Prescription for Mercury and PCB Elimination

Prescription for Mercury and PCB Elimination Mercury and PCB Reduction Guidance for Oil Refineries A joint project between City of Superior Wastewater Division of Public Works and Murphy Oil USA Superior Refinery Prescription for Mercury and PCB Elimination Mercury and PCB Reduction Guidance for Oil Refineries Report prepared and printed using funds from the following grant: Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office Grant # GL-97516901-0 Acknowledgements: Thanks to Murphy employees: Liz Lundmark (Environmental Manager), Corey Mead (Environmental Engineer), Paul Velin (Warehouse), John Peterson (Laboratory) and Brad Carlson (Instrument Department) for their help at Murphy Oil Refinery. Special thanks goes to Zada Talus, formerly at Superior’s Wastewater Division of Public Works (WDPW), for her work establishing contacts, conducting the mercury inventory, compiling the information for this report, and contributing several early drafts of the report. Diane Thompson, Jane Ed- wards, and Bonita Martin from the WDPW also provided helpful reference material, information, and guidance. Kari Jacobson Hedin prepared the final version of this report. Report prepared by: City of Superior Wastewater Division of Public Works Pollution Prevention Team Kari Jacobson Hedin Zada Talus Diane Thompson Jane Edwards See the Murphy Project online and obtain an electronic copy of the report at: http://www.ci.superior.wi.us/publicwks/wastewater/MurphyProject.htm Printed on recycled paper March 2005 Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………. 1 A Voluntary Pollution Reduction Program at Murphy Oil Refinery………... 2 Diagnosis: Mercury and PCBs Cause Environmental Distress………………….. 3 What You Should Know About Mercury…………………………………………………… 3 9 What You Should Know About PCBs……………………………………………………… Collaborating to Devise a Treatment Plan for a Healthy Lake Superior………… 12 Take Your Medicine: A Voluntary Approach to Fix the Pollution Problem………. 13 How to Write Your Own Prescription for Mercury and PCB Elimination………… 14 A Remedy for Mercury Use at Murphy Oil…………………………………………. 18 Tracking Down the Source of the Disease………………………………………………... 22 How Serious is the Disease?......................................................................................... 22 Keeping the Laboratory Disease-Free…………………………………………………….. 24 What to do if the Disease Spreads…………………………………………………………. 26 Prevent the Disease at its Source………………………………………………………….. 26 Results of the Mercury Inventory at Murphy Oil…………………………………… 28 A Remedy for PCB Use at Murphy Oil……………………………………………... 30 A PCB Checkup………………………………………………………………………………. 30 The Healing Process………………………………………………………………………… 32 Healthy Alternatives …………………………………………………………………………. 32 A Long-Term Plan for Staying Healthy……………………………………………… 33 Appendices……………………………………………………………………………. 35 References……………………………………………………………………………. 57 Introduction Imagine several biologists in northern Wisconsin studying the reproductive success of fish-eating water birds such as herons and loons. Over several years of the study, the biologists notice certain patterns: some the adults are not producing as many young as they once did, and several birds are displaying behavioral abnor- malities. To find the causes for what they see, the biologists run tests to determine the concentration of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the tissues of some of these birds. When the tests show the concentrations of these toxins are high, the biologists are faced with new questions: Are the patterns they have been noticing due to these pollutants? If they are, what can be done to reduce mercury and PCBs release into the environment, where they can get into the food chain and affect the health of predators that eat fish, including humans? These biologists are much like doctors, only they are not diagnosing the causes of a disease in an indi- vidual patient, but the factors that are causing ailments in entire ecosystems. Just like doctors, they must first find what is causing the problem. Then they must determine a course of action to reduce or eliminate the problem, though it is much more difficult than simply writing a prescription for a bottle of medicine. Most environmental problems have many sources, and it takes the combined efforts of govern- ments, communities, and independent organizations to decide on an effective and comprehensive cure. A biologist studies levels of mercury and PCBs in loons 1 A Voluntary Pollution Reduction Program at Murphy Oil Refinery This guidance manual is a prescription to reduce mercury and PCBs in the environment. It gives direction to employees at oil refineries and other industries who want to learn how to reduce the mercury and PCBs they use in their daily operations, and