HARRISBURGH, Pennsylvania, April 6, 2008 (ENS) – Compact fluorescent light bulbs can save up to 75 percent of the energy used by traditional light bulbs and save householders money too, but a lack of options on where to recycle the mercury-containing bulbs may make some consumers reluctant to adopt the popular technology.

To help encourage the use of compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs, and make it easier for the public to recycle spiral-shaped bulbs, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, DEP, is providing specialized receptacles to municipalities, small businesses and community organizations across the state hoping the experience will lead participants to continue with their own programs.

“If all of the households in Pennsylvania changed just one incandescent light bulb to an Energy Star qualified CFL, consumers could save $25.5 million annually on household electric bills and prevent nearly 382 millions pounds of greenhouse gas emissions each year,” said Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty.

“That is the power of energy efficiency, and we need to encourage people to take advantage of that power by adopting these safe and readily available technologies as soon as possible,” she said.

Each compact fluorescent bulb contains
a small amount of mercury, a toxic
metal. (Photo courtesy Florida DEP)

The state agency is partnering with 43 counties, townships, environmental groups and small businesses statewide in setting up CFL collection programs.

More than 110 containers were purchased from Pennsylvania firms AERC Recycling, based in Allentown, and Hellertown, Northampton County-based, Bethlehem Apparatus Company. Both companies shipped the receptacles directly to the participants for use in conjunction with Earth Day and other hazardous household waste collection events.

The AERC containers will hold 100-150 bulbs, and the Bethlehem Apparatus containers will hold slightly less than 100. Once the containers are filled, participants will ship the receptacles back to AERC or Bethlehem Apparatus for the physical recycling.

DEP invited counties, municipal governments, environmental groups and other organizations to host CFL recycling containers in publicly accessible buildings. To recycle a bulb, a consumer simply needs to hand it over to a trained employee, who slides it into the container.

For those residents in need of CFL recycling services, the department reminds residents that they can also recycle the bulbs at household hazardous waste collection events in their communities.

Because the fact is CFLs must be treated as hazardous waste because they contain mercury.

Small amounts of mercury are necessary components of compact fluorescent light bulbs and all types of fluorescent lights, including those that have been safely used in homes, offices and commercial and retail establishments for years.

CFLs contain an average of five milligrams of mercury, or about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. By comparison, a mercury fever thermometer usually contains about 500 milligrams of mercury.

To find a recycling center that takes CFLs, calling the local government office of solid waste or log onto Earth 911, which will help you locate your closest facility. They also have an automated phone information system at 800-CLEAN-UP.

If you break a CFL, no need to worry, but care must be taken to clean it up safely. Most bulbs are damaged when they are cold, and the mercury is likely to adhere to the bulb’s debris. To be safe, ventilate the area, the U.S. EPA suggests. Using rubber or latex gloves, gather up the ballast and broken glass with disposable paper towels. Wipe the floor carefully with more paper toweling, then double bag everything in plastic zip bags. Dispose as hazardous waste.

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WILKES-BARRE, Pennsylvania, January 25, 2008 (ENS) – The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection today fined the Pocono Medical Center $100,000 for illegally disposing and managing infectious and chemotherapeutic waste in 2006. Pocono Medical Center is an acute-care, not-for-profit community hospital in in East Stroudsburg, Monroe County.

“The medical center was not following procedures for separating its medical waste from its normal solid waste,” said DEP Northeast Regional Director Michael Bedrin. “They shipped it to two regional landfills where it was found and removed for proper disposal.”

The illegally disposed waste from the medical center was discovered in Lackawanna County’s Keystone Landfill and the Grand Central Landfill in Northampton County in April 2006, after DEP began investigating the waste sent to those facilities.

The department also determined that Pocono Medical Center failed to properly label containers of infectious waste and failed to ensure that an employee involved with packaging infectious waste wore protective overalls and gloves.

A notice of violation was sent to the medical center on August 1, 2006, that documented the illegal disposal and the improper procedures at the center.

According to the notice, Pocono Medical Center was to submit a plan and implementation schedule addressing the violations.

DEP worked with the medical center to address the problems, and the most recent inspection of the facility in June 2007 determined that it had taken measures to correct and prevent the violations.

“We feel this fine reflects the seriousness of the violations, in which people, waste haulers and landfill employees could have been at risk of contact with this medical waste,” said Bedrin. “The medical center has implemented internal procedures required by DEP to prevent this from happening again.”

Pocono Medical Center is the sole provider of hospital services for Monroe County. The next hospital is 35 miles away. Currently 215 physicians are on the medical staff covering more than 30 specialties. The Mattioli Emergency Center at the hospital is one of the busiest in Pennsylvania, recording nearly 70,000 visits annually.

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Air pollution knows no borders (Photo credit unknown)

TRENTON, New Jersey, December 18, 2007 (ENS) – Because air pollution recognizes no borders, the state of New Jersey today filed suit against the owner of a coal-fired power plant across the Delaware River in Pennsylvania.

Alleging that Reliant Energy MidAtlantic Power Holdings modified its coal-fired Portland Generating Station in Pennsylvania in ways that increased emissions, New Jersey filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania.

The lawsuit alleges that Reliant has violated the federal Clean Air Act by modifying and operating the Portland power plant without required pollution control equipment and construction permits and without the best available pollution control technology.

The Portland plant is located in Northampton County less than a mile from New Jersey’s western border. It is upwind and directly across the Delaware River from New Jersey’s Warren County, inhabited by about 105,000 people.

“The Portland Generating Station continues to operate each day in violation of federal law, and pollutants from the plant continue to carry across the Delaware River on prevailing winds, harming the air breathed by New Jersey residents,” said Attorney General Anne Milgram.

A July 2007 report by the Environmental Integrity Project entitled “Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants,” ranks Portland as number five in terms of having the highest sulfur dioxide emission rate per megawatt generated in the entire country.

Enough is enough,” said Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, DEP. “It seems that we cannot rely on Reliant, except to put the public in harm’s way.

The fact is, while Reliant continues to shirk its environmental responsibilities, New Jersey residents are being exposed to a host of pollutants, and we simply will not let this go on,” Jackson said.

New Jersey’s lawsuit asks the court to enjoin Reliant from operating the Portland plant unless it is in compliance with the Clean Air Act.

The complaint also asks that Reliant be required to install and operate “best available” control technologies for each pollutant.

The lawsuit also asks that Reliant be ordered to conduct an audit of its operations to determine if any additional plant modifications have occurred that are not included among those discussed in the state’s complaint.

The lawsuit seeks assessment of “an appropriate civil penalty” against Reliant and the other defendants who are previous owners of the power plant, and asks the court to award New Jersey legal fees and costs associated with bringing the lawsuit.

New Jersey tried to address the increased emissions from the Portland power plant through a variety of legal actions over the past year.

In December 2006, the state filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, for violating the Clean Air Act by not responding to a petition from the DEP that objected to a proposed operating permit for the plant.

When federal agency had not acted on the petition by February, the state filed suit contending that the agency was not doing its job, and that its failure to act on New Jersey’s objection was contributing to the state’s inability to attain its clean air goals.

On June 20, the EPA issued a final order denying the New Jersey petition request. The state responded by filing an appeal of the EPA ruling in the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. That appeal is still pending, as is a petition for reconsideration of the original denial filed with EPA.

“This facility poses an environmental danger, and our concerns have not been given due consideration by the EPA,” Attorney General Milgram said.

The state’s petition for reconsideration before the EPA asserts that increases in air emissions at the Portland Generating Station would violate national air quality standards designed to protect public health in the vicinity of the plant both in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

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