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AMSA Seeks Critical Improvements to EPA's Mercury Strategy

 AMSA continues to be out in front in its efforts to ensure that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) effort to reduce mercury in the environment will not unnecessarily and adversely impact the nation's wastewater treatment agencies. With the promulgation of new, more sensitive mercury detection methods and EPA's tightening of water quality criteria for mercury, AMSA has worked extensively to gather further data and inform EPA of the issues mercury poses to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs), in an effort to ensure compliance.

AMSA Leads on Mercury Issues
AMSA is actively engaged in a number of projects intended to provide further information on the sources of mercury in sewerage systems and the effectiveness of local pollution prevention programs in reducing mercury. The Association recently met with EPA water officials to discuss these issues.

AMSA Mercury Study Produces Startling Results
AMSA's Mercury Workgroup has recently completed a report, “Evaluation of Domestic Sources of Mercury,” which provided valuable information to the Agency on the compliance issues that mercury levels in domestic wastewater pose to POTWs. This study was conducted to determine the domestic — as opposed to industrial or commercial — contribution to mercury levels in POTWs' influent. The results show an average mercury level in domestic wastewater of 138 parts per trillion, 80 percent of which is directly from humans, either from mercury-containing foods or amalgam dental fillings.

Findings Raise Compliance Concerns
Even if mercury is at 100 parts per trillion in domestic sewage it still presents compliance issues for POTWs, the report notes. This is because POTWs remove 99 percent of mercury from wastewater before discharge, and new water quality standards for mercury are expected to be set at the 1 part per trillion level. Although municipal wastewater discharges account for an estimated 1 percent of mercury entering the environment, POTWs might be required to make huge capital expenditures in order to meet a mercury standard of 1 part per trillion.

The report supports AMSA's recommendation that pollution minimization efforts alone may not be adequate to produce the desired level of permit compliance sought by regulatory authorities. The report was distributed to AMSA members via Regulatory Update 00-16 and is available on AMSA's web site.

AMSA Urges Review of Mercury Method 245.7
In an effort to save POTWs millions in lab costs, AMSA is urging EPA to begin the approval process for mercury method 245.7. This method is nearly as sensitive as a newly approved method, but costs only a fraction as much as the other method. If AMSA is successful in winning approval for method 245.7 the nation's POTWs will save an estimated $17.6 million a year in lab costs. Further information from an EPA-supported study of the effectiveness of pollution prevention methods for obtaining POTW mercury compliance is currently underway and results are expected next year. AMSA will continue to update the membership on developments regarding mercury through Regulatory Alerts, FaxAlerts, and other AMSA publications.