"Polluter Pays" Paying Off in Rhode Island - Part 2

By Jamie Rhodes, Rhode Island State Director (Follow Jamie on Twitter - @jrhodes97) Read part one here After Southern Union was found guilty of illegally storing mercury in Pawtucket, Judge William E. Smith, in an unprecedented move, in his opinion stated "I am inviting the parties, and the greater environmental community, to suggest community service obligations that I could impose upon Southern Union which would have the broadest possible impact." Clean Water has been a leader in the Rhode Island community for developing campaigns designed to reduce the use of mercury in products and meters and provide for the safe recycling of items that contain it. A proposal was submitted that would provide us funding to advance efforts to collect mercury thermostats and create a collection program for CFLs, which contain mercury. At the end of 2013, Judge Smith announced that Clean Water would be among the recipients of part of these funds, along with the RI Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the City of Pawtucket. Our first effort has been focused on mercury thermostats. Thanks to our Rhode Island friends, allies and members, we passed a law back in 2010 that requires mercury thermostat manufacturers, through the Thermostat Recycling Corporation (TRC), to provide for safe and convenient recycling of old mercury containing thermostats.  TRC collected 1,068 thermostats in 2011 and 1,543 in 2012, which fell far below the law's requirements to get 2,000 in the first year and 2,250 in the second. Seeing this discrepancy, it is necessary to find out how many thermostats may still be out there. This need is compounded by the fact that DEM is required to set collection goals for 2015 and beyond. Using the funds from the Southern Union case, Clean Water worked with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to commission just such a study. Today, the study was released, and it shows that too many thermostats are still out there being thrown into landfills and incinerators. The report indicates almost 260,000 mercury thermostats are still in use in Rhode Island, and that an average of 8,900-11,400 mercury thermostats will become waste annually in each of the 2014-2019 calendar years.  TRC is not collecting the vast majority of mercury thermostats available for collection in Rhode Island, or anywhere else as recently documented by the U.S. Geologic Survey. All of this leads us to the amount of work that still needs to be done to ensure that mercury is being properly collected and safely recycled in Rhode Island and the rest of the country. Rhode Island is but one small state that needs to figure out how to manage the tons of mercury that is being stored in the homes of millions of Americans. This effort would not be possible without the funds associated with one company's criminal negligence in managing this potent neurotoxin. Let us all hope that the next advancement can happen without a such a headline step backwards.