Facility Inventory for mercury storage and disposal Mercury

Facility Inventory for mercury storage and disposal Mercury Storage and Disposal LAC Two Countries Project Gustavo Solórzano Ochoa, Consultant Montevideo, Uruguay 28 -29 June 2011

Background • Identifying environmentally sound storage solutions for mercury is recognized by the international community as a priority. • Discussions during INC-1 and INC-2 meetings • At INC-2, GRULAC region expressed concern on the insufficient information on the capacity of most developing countries for the effective and economically viable long term storage of mercury.

Background • LAC Mercury Storage Project confirmed the likely excess or surplus mercury close to 8, 300 tons between 2015 and 2050 for the region • Interim storage projects should be undertaken in the short-term while long-term plans and policies are being developed. • Project EXECOM expressed the need for temporary or interim facilities to store elemental mercury, as well as for mercury containing waste

Objective General The project aims to promote the environmentally sound management of storage and disposal of surplus mercury in Uruguay and in Argentina, and a resulting national action plan on the environmentally sound management of surplus mercury in each country

Objective Particular A list of possible temporary storage locations in the country, and an inventory of current mercury and/or hazardous waste treatment facilities including waste management practices. These could serve as interim storage facility for excess/surplus mercury, which could be treated either as commodity mercury or mercury waste

Methodology 1. Revision and analysis of related documents, among others: • Draft “Basel Technical Guidelines on the Environmentally Sound Management of Wastes Consisting of Elemental Mercury and Wastes Containing or Contaminated with Mercury” • “Options Analysis and Feasibility Study for the Long. Term Storage of Mercury in Latin America and the Caribbean”. • Uruguay’s report on “National Workshop on Legal and Institutional Infrastructures and Economic Instruments for Managing the Placing of Chemicals into the Market”

Methodology 1…. Cont’d. • “A suggested framework for decision making for the safe management of surplus mercury” • “Excess Mercury Supply in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC), 2010 -2050” 2. Selection of facility-type that could possibly be used for mercury storage/disposal 3. Selection of siting criteria regarding the listed facilities 4. Crossing of both concepts in a matrix assigning values to each criteria/facility

…and then I would switch directly into the Excel file and the matrix/explain to participants

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