A drop in the mercury

Though it isn’t something you’re expected to worry about, there’s a glut of mercury on the world market these days, brought on by a drop in its use – from industrial, such as chlorine production, which once used lots but now uses virtually none in the United States, to household items such as thermometers and thermostats. The glut presents the real possibility of mercury being dumped illegally, causing environmental damage as well as a threat to human health.

You don’t have to worry about the mercury glut, but the state does because HoltraChem Manufacturing Co. in Orrington, a chlorine plant, recently closed and has 260,000 pounds of mercury it must do something with. Preferably, something safe.

The state has backed a good suggestion in this regard. It recently proposed that, rather than have HoltraChem sell it in the market and add to the glut, Maine or, better, the federal government, should buy the heavy metal and let the Department of Defense add it to the 9.7 million pounds of mercury it currently has stored at five sites throughout the country. Given the toxicity of mercury – it can cause damage to nervous systems, blindness, deafness, kidney damage – and that it can travel around the world before falling in places like Maine, which already has particularly high mercury levels in its lakes and streams, the $100,000 to $200,000 price for HoltraChem’s supply seems reasonable.

There are problems with this plan. Most prominently, the Defense Logistics Agency, which manages the stockpiles, doesn’t know what it will do with the mercury it is saving and there is some debate about what ought to be done. It is possible that Maine would buy the mercury to take it out of production, ship it to DOD, which could then sell it on the market. And it is hard to escape the similarities between this storage problem and the one with the high-level waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants. Really permanent storage is a daunting responsibility.

But at least with the Defense option, there is a chance that the mercury will be out of use and won’t return to Maine in future rainfall. Given that among the first questions when HoltraChem’s closure was announced was whether it would properly clean up the Orrington site, taking this mercury out of production would be a good sign that the state is committed to making sure the job is done right.