San Francisco Bay is contaminated by mercury-an element used in many household items, which is also a potent human nerve toxin. Humans are at risk when they consume fish and wildlife from areas impacted by mercury or when they breathe vapors from liquid mercury.
Hospitals - blood pressure cuffs, chemical tests, preservatives, stains
Human waste - from amalgam fillings
Incinerators - medical, sewage sludge, crematorie
What are the sources to the wastewater treatment plant?
Each year, about 20 pounds of mercury arrive at the Regional Water Quality Control Plant (RWQCP). Sources of mercury discharge to wastewater include laboratories, hospitals, dental offices, human waste, food waste, household products, and storm water inflow. Since 1997, the RWQCP has quantified the relative importance of mercury sources using local sampling information in conjunction with data from other wastewater treatment plants and the scientific literature. The source identification study was updated in 2002.
A complete discussion of this analysis is available in PDF form (Barron, 2002). The analysis reflects new information from local dental surveys and recent estimates of residential loadings from the American Metropolitan Sewerage Association (AMSA, 2000).Technical reviews are invited.
Ways you can help!
Properly identify and dispose of mercury containing items as hazardous waste. If you are a small quantity generator, see the City's Small Business Hazardous Waste Program.
Recycle fluorescent lights- listed below are two fluorescent light recyclers. (There may be other fluorecent light recyclers that we are unaware of; please contact us if you know of other recyclers.)
ATG
47375 Fremont Blvd.
Freemont, CA 94538
1-800-227-2840
Superior Special Services
5736 West Jefferson
Phoenix, AZ 85043
1-800-368-9095 x58
Interesting Mercury Facts
One drop of mercury can impair an entire lake.
Mercury evaporates slowly. If spilled or improperly stored, this evaporation will cause continuous contamination of the air you breathe.
Less than a third of the mercury in the environment is naturally occurring. The majority is released through preventable human pollution. It enters the atmosphere, lakes and streams from coal burning for power generation, from industrial sources and by improper disposal of household products that contain mercury.
When mercury seeps into lakes and waterways, it undergoes a natural chemical process and is converted to a more deadly form - methyl mercury. It then contaminates the food chain by building up in the tissue of fish and animals including those we eat. Because of high mercury concentrations in fish, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment issues a fish consumption advisories for fish consumed out of the San Francisco Bay and Delta.
