Mercury products bill victorious in the State Senate but dies in Assembly Natural resources Committee

Clean Wisconsin members and staff will continue work to bring about product bans

Keith Reopelle

Kudos to hundreds of Clean Wisconsin members across the state who played a major role in helping to get Senate Bill 346 passed through the State Senate. Unfortunately, this bill died in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee along with many other important environmental bills. SB 346 would have banned the retail sale of numerous mercury-containing products including thermostats, switches, relays, commercial measuring devices, and household products such as games, jewelry, clothing, and cosmetics.

Many of you, our members, played key roles in educating your representatives in the Capitol and demonstrating to them how important it is to their constituents that we protect our children's health by eliminating mercury in products that end up in our landfills and incinerators. At key junctures in the legislative session members:

• Met with and called their Senators requesting they co-sponsor SB 346.
• Mailed and e-mailed statements of support that Clean Wisconsin staff delivered to Senators on the Environmental Committee at the Bill hearing.
• Made calls and sent e-mails asking Senators to vote for the bill.

The DNR estimates that as much as 5,000 pounds of mercury are released into the environment each year from products that are either landfilled, incinerated or otherwise broken or discarded. That compares to about 2,700 pounds from power plants and 1,100 pounds from the Port Edwards chlorine plant.

The bill got off to a slow start and was introduced late in the session because the budget bill was four months late, finally passing in October. SB 346 was introduced in December and received a hearing in the Senate Environmental Committee on January 29th. I spoke at the hearing in support of the bill and delivered written statements from 260 of our members to the Committee which clearly had an impact.

Thanks to all of your meetings, calls and letters this bill received broad bi-partisan support in the Senate. Clean Wisconsin will work with other groups and stakeholders to get this bill passed in the next legislative session which will begin in January 2009 and reduce the flow of mercury into the marketplace, and in turn, protect our children and their children.