US Update

US Update

27th November 2006

Energy Dept. Considers Sale of Mercury Stockpile; Sen.Obama, Health Advocates Instead Domestic Storage of Dangerous Neurotoxin

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Nov. 27 -/E-Wire/--

The U.S. Department of Energy is being urged to store rather than sell its 1300+ metric tons of surplus mercury on the world market.

In a recent letter to DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman, U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) "...strongly urged the Department of Energy to ensure that mercury stockpiles remain within the possession of the U.S. government."

The senator was joined by the Zero Mercury Working Group and Natural Resources Defense Council in warning that U.S. mercury exports could wreak havoc in developing countries and then "boomerang" back to the U.S.

"We've got to stop the cycle of toxic trade in mercury which winds up polluting the fish we eat," said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project and cofounder of the Zero Mercury Working Group, a coalition of 48 public interest NGOs working worldwide to reduce mercury uses, releases and exposures, and store surplus mercury.

"There is no question that mercury from this sale would find its way up the food chain, onto our plates, and into our bodies," said Dr. Linda Greer, an environmental toxicologist and director of NRDC's Environmental Health Program. "Inviting less developed countries to a close-out sale on surplus American poison is sheer lunacy given what we know about how easily mercury moves around the globe."

Advocates suggest that DOE follow the lead of the Defense Department which due to global environmental concerns decided to store rather than sell over 4,000 tons of its surplus mercury. They also support Senator Obama's legislation to ban mercury exports.

Sales of surplus mercury by DOE would place the U.S. Government at odds with states, said Bender. A March 2006 Environmental Council of States resolution states that "ECOS remains strongly opposed to U.S. mercury stockpile sales and recognizes that long-term storage of mercury is a federal responsibility."

"Given its prior support in 2005 for a new, soon-to-be-released UNEP mercury trade report, any U.S. Government sales now could be viewed as hypocritical," said Bender. "Instead, like recently proposed in the EU, the U.S. should ban mercury exports, both to reduce global pollution and exposure to millions of gold miners in developing countries." The DOE mercury stockpile is more than eight times the amount exported in 2004 by the U.S. Once used in weapons and other energy-related technologies, the mercury is now obsolete. Currently, most of DOE's mercury is stored at the Y-12 National Nuclear Security Administration in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Exposure to mercury can lead to neurological diseases and such developmental problems as learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders and mental retardation. Elevated mercury levels in adults can adversely affect fertility, blood pressure, and may contribute to heart-rate variability and heart disease.

For more information: http://www.mercurypolicy.org http://www.zeromercury.org http://www.nrdc.org

SOURCE: Mercury Policy Project

11-27-2006
CONTACT:
Michael Bender, 802-223-9000
WEB SITE: http://www.mercurypolicy.org
http://www.zeromercury.org

Vulcan battle ongoing as city considers mining ordinance

By Will Bigham, Claremont Courier

25th November 2006

As the city continues to battle Vulcan Materials Co., the Alabama-based mining company, over its effort to mine in northeast Claremont, the final draft of an ordinance that would set up a process for considering mining applications is scheduled to be passed next month by the planning commission and city council.

In February the State Mining and Geology Board admonished the city for not already having such an ordinance in place, which is required under the state's Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA).

City officials say the ordinance must be passed because, if it is not, the state will take away the city's authority to make decisions on mining operations. The ordinance will not have a direct or immediate effect on Vulcan's application to mine in Claremont.

"The state basically said we have to [pass the ordinance] because we have land that is designated as a significant mineral resource," said Senior Planner Greg Gubman, a city official who has been working on the mining issue since Vulcan first submitted its zone-change application in 2004. "This doesn't give anybody the right to mine, and it doesn't create a zoning that establishes mining as a use that's permitted by right."

The determination on whether Vulcan will be permitted to mine in Claremont is still one to two years down the line, city officials say, and the decision will be based on the merits of the application itself, not on anything contained in the ordinance.

"This is not a first step toward anything but allowing Vulcan to enter an application," said Derek Cole, an attorney for Best, Best & Krieger who is representing the city in its ongoing legal battle with Vulcan. "Nobody is judging Vulcan's application. That decision cannot be made until several more steps happen, so there's no attempt to prejudge the application one way or another."

But the nature of state law regarding mining is such that the decision is largely out of the city's hands. The ordinance is based on a state template, and the city in many ways is bound by the state in judging mining applications.

"If Vulcan submits a proposal, and the city can't find anything wrong with the proposal, and if it meets all the requirements of the state, then the city will probably not have a decision to deny the application," Mayor Peter Yao said. "And if we deny it on the basis of something outside SMARA, then chances are the state would veto it anyway. … Based on our understanding, that's the way the game is played."

The planning commission is scheduled to consider the ordinance at its December 5 meeting, and if the ordinance is passed, the city council will consider it on December 12. If the ordinance passes through the council, it will be forwarded for certification to the State Mining and Geology Board, which meets on December 14, Mr. Gubman said.

The ordinance, city officials say, is a very small part of the city's ongoing battle with Vulcan, which has held a lease on 214 acres of open space in northeast Claremont since the 1960s, always with the intent to mine.

The company hopes to extract 18 million to 22 million tons of sand, gravel and crushed rock from the land over a 10-year period. In the 1960s, the open-space parcel was distant from any residential development, but the city has since permitted the building of residential housing on property directly adjacent to Vulcan's land.

Opposition among residents to the proposed mining has been fierce. When the State Mining and Geology Board visited Claremont in February to hear an appeal from Vulcan, hundreds of impassioned residents packed the gymnasium at El Roble Intermediate School in protest.

Vulcan's leased land is currently zoned as open space, which in Claremont does not permit mining. The company appealed to the city to alter its code to allow mining on open-space parcels, but the city declined, citing fears that such a change would allow mining on far more property than just Vulcan's.

Vulcan appealed that decision to the State Mining and Geology Board, but the board declined to overturn the city's rejection. Vulcan has concurrently been waging a legal battle against the city over the same zoning issue.

The city's mining ordinance would not require the city to change the definition of open space zoning, or allow an alteration for Vulcan to permit mining, Mr. Gubman said.

But the city's unwillingness to do so, representatives for Vulcan maintain, violates state law because the land has been designated by the state as a significant mineral resource.