For Release:  (Washington, D.C. -- Thursday, March 29, 2007)

EPA To Hold Public Meetings on Managing Non-Federal Mercury Supplies

Contact: Enesta Jones, (202) 564-4355 / jones.enesta@epa.gov

EPA and its federal partners are establishing a stakeholder panel process to provide the U.S. government with a range of options for better managing non-federal mercury supplies. As part of this process, the panel will hold a series of public meetings over a six-month period beginning with the first meeting in Washington, D.C., on May 8.

The charge to the panel is to consider: 1) how the various stocks of mercury should be managed both in the short-term and the long-term, and 2) how current and future supply and demand affect this determination for each of the various stocks. 

In EPA's Roadmap for Mercury, issued in July 2006, the agency made a commitment to work with other federal agencies to begin a process to assess options for managing domestic elemental, commodity-grade mercury with technical experts and interested parties. Other federal agencies working with EPA on this stakeholder process include: Department of Commerce; Department of Defense; Department of Energy; Department of the Interior; Department of State; and the Executive Office of the President (Office of Management and Budget; Council on Environmental Quality; Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative).

 

The public can also provide written comments on the issues the stakeholder panel will address at http://www.regulations.gov (Docket Identification Number: EPA-HQ-OPPT-2007-0148). 

Information about the stakeholder panel and the Roadmap for Mercury: http://www.epa.gov/mercury/stocks/


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