Full Text of SB2551 93rd General Assembly
SB2551 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2003 and 2004 SB2551
Introduced 2/3/2004, by Mattie Hunter SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED: |
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New Act |
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415 ILCS 5/22.28a |
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Creates the Mercury Reduction Act. Provides that the Environmental Protection
Agency may participate in the establishment and implementation of a multi-state
clearinghouse to assist in carrying out the purpose of mercury reduction.
Provides that beginning July 1, 2005, no mercury-added product may
be
offered for final sale or use or distributed for promotional purposes in the
State without
the prior written notification to the Environmental Protection Agency by the
manufacturer of the product. Sets forth the requirements for this notification.
Set forth restrictions on the purchase or sale of certain mercury-added
products.
Provides that beginning July 1, 2006, no person may crush, shred,
flatten,
or otherwise process a motor vehicle for scrap metal without first making a
good faith
effort to remove any mercury light switches and mercury headlights.
Provides that, on or before January 1, 2006, the
Pollution Control
Board must modify its rules governing universal hazardous waste as appropriate
to
promote the recycling, recovery, and proper management of elemental mercury and
mercury-added products on a statewide basis. Sets forth penalties for
violations of this
Act. Amends the Environmental Protection Act. Adds "vehicle recycler" to the list of persons who may not knowingly shred, scrap, dismantle, recycle, incinerate, handle, store, or otherwise manage any white good that contains any white components. Provides that no owner, operator, agent, employee of a junkyard or scrap dealership, or vehicle recycler may knowingly shred, scrap, dismantle, recycle, incinerate, handle, store, or otherwise manage any end-of-life motor vehicle that contains any mercury-added component. Defines "vehicle recycler", "end-of-life motor vehicle", and "mercury-added component". Effective immediately.
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A BILL FOR
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SB2551 |
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LRB093 20824 MKM 46749 b |
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| AN ACT in relation to public health and environmental | 2 |
| protection.
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| Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, | 4 |
| represented in the General Assembly:
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| Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the | 6 |
| Mercury Reduction Act.
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| Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds the | 8 |
| following:
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| (1) Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can cause | 10 |
| long-lasting health
problems.
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| (2) High levels of mercury in our State's waterways | 12 |
| have forced officials
to issue advisories warning people to | 13 |
| restrict eating predator fish caught from
lakes and | 14 |
| streams.
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| (3) Mercury can be found in thousands of products and | 16 |
| applications,
including dental amalgams, scientific | 17 |
| instruments, electrical components,
batteries, lamps, and | 18 |
| medical devices.
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| (4) Mercury from consumer products may make its way | 20 |
| into waterways
if the products are discharged down the | 21 |
| drain, incinerated, or dumped in a
landfill.
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| (5) The most effective way to minimize future mercury | 23 |
| releases is to
eliminate mercury threats in products where | 24 |
| there are cost-effective
alternatives.
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| Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:
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| "Agency" means the Environmental Protection Agency.
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| "Board" means the Pollution Control Board.
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| "Manufacturer" means any person who produces a | 29 |
| mercury-added product and
means an importer or domestic | 30 |
| distributor of a mercury-added product produced
in a
foreign | 31 |
| country. In the case of a multicomponent, mercury-added |
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| product, the
manufacturer is the last manufacturer to produce | 2 |
| or assemble the product. If
the
mercury-added product is | 3 |
| produced in a foreign country, then the manufacturer
is the | 4 |
| first
importer or domestic distributor of that product.
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| "Mercury-added product" means a product, commodity, or | 6 |
| chemical that contains
mercury or a mercury compound that has | 7 |
| been intentionally added to the product,
commodity, or | 8 |
| chemical. Mercury-added products include, but are not limited | 9 |
| to,
mercury thermometers, mercury thermostats, and mercury | 10 |
| switches in motor
vehicles.
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| "Mercury relay" means a mercury-added product that opens or | 12 |
| closes electrical
contacts to operate other devices in the same | 13 |
| or another electrical circuit.
"Mercury
relay" includes | 14 |
| mercury displacement relays, mercury wetted reed relays, and
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| mercury
contact relays.
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| "Mercury switch" means a mercury-added product that opens | 17 |
| or closes an
electrical circuit or gas valve. "Mercury switch" | 18 |
| includes (i) mercury float
switches
actuated by rising or | 19 |
| falling liquid levels, (ii) mercury tilt switches
actuated by a | 20 |
| change
in the switch position, (iii) mercury pressure switches | 21 |
| actuated by a change in
pressure,
(iv) mercury temperature | 22 |
| switches actuated by a change in temperature, and (v)
mercury
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| flame sensors. "Mercury switch" does not include a | 24 |
| mercury-added thermostat.
