03-12-2006, 09:07 AM
Waste water treatement plants really, really like to keep mercury out of drains so they do not have to treat their solid products as hazardous waste. Keeping it out of drains also keept it out of rivers, lakes, bays, and the fish that live there that accumilate it at thousands of times higher than water levels. UC Berkeley has a fact sheet about reducing mercury pollution. http://www.ehs.berkeley.edu/pubs/factshe...rcury.html
There is not a lot of liquid mercury in a compact fluorescent tube but it adds up expecially with some utilities subsidizing them at retail stores. If you break a couple of dozen 4 foot 40 W tubes in a dumpster at work and the area drains to a water treatement plant, it can really impact the effluent at the water treatement plant for a couple of weeks when it rains.
There is not a lot of liquid mercury in a compact fluorescent tube but it adds up expecially with some utilities subsidizing them at retail stores. If you break a couple of dozen 4 foot 40 W tubes in a dumpster at work and the area drains to a water treatement plant, it can really impact the effluent at the water treatement plant for a couple of weeks when it rains.