Mercury Study Report to Congress

By Environmental Protection Agency

Book Id: WPLBN0000155595
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 1.65 MB
Reproduction Date: 2007

Title:	Mercury Study Report to Congress
Author:	Environmental Protection Agency
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Ecology, Natural resource issues, Environemtal protection
Collections:	Environmental Awareness Library Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	United States Environmental Protection Agency


Citation APA MLA Chicago Protection Agency, B. E. (n.d.). Mercury Study Report to Congress. Retrieved from http://self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Excerpt: Section 112(n)(1)(B) of the Clean Air Act (CAA), as amended in 1990, requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to submit a study on atmospheric mercury emissions to Congress. The sources of emissions that must be studied include electric utility steam generating units, municipal waste combustion units and other sources, including area sources. Congress directed that the Mercury Study evaluate many aspects of mercury emissions, including the rate and mass of emissions, health and environmental effects, technologies to control such emissions and the costs of such controls. In response to this mandate, U.S. EPA has prepared an eight-volume Mercury Study Report to Congress. This volume -- Volume II of the Report to Congress -- estimates emissions of mercury from anthropogenic sources and provides abbreviated process descriptions, control technique options, emission factors and activity levels for these sources. The information contained in this volume will be useful in identifying source categories that emit mercury, in selecting potential candidates for mercury emission reductions and in evaluating possible control technologies or materials substitution/elimination that could be used to achieve these reductions (as presented in Volume VIII of this Report to Congress). The emissions data presented here also served as input data to U.S. EPA's local impact analyses and long-range transport model that assessed the dispersion of mercury emissions nationwide (as presented in Volume III of this Report to Congress).

Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page U.S. EPA AUTHORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii SCIENTIFIC PEER REVIEWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv WORK GROUP AND U.S. EPA/ORD REVIEWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x LIST OF SYMBOLS, UNITS AND ACRONYMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ES-1 1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 1.1 Overview of Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 1.2 Study Approach and Uncertainties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 1.3 Organization of the Rest of the Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 2. TRENDS IN MERCURY CONSUMPTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 3. ANTHROPOGENIC AREA SOURCES OF MERCURY EMISSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1 3.1 Electric Lamp Breakage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1 3.2 General Laboratory Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7 3.3 Dental Preparation and Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7 3.4 Municipal Solid Waste Landfills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7 3.5 Mobile Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8 3.6 Paint Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8 3.7 Agricultural Burning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9 3.8 Other Area Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10 4. ANTHROPOGENIC POINT SOURCES OF MERCURY EMISSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1 4.1 Combustion Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1 4.1.1 Utility Boilers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3 4.1.2 Municipal Waste Combustors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-15 4.1.3 Commercial/Industrial Boilers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-26 4.1.4 Medical Waste Incinerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-27 4.1.5 Hazardous Waste Combustors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-30 4.1.6 Residential Boilers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-32 4.1.7 Sewage Sludge Incinerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-33 4.1.8 Wood Combustion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-35 4.1.9 Crematories . . . .