Mercury Vapor Lights a Source for Concern Where Coal-Fired Plants Abound
I don’t know if many people are aware that mercury vapor lights are being phased out. I went to get a socket extender at an electrical supply company and the notices were on the counter. It’s due to their mercury content. We pretty much have voluntary disposal policy in Michigan as far as batteries, bulbs, and stuff with mercury in them. I guess they don’t trust us from throwing them into landfills that aren’t designated as toxic. What I really want to know is what’s going on in the minds of those that created the new policy about mercury vapor lights? Have they noticed the large amount of coal-fired plants in Michigan?
The Detroit Free Press just had an article about Michigan’s unwillingness to just stop. Stop building more coal-fired plants. We’ve lost population. The idea of needing 7 more coalburners as the article pointed out is absurd. And Detroit is making a new area downtown for technical type business and hopefully green business. I keep asking what green businesses will buy into a state that supports fossil fuel plants? Luke warm “green” isn’t enticing.
So I ask you: Is this not a ludicrous ruling—no more mercury vapor lights? Awful lot of farmers in Michigan and people like me with a pole barn with a mercury vapor light illuminating the entire yard out of darkness. I have no problem recycling my vapor lights, but how about regulating the coal-fired plants that some studies estimate dump 2591 lbs. of mercury the atmosphere annually in Michigan. People can dispute all they want. But the state of Michigan “has had a statewide fish consumption advisory for inland lakes since 1988. The advisory warns against eating more than one meal a week of rock bass, perch or crappie over nine inches in length, or any size largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, northern pike or muskie from inland lakes. Women of childbearing age and children under age 15 are advised not to eat more than one meal of these fish per month.” While airborne mercury poses no problem, when it hits earth, groundwater, streams, and creeks there is a problem.
Not eat fish more than once a month? That’s a little frightening to me. It tells just how much of that mercury blanketed water. Over a ton of mercury is deposited onto everything in Michigan every year, to me, that means 10 tons of mercury over ten years that doesn’t completely go away. I think we need to step up to plate in Michigan and make the changes that really have an impact on cleaning up our environment and show by example we are in earnest about being a “green” state. And while we’re at it can we please mandate bottle returns on those plastic water bottles? It drives me nuts knowing they end up in landfills and virtually never break down not in the next few lifetimes anyway.
If you want to read more about Michigan and mercury this covers just about everything and if it’s not here the people to contact are:http://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-ess-ECOSMercurySurvey1-10-05final.pdf.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I agree, so lets build nuclear plants NOW….and not just here but in the whole country….lets stop our dependence on coal. lets build wind towers also. this will take no time to do as they are going up fast everywhere, except where teddy k can see them.
November 29th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
We need to get moving on something. Geothermal has got everyone intrigued the most lately. Tapping into that type of heat for steam from the earth is a viable way to replace many megawatts of power at a time. A little of this, a little of that. It would work. Did you know Pres. Bush uses geothermal power at his Crawford ranch?
March 24th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
So of my favorite fishing areas have now become infested with “gunk” and green filmy waters that ruin the fish for eatable feasting.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
At least your descriptive, and that kind of pollution would be easy to see. But sorry to say, see my sources? Trouble with mercury is that we can be fed baloney about it being only so dangerous. Truth is once it is in the water and hits bottom it transforms because of the algae and turns into a very lethal form of methymercury. Wikipedia: Because methylmercury is formed in aquatic systems and because it is not readily eliminated from organisms it is biomagnified in aquatic food chains from bacteria, to plankton, through macroinvertebrates, to herbivorous fish and to piscivorous (fish-eating) fish. At each step in the food chain, the concentration of methylmercury in the organism increases. The concentration of methylmercury in the top level aquatic predators can reach a level a million times higher than the level in the water. This is because methylmercury has a half-life of about 72 days in aquatic organisms, attributing to its bioaccumulation within these food chains. Organisms, including humans,[4] fish-eating birds, and fish eating mammals such as otters and whales that consume fish from the top of the aquatic food chain receive the methylmercury that has accumulated through this process. Fish and other aquatic species are the only significant source of human methylmercury exposure.
So you throw it back. You’re still fishing. Eat small perch. If I had my way the water would look like it did when Hiawatha first saw it.