Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act
Bill: S.1345 | Sponsor: Sen. Collins, Susan M. (R-ME)
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act
This bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a national mercury monitoring program. Under the program, the EPA must track and report on long-term changes of mercury concentrations in air, water, soil, and fish and wildlife. In addition, the EPA must establish an online database for mercury data.

To establish a national mercury monitoring program, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Comprehensive National Mercury 
Monitoring Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) mercury is a potent neurotoxin of significant 
        ecological and public health concern;
            (2) it is estimated that approximately 100,000 to 200,000 
        children born each year in the United States are exposed to 
        levels of mercury in the womb that are high enough to impair 
        neurological development;
            (3) based on estimates from the Centers for Disease Control 
        and Prevention, between 2000 and 2010, between 2 and 6 percent 
        of women in the United States of childbearing age have exceeded 
        blood mercury levels determined to be safe by the Environmental 
        Protection Agency;
            (4) exposure to mercury occurs largely by the consumption 
        of contaminated fish, but fish and shellfish are important 
        sources of dietary protein and micronutrients, and a healthy 
        fishing resource is important to the economy of the United 
        States;
            (5) in most locations, the primary route for mercury input 
        to aquatic ecosystems is atmospheric emissions, transport, and 
        deposition;
            (6) existing broad-scale data sets are important but 
        insufficient to track changes in mercury levels in the 
        environment over time, test model predictions, and assess the 
        impact of changing mercury emissions and deposition; and
            (7) a comprehensive national mercury monitoring network to 
        accurately quantify regional and national changes in 
        atmospheric mercury deposition, ecosystem contamination, and 
        bioaccumulation of mercury in fish and wildlife in response to 
        changes in mercury emissions would help policy makers, 
        scientists, and the public to better understand the sources, 
        consequences, and trends of mercury pollution in the United 
        States.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the 
        Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
            (2) Advisory committee.--The term ``Advisory Committee'' 
        means the Mercury Monitoring Advisory Committee established 
        under section 5(a).
            (3) Ancillary measure.--The term ``ancillary measure'' 
        means a measure that is used to understand the impact and 
        interpret results of measurements under the program.
            (4) Ecoregion.--The term ``ecoregion'' means a large area 
        of land and water that contains a geographically distinct 
        assemblage of natural communities, including similar land 
        forms, climate, ecological processes, and vegetation.
            (5) Mercury export.--The term ``mercury export'' means 
        mercury transport from a watershed to the corresponding body of 
        water, or from 1 body of water to another body of water (such 
        as from a lake to a river), generally expressed as--
                    (A) mass per unit of time;
                    (B) mass per unit of watershed; or
                    (C) area of the water body per unit of time.
            (6) Mercury flux.--The term ``mercury flux'' means the rate 
        of transfer of mercury between ecosystem components (such as 
        between water and air or land and air) or between portions of 
        ecosystem components, expressed in terms of--
                    (A) mass per unit of time; or
                    (B) mass per unit of area of land or water per unit 
                of time.
            (7) Program.--The term ``program'' means the national 
        mercury monitoring program established under section 4(a).
            (8) Surface sediment.--The term ``surface sediment'' means 
        sediment in the uppermost 2 centimeters of a lakebed, riverbed, 
        estuary, or coastal area.

SEC. 4. MONITORING PROGRAM.

