Reducing Mercury Pollution in NY Harbor
The Academy and a handful of local and federal entities have teamed up on a multi-year effort to lessen pollution in this vital natural asset.
Published August 1, 2002
By Fred Moreno, Dan Van Atta, Jill Stolarik, and Jennifer Tang
Academy Contributors
New York harbor is a vital natural asset whose ecological health has been threatened by contamination from a host of sources since the dawn of the urban/industrial era. Despite substantial water quality improvements following environmental laws enacted over the past four decades and decreased industrial activity, much remains to be done.
The New York Academy of Sciences’ (the Academy) on-going Harbor Project was commissioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in 1998. Its goal is to identify practical solutions to the difficult issues that continue to plague this precious watershed. Called “Industrial Ecology, Pollution Prevention and the NY/NJ Harbor,” the project is focused on finding environmentally sound, economically feasible and realistically achievable strategies for combating specific contaminants that are polluting the harbor.
Mercury was identified as the first pollutant for study. Results of this study are now available in a recently published monograph entitled “Pollution Prevention and Management Strategies for Mercury in the NY/NJ Harbor.”
Conducted by scientists with particular knowledge of mercury in this watershed, the results were analyzed and synthesized by the Academy staff and reviewed and endorsed by the NY/NJ Harbor Consortium, a coalition of interested business, regulatory, labor, academic and environmental organizations that was launched in January 2000. Professor Charles W. Powers, chair of the Harbor Consortium, characterized the mercury study as “audacious in scope, rigorous in its scientific and analytic conclusions, and bold in its recommendations affecting a wide variety of institutional interests and practices.”
Health Sector Identified
The report’s recommendations, made public at a June 25 press conference in New York, contain a number of specific measures intended to prevent further pollution of the harbor. Primary emphasis was put on actions needed in the health care sector – especially dental facilities, hospitals and laboratories – to prevent mercury releases to the watershed.
Although contamination from atmospheric deposition and solid waste sources, such as landfills, also were analyzed and assessed, the Harbor Consortium chose wastewater strategies as its first priority. That’s because wastewater is both the largest direct source of mercury and the most significant source of methyl mercury in the NY/NJ Harbor. Landfills and wastewater treatment facilities provide ideal conditions for methylation – the process that chemically transforms inorganic mercury into methyl mercury under the right environmental conditions.
Specifically, the Academy report recommended that:
– Dentists and dental facilities implement a two-tiered approach that, first, institutes filtration, collection and recycling in the short term and, second, moves toward replacement of amalgams with safe, durable and cost-effective alternatives.
– Hospitals substitute non-mercury alternatives for mercury-containing products, like thermometers and blood pressure gauges, and that they prevent breakage of existing mercury-containing products through proper maintenance.
– Laboratories substitute non-mercury alternatives for mercury-containing products, and take steps to prevent mercury discharges to sewers. In addition, the report provided specific strategies for implementing its recommendations. One strategy suggested for the dental sector, for example, called for development of programs to promote economically feasible filtration technologies and encourage the collection and recycling of mercury in amalgam.
Laboratories are advised to implement a non-mercury purchasing policy and to install filter systems to reduce mercury discharges or capture all discharge solutions for recycling or treatment. The report also recommended phasing out the sale of all mercury thermometers, expanding educational campaigns to inform the public about the health risks associated with spills from broken thermometers and other devices, and implementing collection and take-back programs.
The Best of Science
Dr. Rashid Shaikh, director of Programs for the Academy, noted that one of the novel aspects of this project has been the involvement and commitment of participants from a wide variety of institutions and a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.
“The Academy has a long history of helping to illuminate environmental issues by bringing together the best of science to bear on analyses of solutions,” Shaikh said. “We believe this report adds significantly to the work being done to prevent further pollution of our Harbor through measures that are appropriate environmentally, economically and technologically.”
Evaluation and Risk Management
The project enables a group of experts – including scientists studying problems associated with mercury, regulatory agencies responsible for protecting the Harbor, and representatives from the industries and businesses whose livelihoods depend on the use of mercury – to discuss the issues and possible solutions in an open forum.
Referring to this process, Dr. Powers, who also heads a multi-university environmental research effort and is professor of Environmental and Community Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center, called the report “a rare synthesis of evaluation and risk management.”
Funding for the mercury study was provided by the USEPA, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Abby R. Mauzé Trust, AT&T Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, and J.P. Morgan. The 113-page document was written by Marta Panero and Susan Boehme, of the Academy staff, and Allison de Cerreño, previous director of the Harbor Project and currently co-director of the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University.
Also read: The Environmental Impact of ‘Silent Spring’
