Mercury pollution could pose a lesser threat to New York’s natural environment thanks to a bill passed in the State Assembly Monday. But Environmental groups are tryig to urge the State Senate to jump on board.
Naturally-occurring mercury deposits leech out from acid rain in the state’s mountain ranges. But The New York Public Interest Research Group’s Senior Environmental Associate Laura Haight (height) says mercury disposal contributes much more to the problem.
“Now we are looking at the next step is to reduce mercury pollution and that is how do we capture those thermostats when people replace them with new ones so that they don’t end up in the streams, don’t end up burned in garbage incinerators, don’t end up in the air and then landing in our lake and streams being ingested by the fish and continuing the cycle of poison.”
N-Y-P-I-R-G finds more than three hundred thousand thermostats end up in the state’s landfills each year. The proposal would drastically reduce this number. State Assembly members hope to negotiate an agreement with the State Senate that could pass before June 20th.
