Standardized toolkit for identification and quantification of mercury releases

2.4Further reading

40. 
    During the last 10 years, a wealth of documentation on the mercury issue has been developed by UNEP and many stakeholders as part of UNEP's process towards negotiation of a global treaty on mercury pollution. Much of this material is available at UNEP's mercury website at http://www.unep.org/hazardoussubstances/Mercury/tabid/434/language/en-US/Default.aspx, and it is recommended for further reading.
    
41. 
    This Toolkit focuses on the preparation of a release inventory for mercury. It is aimed to cover all release pathways (air, water, land, products, residues, and wastes) from industrial and domestic activities by identifying all known source types (or categories), providing descriptions for most of these source categories, and a methodology for estimating releases. Similar work has also been done by a number of other organizations both at national, regional and international levels. Although different in scope and coverage, much information and expertise can be found in the documentation for this other similar work. These documents may also be consulted for further reading and application within the Toolkit. Some examples are given below together with the respective web addresses. In addition, references to more detailed documentation may be provided on specific issues throughout the various sections of this Toolkit. A list of these references can be found in chapter 6 of this Toolkit.
    
42. 
    The UNECE Protocol on Heavy Metals (1998) under the 1979 UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP): The Protocol targets mercury, along with two other particularly harmful metals: cadmium and lead. According to one of the basic obligations, Parties will have to reduce their emissions for these three metals below their levels in 1990 (or an alternative year between 1985 and 1995). The Protocol aims to cut emissions from industrial sources, combustion processes and waste incineration. Emission levels must be reported using as a minimum methodologies specified by the Steering Body of EMEP, the Cooperative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe. The EMEP/CORINAIR Emission Inventory Guidebook has been prepared as a guide to atmospheric inventory methodologies.
    URL for the Protocol: http://www.unece.org/env/lrtap/hm_h1.htm
    URL for EMEP: http://www.EMEP.int
    URL for the Guidebook: http://reports.eea.eu.int/EMEPCORINAIR3/en
    
43. 
    The Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area (Helsinki Convention): The Helsinki or HELCOM Commission works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental co-operation of member States.
    URL: http://www.helcom.fi/
    
44. 
    The OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment: The OSPAR Commission develops programmes and measures to identify, prioritize, monitor and control the emissions, discharges and losses of hazardous substances that reach, or could reach, the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic, with the ultimate aim of achieving concentrations in the marine environment near background values for naturally occurring substances and close to zero for man-made synthetic substances.
    URL: http://www.ospar.org/eng/html/welcome.html
    
45. 
    The Harmonised Quantification and Reporting Procedures for Hazardous Substances (HARP-HAZ): This project, run by the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT), promotes and co-ordinates reporting systems and procedures on emissions into the marine environment for the North Sea States and OSPAR member States, as a basis for transparent, reliable and comparable reports, including relevant sources, basic figures, calculation methods and emission factors.
    URL for SFT: http://www.sft.no/english/
    URL for HARP-HAZ: http://www.sft.no/english/harphaz/
    
46. 
    The IPPC Directive - Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control of the European Union: This directive aims at minimizing pollution from various point sources throughout the European Union. All installations covered by an Annex of the Directive are required to obtain an authorization (permit) from the authorities in the EU countries. The permits must be based on the concept of Best Available Techniques (BAT). It has also been decided that policy-makers as well as the public at large need better information about the amount of pollution that different installations are responsible for. The Directive provides for the setting up of a European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) to ensure that such information is made available.
    URL for IPPC Directive: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/ippc/
    URL for BAT reference documents (BREFs): http://eippcb.jrc.es/
    URL for EPER: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/ippc/eper/index.htm
    
47. 
    Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR): UNCED Agenda 21, Chapter 19 recommends the establishment of such registers. Governments and relevant international organizations with the cooperation of industry should [among others] “Improve data bases and information systems on toxic chemicals, such as emission inventory programmes…” The OECD Task Force on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registries has done extensive work on inventory development, particularly in the area of developing release estimation techniques for various chemicals and source categories. Of particular note is 1) the Resource Compendium of PRTR Release Estimation Techniques, which provides OECD countries with basic information on the techniques used to quantify releases and transfers from point and diffuse sources for a PRTR. It consists of three separate volumes: Part 1 summarizes techniques for point sources and Part 2 for diffuse sources. Part 3 describes techniques used to estimate the amounts of pollutants transferred off-site; and 2) the Resource Centre, which provides a clearinghouse of guidance manuals/documents of release estimation techniques for the principal pollutant release and transfer registers developed by OECD member countries. The manuals and documents include descriptive information on the sources of pollutants (including mercury) that are released, as well as information on emission factors, mass balance methods, engineering calculations, and monitoring information.
    URL of the PRTR clearinghouse: http://www.chem.unep.ch/prtr/Default.htm
    URL for the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation's North American Pollutant Release and Transfer Register:
    

http://www.cec.org/programs_projects/pollutants_health/project/index.cfm?projectID=26&varlan=english

URL for Japan PRTR: http://www.env.go.jp/chemi/prtr/result/

48. 
    For further consultation on mercury inventories, information can be found in the international literature, the Global Mercury Assessment report by UNEP Chemicals (2002), and at web sites of regional organizations, such as:
    URL for European Commission: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/chemicals/index.htm
    URL for the Commission for Economic Cooperation: http://www.cec.org/home/
    URL for the Artic Council Action Plan http://www.arctic-council.org/
    and several national governments and agencies.
    URL for the January 2005 "Arctic Mercury Releases Inventory" and the "Assessment of Mercury Releases in the Russian Federation" http://www.mst.dk/udgiv/publications/2005/87-7614-515-8/html/default_eng.htm
    
49. 
    Australia’s National Pollution Inventory (NPI): Australia has developed a database where emissions are estimated for industrial facilities across the country, and for diffuse sources.
    URL: http://www.npi.gov.au/
    
50. 
    Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI): Environment Canada has developed a database of information on annual releases to air, water, and land, and off-site transfers for disposal or recycling.
    URL: http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/npri/NPRI_home_e.cfm
    
51. 
    The United States of America’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI): It is a publicly available EPA database. EPA prepares TRI that contains the most accurate information on emissions on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities reported annually by certain covered industry groups as well as federal facilities. Also, the EPA has a mercury webpage that contains information on its other activities relevant to mercury.
    URL for TRI: http://www.epa.gov/triinter/
    URL for US EPA mercury webpage: http://www.epa.gov/mercury/
    
52. 
    National Emissions Inventory (NEI): It is a publicly available EPA database. EPA also prepares a national database of air emissions information (NEI) with input from numerous State and local air agencies and from industry that contains information on emissions from individual US facilities.
    URL for NEI: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/net/
    
53. 
    The United States Environmental Protection Agency – Clearing house for Inventories and Emission Factors: This series of reports characterizes the source categories for which emissions of a number of toxic substance have been identified. A specific document exists for mercury and mercury compounds, entitled “Locating and estimating air emissions from sources of mercury and mercury compounds”. Report EPA-454/R-97-012, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA. EPA.
    URL: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/le/index.html
    
54. 
    The New Jersey Mercury Task Force Report, Volume III - Sources of Mercury in New Jersey: This report presents how, through a combination of source reduction and aggressive pollution control measures, the State of New Jersey has achieved some very notable reductions in the environmental releases of mercury over the past decade, including reductions in emissions from municipal solid waste and medical waste incinerators.
    URL: http://www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/Vol3-chapter1.pdf