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NARSTO Workshop on Innovative Methods for Emission Inventory Development and Evaluation University of Texas, Austin October 14-17, 2003 |
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Poster 25: The US Mercury Emission Inventory for the Arctic Council Mercury Project
Karen Rackley, EPA Office of Research and Development
Anne Pope, EPA Office of Air and Radiation
David Mobley, Stan Durkee, and Doug Steele, EPA Office of Research and Development
Marilyn Engle, EPA Office of International Affairs
The Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum addressing common concerns faced by the governments and people of the Arctic (www.arctic-council.org), has decided to act to reduce exposures to a number of priority pollutants in the Arctic region, and therefore, has initiated a mercury project via the Arctic Council Action Plan (ACAP). The Danish EPA is leading the project with a Steering Group comprised of representatives from all eight Arctic countries, i.e., Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. The overall project objective is to contribute to a decrease of mercury releases from Arctic countries. This will be accomplished partly by contributing to the development of a common regional framework for an action plan for the decrease of mercury emissions, and partly by evaluating and selecting one or a few specific point sources for implementation of control measures. It is felt that the decrease of mercury releases from key sources should serve as a demonstration of existing possibilities, giving inspiration to other control measures in the region.
The first step in the project is the development of an inventory of mercury releases to the air, land, and water. Characterization of mercury usage and its disposition will provide the framework for an action plan and strategy for decreasing the amount of mercury in the environment. A detailed questionnaire, now being completed by each Arctic country, was developed to ensure consistency in reporting and, thereby, allow comparisons among data in different countries. These data include key information on modeling parameters for major industrial sources (e.g., latitude/longitude, stack parameters, chemical composition, and emissions control technology).
EPA completed the U.S. portion of the questionnaire to provide data and information to the project. All data are publicly available and most are from EPA inventories, e.g., the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) for air emissions and the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for solid waste disposal and water discharges. The results characterize the mobilization of mercury in the US to the air, land, and water. Air releases are the primary contributor to mercury contamination. The most significant air source category in the United States is coal combustion. Other sources of air emissions include gold mining, chlor-alkali plants, municipal and medical waste combustors/incinerators, and industrial combustors. The overwhelming contributor to total releases is land disposal associated with minerals mining, predominately gold mining, which is bound up with other substances; however, the environmental impact of this action is uncertain. The data indicated that there were minimal discharges of mercury to water bodies.
The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) is participating in this project and is considering this work for application to other regional programs and developing/re-industrializing countries. In addition to serving as a model for international data exchange on mercury and other pollutants, the ACAP project should result in availability of data to enable assessment of mercury issues in the Arctic. The overall project is to help intended to identify research opportunities for engineering demonstrations that provide scientific information on mercury control options in the Arctic and around the world.