BioDiversity Research Institute

The project to develop a National
Mercury Monitoring Network is
funded by the U.S. EPA

Check out the MercNet webpage hosted by our collaborator, the National Atmospheric Deposition Network

MercNet: Tracking Mercury in Air,
Water, Land, Fish and Wildlife

What's New

A second National Mercury Monitoring Workshop was held in Annapolis, Maryland in May, 2008. Canadian and U.S. scientists made great headway at the meeting, including:

• Agreeing on the overall goal of the network
• Considering a conceptual framework of monitoring sites
• Agreeing on several monitoring design elements.

See the 2008 Workshop report, recently published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and check out other information from this meeting at the NADP's MercNet webpage.

Project impetus and goals*

*From the MercNet brochure as well as literature by Dave Schmeltz of the U.S. EPA Clean Air Markets Division

Mercury concentrations in fish and wildlife in the United
States now routinely exceed human and wildlife health
thresholds. At present, scientists must rely on limited information to
understand and quantify the critical linkages between
mercury emissions and environmental response and potential
human health concerns. Successful design, implementation,
and assessment of solutions to the mercury pollution
problem require standardized and comprehensive long-term
information—information that is currently not available.

Mercury policy development, implementation, and
assessment require substantially improved mercury
monitoring. A comprehensive long-term mercury monitoring
program focused on ambient concentrations, mercury
deposition, watershed cycling, and biological effects would
allow scientists and managers to assess mercury in the
environment, linking changes in emissions and deposition
with ecosystem effects and response. The monitoring
network described here would provide answers to critical
environmental policy questions, such as:

• Are mercury emissions and deposition to the environment
  changing as a result of current policies and programs?
• Are further emissions reductions necessary?
• Are ecosystems responding to changes in mercury
  pollution?
• Have fish tissue concentrations changed sufficiently to
  revise fish consumption advisories?
• What human and wildlife populations continue to be at
  risk due to high concentrations of mercury in fish?
• How much are threatened and endangered species
  impacted by mercury pollution?

The EPA, along with other agencies, tribes, universities, and research and environmental organizations, are collaborating to establish a national, policy-relevant network that measures mercury in the atmosphere, land, water, and biota in terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal ecosystems. Considerable progress has been made in the design of this national mercury monitoring program. In 2003, scientists from across the U.S. and several other countries gathered in an EPA-sponsored workshop convened by the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) to devise a national mercury monitoring program. Detailed recommendations from this workshop were published in Mason et al. (2005) and a subsequent book by Harris et al. (2007).

The May 2008 National Mercury Monitoring Workshop was
an important step in building broad community support for a
comprehensive, integrated monitoring network. The workshop was part of an ongoing effort to enhance mercury monitoring in the United States through coordination of existing monitoring, and, should new funding sources become available, implementation of new and coordinated, policy-relevant monitoring efforts.

Geographic Focus

MercNet would be a national mercury monitoring network, with monitoring sites throughout the United States. Proposed intensive monitoring sites are shown in the MercNet brochure.

collaborators

The 2008 workshop in Annapolis included MercNet participants from federal agencies (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service), state and tribal agency representatives, NADP, industry, and scientists from academic and private research institutions.

The current national monitoring program, the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), also has a large membership
of federal agencies, states, tribes, academic institutions,
industry, and other organizations that are collaborating to establish
a coordinated network for monitoring mercury in the
atmosphere. For more information, please see the NADP website.

Contacts

Dr. Charley Driscoll, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York
ctdrisco@syr.edu
Dr. David Evers, BioDiversity Research Institute, Gorham, Maine
david.evers@briloon.org
Dr. David Gay, National Atmospheric Deposition Program,
Champaign, Illinois
dgay@uiuc.edu
Dr. James Wiener, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse,
La Crosse, Wisconsin
wiener.jame@uwlax.edu

Works Cited

Harris, R., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Mason, R., Murray, M.W., Reash, R., Saltman, T. 2007. Ecosystem Responses to Mercury Contamination: Indicators of Change. CRC Press. 216 pp.

Mason, R.P., Abbott, M.L., Bodaly, R.A., Bullock, O. R. Jr., Evers, D.C., Lindberg, S.E., Murray, M., Swain, E.B., Driscoll, C.T. 2005. Monitoring the response to changing mercury. Environmental Science & Technology 39(1): 14A-22A.