    (a) Establishment.--
            (1) In general.--The Administrator, in consultation with 
        the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 
        the Director of the United States Geological Survey, the 
        Director of the National Park Service, the Administrator of the 
        National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the heads 
        of other appropriate Federal agencies, shall establish a 
        national mercury monitoring program.
            (2) Purpose.--The purpose of the program is to track--
                    (A) long-term trends in atmospheric mercury 
                concentrations and deposition; and
                    (B) mercury levels in watersheds, surface water, 
                and fish and wildlife in terrestrial, freshwater, 
                coastal, and marine ecosystems in response to changing 
                mercury emissions over time.
            (3) Monitoring sites.--
                    (A) In general.--In carrying out paragraph (1), not 
                later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 
                Act and in coordination with the Advisory Committee, 
                the Administrator shall select multiple monitoring 
                sites representing multiple ecoregions and associated 
                coastal waters of the United States.
                    (B) Locations.--Locations of monitoring sites shall 
                include--
                            (i) units of the National Park System;
                            (ii) units of the National Wildlife Refuge 
                        System;
                            (iii) units of the National Estuarine 
                        Research Reserve System;
                            (iv) human communities with highly exposed 
                        and vulnerable populations; and
                            (v) sensitive ecological areas in which 
                        substantive changes are expected to result from 
                        changes in domestic or international mercury 
                        emissions.
                    (C) Colocation.--Monitoring sites shall be co-
                located with sites from other long-term environmental 
                monitoring programs, where practicable, including sites 
                associated with the National Ecological Observatory 
                Network, the Long Term Ecological Research Network, and 
                the National Atmospheric Deposition Program.
                    (D) Monitoring protocols.--Not later than 1 year 
                after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
                Administrator, in coordination with the Advisory 
                Committee, shall establish and publish standardized 
                measurement protocols for the program.
            (4) International cooperation.--To the maximum extent 
        practicable, the program shall be compatible with similar 
        international efforts, including the Arctic Monitoring and 
        Assessment Programme, the Global Earth Observation System of 
        Systems, and the monitoring associated with the effectiveness 
        evaluation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, adopted 
        October 10, 2013 (TIAS 17-816), which entered into force on 
        August 16, 2017.
            (5) Data collection and distribution.--Not later than 1 
        year after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
        Administrator, in coordination with the Advisory Committee, 
        shall establish--
                    (A) a centralized database for existing and newly 
                collected environmental mercury data that can be freely 
                accessed on the Internet; and
                    (B) assurance and quality standards for the 
                database under subparagraph (A).
    (b) Functions.--
            (1) In general.--Under the program, the Administrator, in 
        consultation with the appropriate Federal agencies and the 
        Advisory Committee, shall at a minimum carry out monitoring 
        described in paragraphs (2) through (4) at the locations 
        selected under subsection (a)(3).
            (2) Air and watersheds.--The program, in association with 
        the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, shall monitor 
        long-term changes in mercury levels and important ancillary 
        measures in the air, including--
                    (A) the measurement and recording of wet mercury 
                deposition;
                    (B) an estimation of--
                            (i) dry mercury deposition (such as litter 
                        mercury deposition or estimates of mercury 
                        accumulation in vegetation through eddy 
                        covariance measurements);
                            (ii) mercury flux; and
                            (iii) mercury export; and
                    (C) the measurement of stable isotopes of mercury 
                and ancillary measurements to fully understand the 
                transport, cycling, and transformations of mercury 
                through ecosystems.
            (3) Water and soil chemistry.--The program, in association 
        with the WaterWatch Program established by the United States 
        Geological Survey, shall monitor long-term changes in mercury 
        and methyl mercury levels and important ancillary measures in 
        the water and soil or sediments, including--
                    (A) extraction and analysis of soil and sediment 
                cores;
                    (B) measurement and recording of total mercury and 
                methyl mercury concentration in surface sediments; and
                    (C) measurement and recording of total mercury and 
                methyl mercury concentration in surface waters.
            (4) Aquatic and terrestrial organisms.--The program, in 
        association with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service 
        and the Inventory and Monitoring Division of the National Park 
        Service, shall monitor long-term changes in mercury and methyl 
        mercury levels and important ancillary measures in marine, 
        freshwater, and terrestrial organisms, including--
                    (A) measurement and recording of total mercury and 
                methyl mercury concentrations in--
                            (i) invertebrates;
                            (ii) yearling or lower trophic level fish; 
                        and
                            (iii) commercially, recreationally, or 
                        conservation relevant fish; and
                    (B) measurement and recording of total mercury 
                concentrations in--
                            (i) selected insect- and fish-eating birds; 
                        and
                            (ii) selected insect- and fish-eating 
                        mammals.

SEC. 5. ADVISORY COMMITTEE.

    (a) Establishment.--The Administrator, in consultation with the 
Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Director 
of the United States Geological Survey, the Director of the National 
Park Service, the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, and the heads of other appropriate Federal agencies, 
shall establish a scientific advisory committee, to be known as the 
``Mercury Monitoring Advisory Committee'', to advise the Administrator 
and those Federal agencies on the establishment, site selection, 
measurement, recording protocols, and operation of the program.
    (b) Membership.--The Advisory Committee shall consist of scientists 
who are not employees of the Federal Government, including--
            (1) 3 scientists appointed by the Administrator;
            (2) 2 scientists appointed by the Director of the United 
        States Fish and Wildlife Service;
            (3) 2 scientists appointed by the Director of the United 
        States Geological Survey;
            (4) 2 scientists appointed by the Director of the National 
        Park Service; and
            (5) 2 scientists appointed by the Administrator of the 
        National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

SEC. 6. REPORTS AND PUBLIC DISCLOSURE.

    (a) Reports.--Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of 
this Act and every 2 years thereafter, the Administrator shall submit 
to Congress a report on the program, including data on relevant 
temporal trends and spatial gradients in mercury contamination in the 
environment.
    (b) Assessment.--Not less frequently than once every 4 years, the 
report required under subsection (a) shall include an assessment of 
mercury deposition rates that need to be achieved in order to prevent 
adverse human and ecological effects.
    (c) Availability of Data.--The Administrator shall make all data 
obtained under this Act available to the public through a dedicated 
website and on written request.

SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act--
            (1) $37,000,000 for fiscal year 2022;
            (2) $29,000,000 for fiscal year 2023; and
            (3) $29,000,000 for fiscal year 2024.
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