Mercury

Mercury, a potent neurotoxin, is one of twelve toxic pollutants identified by the Federal Clean Water Act as impairing San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board has issued a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) limit which defines how much mercury the Bay can tolerate and still meet its water quality standards.

EBMUD has developed a multi-faceted mercury program to limit discharges from known sources within its wastewater service area, including dental offices, educational institutions, medical facilities, and residential households. Dental offices that handle amalgam are required to install separators that remove mercury from the process wastewater, prior to discharge to the sanitary sewer.

In 2003 EBMUD and the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) conducted a joint Mercury Reduction Program that removed over 1,200 pounds of mercury waste from the UC Berkeley campus. Mercury-containing laboratory thermometers and large devices were replaced with non-mercury alternatives. EBMUD developed a template based on the program’s findings to encourage other agencies to implement a similar program. EBMUD is currently implementing the program at all second and third level educational institutions in its wastewater service area.

To make it easy for people to reduce mercury in the home, EBMUD periodically holds mercury thermometer exchange events, where local residents exchange their mercury fever thermometer for a non-mercury alternative. Please email cleanbay@ebmud.com or call (510) 287-1651 for more information.

The following publications are PDF files that can be viewed and printed with Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free software.

Dental Program