The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has filed an objection to a federal magistrate judge's recommended rejection of their lawsuit against Maine's mercury auto switch law. Maine is the first state in the United States to require automakers to accept responsibility for preventing mercury pollution from old cars.
Last month, Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk of the U.S. District Court in Bangor issued an opinion recommending that Maine's mercury auto switch law be upheld. Judge Kravchuk rejected each of the automakers' arguments and recommended upholding Maine's statute in its entirety.
In her ruling Judge Kravchuk wrote, "If other states were to follow Maine's lead on mercury switch recovery, the consequence would be akin to multi-state bottle bills, not the kind of interruption of interstate commerce that might arise if securities transactions could not be engaged in or if every state imposed its own unique regulatory scheme on interstate railroads."
A spokesman for the AAM notes that there already are state and federal laws governing mercury switches. Under the state of Maine’s legislation, automobile manufacturers are required to pay a $1 per switch fee to scrap yard handling the mercury switches. Additionally, the spokesman notes that the policy now stipulates that automobile manufacturers are required to set up a consolidation center where the mercury switches can be delivered. However, the scrap and auto dismantling industry is already handling the material, and implementing an additional collection point would cost a significant amount of money.
Early in 2002, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, at the direction of the Maine Legislature, prepared a report on the labeling and source separation of mercury added component parts in automobiles. The Legislature required the plan to be developed in consultation with automobile manufacturers, dismantlers and recyclers.
Based on input from the advisory group, the department recommended that automobile manufacturers be required to phase out their use of mercury-added switches.
Maine should maintain the legal prohibition against the crushing or shredding of an automobile that contains a mercury added headlamp or switch, the DEP recommended.
The state should provide for collection of mercury light switches before vehicle end of life by prohibiting sale of used cars unless the switches have been removed or replaced and by requiring automakers to remove or replace the switches upon request of the car owner, the agency said.
And, the DEP recommended that automobile manufactures "be required to provide a convenient system for collecting and recycling mercury switches removed from automobiles by used car dealers, auto dismantlers, auto crusher operators and others subject to state source separation directives."
The collection and recycling of mercury switches should be facilitated by allowing them to be managed as universal waste under the DEP hazardous waste management rules, the agency advised.