it also shows how voluntary partnerships between industry and governmental organizations can work to enhance pollution prevention initiatives. This guide uses as a case study the PCB- and mercury- reduction efforts at Murphy Oil USA Superior Refinery (Murphy Oil), a 35,000 barrel-a-day refinery on Stinson Avenue in Superior, Wisconsin. In 2001, Murphy Oil and the City of Superior Wastewater Division of Public Works (WDPW) entered into a voluntary partnership to develop a pollution prevention guidebook for refineries and other industries interested in reducing use of mercury and PCBs. WDPW staff, with the assistance of Murphy employees, conducted an inventory of mercury at Murphy and re- viewed Murphy’s removal activities for PCBs. This was done in an effort to work towards the elimination of devices containing mercury and PCBs at Murphy Oil and provide a case study for the guidebook. Murphy Oil is joining other industries, including three steel mills in Indiana (Ispat Inland, USS Gary Works, and Bethlehem Steel) that partnered with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the Indiana Department of Environ- mental Management in efforts to reduce the use of mercury- and PCB-containing products and incidental releases of these pollutants. HOW CAN YOU USE THIS PRESCRIPTION? 1) To learn about the environmental and health problems caused by mercury and PCBs. 2) To put together a voluntary pollution reduction plan for mercury and PCBs, develop partnerships with other groups, and gather funding. 3) To use Murphy Oil Refinery’s pollution reduction efforts as a guide to discover ways to reduce mercury and PCBs in your own refinery. 4) To conduct an inventory of devices and products containing mercury and PCBs on site, properly document the results of this inventory, and insure the proper disposal of these products. 5) To develop a spill policy for mercury, phase out use and identify alternatives to mercury- and PCB-containing products, and organize a mercury-free purchasing policy. 2 Diagnosis: Mercury and PCBs Cause Environmental Distress The usefulness of mercury and PBCs and their many applications in industry is well known – their negative impact on the environment has been much harder to recog- nize. Only in the recent past have we begun to understand the risks posed by these materials when they are used in industry. What You Should Know About Mercury The expression “mad as a hatter” comes from 19th-century hat makers who used mercuric nitrate until the 1940s to aid in the felting process. 1, 2 Hat-makers in Dan- bury, Connecticut developed a reputation for strange behavior that was eventually traced to their exposure to mercury, and the “Danbury shakes” was a term that re- ferred to the tremors that resulted from mercury poisoning. In extreme cases, people who have had repeated or excessive contact with mercury or mercury vapors have experienced a range of health and behavioral problems, from tremors, head- aches, insomnia, stumbling, and depression, to brain, liver, and kidney damage. 2.Many hatters eventually died of mercury poisoning. 1, 3 However, mercury doesn’t just cause health problems in people; it can get into the environment and lead to wide-ranging troubles, especially in aquatic ecosystems. Mercury: A Useful but Dangerous Metal: Even during Roman times, mercury’s usefulness and toxicity were well known. Slaves who were sent to mine cinnabar, the mineral that contains mercury, were basically given a death sentence — they only survived 2 or 3 years in the mines. Mercury is most familiar in its elemental form, often called quicksilver, where it exists as a shiny silver-white liquid at room temperature. The letters “Hg” represent the ele- Elemental mercury droplets ment mercury on the Periodic Table of the Ele- sitting atop cinnabar ments. As the only liquid metal, it is a good electrical conductor and it expands and contracts uniformly in response to changes in temperature and pressure. 2 Elemen- tal mercury is used in many instruments, including thermometers, barometers, and electrical switches (Table 1). 3 All the mercury in use today was originally acquired from natural sources; it continues to be mined from mercuric sulfide (cinnabar) in the earth. 2 Though mercury can also be released from natural sources such as volcanic eruptions, much of the mercury that makes its way into the environment comes from anthropogenic (human-caused) sources (Table 1). Mer- cury can be released from coal-burning power plants, during the manufacture of mercury- containing products, metal mining, and the use of chemicals. And humans don’t just put mercury in the air. Mercury can also make its way from wastewater into our lakes, rivers, and oceans (Figure 1). The deposition rates of mercury

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