Sometime this fall the transfer station in Boothbay will be adding a recycling shed specifically for mercury products such as thermometers, thermostats and mercury vapor lights.

The Boothbay Region Refuse Disposal District (BRRDD) board of directors has accepted a grant from the state to comply with the Mercury Products Law passed in 2000 mandating that by next July all commercial and public entities recycle these hazardous waste items. A similar law, according to manager Alison McCrady, will go into effect for homeowners in 2005.

The grant, through the State Planning Office and the Department of Environmental Protection, is in the form not of money but of a pre-fabricated, pre-wired wooden shed, about 8' x 12' with fan, made by state prisoners.

"We can do this now" and have the state provide the shed, said McCrady, "or have to do it later on our own... It's an environmental stewardship matter," she said, but it also "provides a service to small businesses that will be required to do this" and may have difficulty complying.

The shed will contain different boxes to collect various products including: fever thermometers, mercury thermostats and electrical switches, mercury-containing medical and scientific devices, barometers, and lamp bulbs such as fluorescent, neon, sodium high-pressure, metal halide, high-intensity discharge, and non-leaking ballasts with PCBs.

In the future, collection will include cathode ray tubes from televisions and computers.

A fee schedule will be established charging the public for discarding these items, based on what it costs the district to dispose of them. For instance, a 4' fluorescent bulb may cost a customer $.50 and an 8' bulb $1.00 to discard.

(The dump already collects and recycles rechargeable batteries such as those in cell phones and cordless drills at no charge.)

While a public hearing was held by the district board on the mercury shed Tuesday night, the only member of the public present was contractor Danny Giles and the hearing was mainly informational with no public comment.

McCrady expects the shed to be installed early next month with a "grand opening" sometime during Maine Recycles Week, Nov. 8-15.

The board also reported on its exploration of moving the transfer station to a location on Industrial Park Road.

With John Anderson wearing two hats as refuse district board chairman and Boothbay town manger, the possibility has arisen of relocating the dump to a 26-acre site owned by the town of Boothbay through tax lien.

A site review committee has been formed to explore the feasibility of such a move and is gathering bids for a boundary survey of the property, for which the board has approved spending up to $4,000 out of the district's capital reserve account.

The length of Industrial Park Road, part of which had been unpaved, was completely paved last week, paid for by landowners who will likely ask the town of Boothbay to accept the road as a public way.

The only concern Anderson mentioned to the board about the site is egress from the road turning south on Route 27 and the issue of visibility. While the Dept. of Transportation reportedly has no concerns about traffic issues there, the committee seeks to meet with DOT representatives to discuss possible solutions to the problem such as elevating the entrance to Industrial Park Road, removing nearby shrubs and trees and posting a reduced speed limit.

The property itself looks suitable, with a large portion of it usable land.

The most pressing need for a move is for the wood-chipping operation, which would likely be the first part of the transfer station to relocate.

The ultimate goal, say board members, is to move the entire operation to a more spacious location.