Mercury continues to bubble up all over Utah.
Sonja Wallace, the state's pollution prevention coordinator, reports Utahns have turned in 375 pounds of the hazardous metal since the "Get the Mercury Out" program began in April. These volumes include everything from thermometers dropped off at their local health departments to a 50-pound barrel of it collected in Delta.
"And we're just scratching the surface, I'm sure," Wallace said.
The campaign's focus is schools, hospitals and homes. But the state's new mercury switch law, enacted in the 2006 Legislature, has already helped gather hundreds of automatic light switches from vehicle trunks and doors tiny pellets of mercury that might have otherwise been melted and sent into the air as toxic pollution.
Mercury can transform into a toxic form, methyl mercury, that builds up in the food chain. Some of the highest levels found anywhere in the United States have been discovered in the Great Salt Lake.
Utahns have been warned about eating too many fish from three Utah locations and three types of Great Salt Lake waterfowl because of mercury.
-- Judy Fahys