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| "Mercury thermostat" means a mercury-added product | 26 |
| commonly used to sense
and, through electrical communication | 27 |
| with heating, cooling or ventilation
equipment,
control room | 28 |
| temperature.
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| "Person" includes an individual, a firm, an association, a | 30 |
| partnership, a
corporation, a governmental entity, an | 31 |
| organization, a joint venture, and any
other legal
entity.
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| Section 15. Interstate clearinghouse. The Agency may | 33 |
| participate in the
establishment and implementation of a | 34 |
| multi-state clearinghouse to assist in
carrying out
the | 35 |
| requirements of this Act, including designating the |
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| clearinghouse to help
design
notification forms, receive | 2 |
| notification and submission of information, to
coordinate
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| reviews and to assist in education and outreach activities. The | 4 |
| clearinghouse
may also
maintain a list of all products | 5 |
| containing mercury, including mercury-added
products.
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| Section 20. Notification.
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| (a) Beginning July 1, 2005, no mercury-added product may be | 8 |
| offered for
final
sale or use or distributed for promotional | 9 |
| purposes in the State without prior
written
notification to the | 10 |
| Agency by the manufacturer of the product in accordance
with | 11 |
| the
requirements of this Section.
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| Importers of mercury-added products from foreign
countries | 13 |
| must ensure that the manufacturer has complied with this | 14 |
| Section
before the
sale, use, or distribution of the product in | 15 |
| Illinois. This duty upon importers
does not
apply to retailers | 16 |
| for whom importing is not their primary business or to
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| importers who
distribute products to manufacturers for | 18 |
| inclusion in the manufacturers'
mercury-added
products.
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| (b) The notification must, at a minimum, include all of the | 20 |
| following:
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| (1) A brief description of the mercury-added product.
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| (2) For each individual product, or where appropriate, | 23 |
| for each category of
product, an identification of the | 24 |
| mercury content in one of the following
ranges:
greater | 25 |
| than 0 to 5 mg, greater than 5 mg to 10 mg, greater than 10 | 26 |
| mg to 50
mg,
greater than 50 mg to 100 mg, greater than 100 | 27 |
| mg to 1,000 mg, or greater than
1,000 mg.
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| (3) For each individual product or category of | 29 |
| products, a description of
the purpose that mercury serves | 30 |
| in the product.
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| (4) The name and address of the manufacturer, and the | 32 |
| name, address and
phone number of a contact person who has | 33 |
| knowledge of the product.
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| (c) This Section does not apply to any mercury-added | 35 |
| product for which
federal law governs notice in a
manner
that |
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| preempts State authority.
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| (d) With the approval of the Agency, the manufacturer may | 3 |
| supply the
information required above for a product category | 4 |
| rather than an individual
product. The
manufacturer must update | 5 |
| and revise the information in the notification
whenever there | 6 |
| is
a significant change in the information or when requested to | 7 |
| do so by the
Agency.
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| (e) The Agency must adopt rules concerning the content, | 9 |
| form, and submission
of
the required notification.
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| (f) Public disclosure of confidential business information | 11 |
| submitted to the
Agency
under this Section is governed by the | 12 |
| provisions of the Freedom of
Information
Act. The State may | 13 |
| provide the
interstate
clearinghouse with copies of business | 14 |
| information and the Agency and the
interstate
clearinghouse may | 15 |
| compile or publish analyses or summaries of this business
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| information if
the analyses or summaries do not identify any | 17 |
| manufacturer and do not
reveal any
confidential information.
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| Section 25. Sales restrictions.
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| (a) Beginning July 1, 2005, a school may not purchase for | 20 |
| use in a primary
or
secondary classroom, bulk elemental | 21 |
| mercury, chemicals containing mercury
compounds, or | 22 |
| mercury-added instructional equipment and materials, except
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| mercury-added measuring devices and thermometers for which no | 24 |
| adequate
substitute
exists for use as teaching aids. Other | 25 |
| mercury-added products that are used by
schools
are not subject | 26 |
| to this prohibition.
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| (b) After July 1, 2006, a person may not sell, offer to | 28 |
| sell, or
distribute
for
promotional purposes a mercury-added | 29 |
| thermostat except for a thermostat used
for
manufacturing or | 30 |
| industrial purposes and except for a thermostat to be used by
a
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| blind or
visually impaired person.
