DENVER – Western governors are concerned that five of seven states being considered as the storage site for the nation’s excess mercury are in the West.
The Denver-based Western Governors’ Association sent a letter Monday to the Department of Energy requesting a comprehensive assessment of the sites that includes the risks of transporting the highly toxic material.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweizter, the group’s chairman, and Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, vice chairman, wrote that the West already shoulders a disproportionate share of the burden of storing hazardous waste from the nation’s weapons production and commerce.
“The West is willing to do its share but the region should not become the dumping ground for all of the Nation’s waste problems,” the two wrote.
The Department of Energy is considering sites in Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Missouri and South Carolina. Some of the mercury is from industrial and weapons uses.
A bill sponsored last year by then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama bars exports of surplus elemental mercury, the purest form. The exports have often gone to developing countries with less restrictive environmental regulations.
The bill, signed by President George W. Bush, also requires the energy department to identify a safe, long-term storage site for up to 17,000 tons of mercury.
The department plans to have a mercury storage site selected and operational by 2013.
The Colorado site being considered is south of Grand Junction, about 240 miles west of Denver and near a federal dump for uranium waste. Gov. Bill Ritter opposes storing the mercury there, saying the waste should be stored close to where it’s generated. He also notes the site is close to the Colorado River, one of the major water sources in the West.