Environmental Best Management Practices

Dental amalgam can contain as much as 50 percent by weight mercury, a heavy metal that in addition to being regulated as a hazardous waste by RI DEM and EPA is also strictly regulated under NBC's Pretreatment Program at the very low discharge limit of 0.005 mg/l. By encouraging the use and application of these Best Management Practices, NBC hopes to see enough reduction in mercury loadings at the head-works of its two wastewater treatment facilities so as to avoid the need for further regulatory control measures. NBC introduced these Best Management Practices to more than 100 members of the RI Dental Association in December 2002. The EBMP was well received and NBC expects to see many of the ideas outlined in the EBMP implemented during the summer and fall months of 2003.