Senate clears his amendment to keep poison out of Utah

By Lee Davidson and Geoffrey Fattah
Deseret Morning News

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, persuaded the Senate Friday to pass legislation to block moving the military's stockpile of toxic, excess mercury to Utah.

By voice vote taken just as most senators were leaving town, the Senate accepted his amendment to the annual Defense Authorization Bill to prohibit storing the mercury at any facility that is not owned or leased by the United States.

The Utah Industrial Depot, formerly part of the adjacent Tooele Army Depot, which is seeking to house the mercury stockpile, is privately owned. All other facilities under consideration are either owned or leased by the federal government or too small to take the entire stockpile.

Utah Industrial Depot officials reacted to Friday's news by expressing disappointment but not surprise

"We're not going to go out of business over this," said asset manager Mark Smith, who said they have known Bennett's opposition to their plans for quite some time. Smith added that a failure to win the government contract would cost the depot between $12 million to $15 million over 40 years. He said the depot is not primarily involved in hazardous waste storage but has a variety of industrial uses.

The Senate has not yet passed the full Defense Authorization Act, but that may happen next week. The House and Senate still must work out differences in their versions of the bill before it becomes law.

The Pentagon is seeking to consolidate into one site all the 4,890 tons of excess mercury it now has stored at warehouses in New Jersey, Tennessee, Ohio and Indiana. It says holding it at one site would make it easier to manage.

Bennett said, "Storing this material at one site rather than four makes sense. It just doesn't make sense that Tooele is that site. A federal facility is better equipped to safely handle and store the mercury stockpile."

Smith said Utah Industrial Depot will simply look for other business opportunities, but he did stress the depot's value to Tooele City's economy, pointing out that the depot has provided about 100 jobs a year over the past five years.

The military's Defense National Stockpile Center stores 68 different commodities, including mercury, in warehouses nationwide to minimize dependence on foreign suppliers during times of national emergency.

The supply of mercury, which historically has been used in such items as electrical switches, fluorescent lighting, dental fillings, batteries and industrial processing, has been declared as excess to national defense needs.

However, the military continues to store the mercury, instead of selling it off, because of Environmental Protection Agency concerns that too much mercury already has been released to the global environment.

Possibly moving the mercury to Utah is controversial. Some favor it as a way to create more jobs. Others, including Gov. Olene Walker, say it is too dangerous and have opposed it.