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| (c) Beginning July 1, 2006, a person may not sell or offer | 33 |
| to sell or
distribute a
mercury switch or mercury relay | 34 |
| individually or as a product component. This
prohibition does | 35 |
| not apply if the switch or relay is used to replace a switch
or |
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| relay that is
a component in a larger product in use prior to | 2 |
| July 1, 2006 and one of the
following
applies:
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| (1) the larger product is used in manufacturing; or
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| (2) the switch or relay is integrated and not | 5 |
| physically separate from
other
components of the larger | 6 |
| product.
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| This subsection does not apply to the sale of a mercury | 8 |
| switch or mercury
relay if the
use of the switch or relay is | 9 |
| required under federal law or federal contract
specifications.
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| Section 30. Exemptions.
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| (a) A manufacturer or user of a mercury-added product may | 12 |
| apply
to
the Agency on or before July 1, 2005 for an exemption | 13 |
| from the provisions of
this
Act for one or more specific uses | 14 |
| of a mercury-added product by filing a written petition with | 15 |
| the Agency. The
Agency
may grant an exemption with or without | 16 |
| conditions upon finding that:
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| (1) the manufacturer has demonstrated that a | 18 |
| convenient and
widely-available system exists for the | 19 |
| proper collection, transportation, and
processing of the | 20 |
| mercury-added thermostat at the end of its useful life; and
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| (2) the specific use or uses of the mercury-added | 22 |
| thermostat provide a net
benefit to the environment, public | 23 |
| health, or public safety when compared to
available | 24 |
| nonmercury alternatives. | 25 |
| (b) Before approving any exemption allowed under this
Act, | 26 |
| the
Agency must consult with neighboring states, by means of | 27 |
| the interstate
clearinghouse or
otherwise, to promote | 28 |
| consistency in the regulation of mercury-added products.
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| Exemptions may be granted for a term not to exceed 5 years and | 30 |
| may be renewed
upon written application if the Agency finds | 31 |
| that the mercury-added product
continues to
meet the criteria | 32 |
| for the original approval of the exemption.
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| The Agency must adopt rules for processing exemption | 34 |
| applications. These
rules
must provide for public | 35 |
| participation and take into account the role of the
interstate
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| clearinghouse.
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| Section 35. Universal waste rule. On or before January 1, | 3 |
| 2006, the Board
must
modify its rules governing universal | 4 |
| hazardous waste as appropriate to promote
the
recycling, | 5 |
| recovery, and proper management of elemental mercury and
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| mercury-added
products on a statewide basis.
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| Section 40. Penalties. A violation of this Act is | 8 |
| punishable by a civil
penalty not
to exceed $1,000 for each | 9 |
| violation in the case of a first violation. Repeat
violations | 10 |
| are
punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 for each | 11 |
| repeat violation.
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| Section 90. The Environmental Protection Act is amended by | 13 |
| changing Section 22.28a as follows:
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| (415 ILCS 5/22.28a)
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| Sec. 22.28a. White goods and end-of-life motor vehicles | 16 |
| handled by scrap dealership ,
or junkyard , or vehicle recycler .
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| (a) No owner, operator, agent, or employee of a junkyard or | 18 |
| scrap dealership , or vehicle recycler
may knowingly shred, | 19 |
| scrap, dismantle, recycle, incinerate, handle, store, or
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| otherwise manage any white good that contains any white good | 21 |
| components , or any end-of-life motor vehicle that contains any | 22 |
| mercury-added component in
violation of this Act or any other | 23 |
| applicable State or federal law.
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| (b) For the purposes of this Section : , | 25 |
| (1) The
the terms "white goods" and "white
goods | 26 |
| components" have the same meaning as in Section 22.28.
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| (2) "Vehicle recycler" means any owner, operator, | 28 |
| agent, or employee of a business engaged in the business of | 29 |
| acquiring, dismantling, or crushing 6 or more motor | 30 |
| vehicles in a calendar year for the primary purpose of | 31 |
| resale of their parts or materials. | 32 |
| (3) "End-of-life motor vehicle" means any motor |
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| vehicle that is sold, given, or otherwise conveyed to a | 2 |
| motor vehicle crusher, recycler, or scrap recycling | 3 |
| facility for the purpose of recycling. | 4 |
| (4) "Mercury-added component" means a component that | 5 |
| contains mercury and that was intentionally added to the | 6 |
| vehicle. Such components include, but are not limited to, | 7 |
| switches, sensors, lights, and navigational systems.
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| (Source: P.A. 92-447, eff. 8-21-01.)
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| Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon | 10 |
| becoming law. |
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