical devices.
The Vermont State Dental Society’s outreach initiatives to dental offices that encourage the adoption of best management practices for waste management and mercury recycling. Continue to communicate with the Dental Society to monitor the success of these outreach efforts. (i.e. working in cooperation with the state to develop a survey)
The establishment of voluntary pledge programs.
Expansion of the "Universal Waste" provisions.
Continued participation by Vermont in the Mercury Task Force and other regional workgroups.
Vermont’s lawsuit with the USEPA against mid-western coal-fired power plants.
Federal legislation (S.673) and (S.1949) introduced by Senator Leahy to control mercury emissions.

Initiatives

Funding

Education

Ongoing

National

Committee to identify gaps in education and identify methods to obtain funding. To be added as work item in Committee’s work plan.
Agency to format a work plan to distribute to Committee prior to March meeting.
First seven items in "legislative initiatives" to be initial priorities in work plan.
Item "4" in "other initiatives" to be put aside as initiative is ongoing.
Items "13,14, & 15" in "other initiatives" are to be tabled for the present.
"Other initiative" items to be included in priorities in work plan are items (2,3,5,6,8,9,10,11 & 12)
Item 3 discussed fish sampling for educating sensitive populations on consumption of fish with lower levels of mercury (to determine if item should be included in work plan).

The Committee ranked items (2,3,5,6,8,9,10,11 & 12), "other initiatives" into High, Medium or Low priority as follows:

Initiatives	2	3	5	6	8	9	10	11	12
High			X	X	X	X
Medium							X	X
Low	X	X							X

Agenda Item 3-
Committee’s 2000 Work Plan

This agenda item was deferred due to time limitations and is an agenda item for the March meeting of the Committee.

The Committee decided to draft a work plan which would identify specific tasks for each initiative, define the steps to implement and determine who would be assigned to work on each specific project or action.

Agenda Item 4-
Other topics not on agenda.

Hollie Shaner advised the Committee that she and Tim Scherbatskoy had received an Email message from Ric Erdheim and he had raised question in reference to the NEWMOA letter written on behalf of the Committee. Mr. Erdheim believed that his objections to the letter were not included in the letter as had been discussed and agreed upon by the Committee. Karen Knaebel advised that she did not receive the Email but would research the letter and contact Hollie Shaner, as she was certain the information had been placed in the letter regarding Mr. Erdheim’s opposition.

Jerry Morris with the Auto Manufacturers Alliance addressed the Committee and advised that there was "No agreement between the Auto Manufacturers Alliance and the Agency of Natural Resources on labeling for automobiles."
The Committee was advised of a workshop on mercury in products, processes, waste and the environment sponsored by the EPA which is to be held in Baltimore, Maryland on March 22-23, 2000 at the Omni Inner Harbor Hotel. Rich Phillips also advised of an EPA/States meeting on March 20-21 at the same location to bring together program managers and staff involved in mercury reduction efforts to share their experiences and information.

Agenda Item 5-
Set date and agenda for next meeting

The next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Mercury Pollution is to be held on Thursday, March 9, 2000 - 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Vermont State House, Ethan Allen Room, 115 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont.


		Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Advisory Committee on Mercury Pollution