Before the Joint Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
Good afternoon Senator Saviello, Representative Hamper and members of the Committee. My name is Matt Prindiville, and I’m the Clean Production Project Director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), and we testify neither for nor against LD 480.
By way of background, in 2009, we worked with Senator Goodall, auto repair and tire shops, the auto dealers and this committee on legislation to phase out the use of lead wheel weights in Maine. The two principal reasons to do this were: 1) the amount of lead entering Maine’s environment every year from wheel weights was significant, an estimated 20,000 pounds in Maine each year, and much of this lead was washing into our lakes, streams, and drinking water aquifers or being pulverized into airborne lead dust in our communities, and 2) there were readily-available, cost-effective safer alternatives for use in both car and big wheel truck applications.
This was a consensus bill. As I recall, there was a sign-on letter from auto repair and tire shops from around the state supporting the bill, many of whom had already switched out of lead wheel weights. We also worked with representatives from the auto-manufacturers and auto-dealers on language to incorporate their concerns and suggestions for improvement, and if memory serves, the bill had a unanimous report out of committee.
I’ve worked on a lot of bills concerning toxic substances with former ENR committees, and it’s been customary for any bill that restricts the use of a toxic substance to have an appropriate phase-out period for businesses that are currently using the products to make the necessary plans to liquidate existing inventory and switch to safer alternatives.
Now, the law was designed to provide that flexibility. Auto service centers have had nearly two years to use up their inventory since the bill was passed in April of 2009. What Representative Ayotte is proposing is to extend that for service centers that have not yet made the switch, as the full phase-out for lead wheel weights went into effect just recently on January 11th of this year.
This seems reasonable, given that tire service centers and auto repair shops can no longer legally purchase new lead wheel weights, and we completely understand why some service centers would want that and the good representative would bring this issue forward. Our chief concern with this bill is enforcement. With a legal deadline to no longer purchase or use lead wheel weights, enforcement is clear and simple. If you’re using lead wheel weights after January 11, of this year, you’re out of compliance with the law. If LD 480 were to pass, then enforcement of the law becomes more complicated.
What we don’t want to see are tire service centers continuing to purchase or use lead wheel weights long into the future. I would hate to have to come back to this committee in five years and say, well, I’m sorry folks, but we still have some people out there who are using lead wheel weights that they claim they purchased before 2011, so maybe we should revisit that hard and fast legal deadline.
Given that the law represents a significant step forward in reducing unnecessary lead pollution to Maine’s drinking water supplies and our environment, we would encourage that any tinkering with it take into account any complication in enforcement that might arise if this bill were to pass.
Thank you for your consideration. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
*Information below provided from 2009 NRCM testimony.
1) Lead hazards associated with lead wheel weights represent a significant preventable source of lead in the environment, and it’s a global problem.
- It’s estimated that 140 million pounds of lead are used worldwide in the manufacturing of lead wheel weights.[1]
- An average vehicle contains ten wheel weights. Eight on the wheels and two on the spare. Although some effort is made to collect and recycle these weights at the end of a vehicle’s life, most of them are overlooked and often end up in the environment. A disturbingly large number fall off onto the road during vehicle use, and many more wind up in the waste stream when they’ve outlived their usefulness.[2]
- Lead wheel weights fall off vehicle wheels at the rate of 13% a year, and distribute an estimated 4 million pounds of lead annually nationwide.[3] In Maine, an estimated 20,000 lbs of lead are dispersed annually along Maine’s roadways from lead wheel weights.
2) Lead wheel weights alongside roadways can contribute to lead levels in roadside dust and runoff that may be toxic to children and wildlife.
- Children and others may be harmed from lead levels in roadside and urban dust and subsequent drinking well-water contamination; and lead wheel weights may also harm workers who install and handle them.
- Pulverized lead dust from failed wheel weights also represents a significant source of lead to Maine’s waterways. Studies have shown that 40% of the runoff in some residential areas and 70% in some commercial areas have lead levels “high enough to kill aquatic life.”[4]
3) Lead negatively affects every system of the body. It is harmful to individuals of all ages and is especially harmful to children, fetuses, and adults of childbearing age.
- The effects of lead on a child’s cognitive, behavioral, and developmental abilities may necessitate large and avoidable expenditures of public funds for health care and special education. The irreversible damage to children and subsequent expenditures could be avoided if exposure to lead is reduced.
4) Safer alternatives to lead wheel weights are cost-effective and in widespread commercial use.
- For cars and light truck tires, steel wheel weights and other plastic wheel weights are widely used. For big truck tires, a liquid ethylene glycol mixture can be injected into the wheels, permanently balancing the tires through centripetal force, eliminating lead and improving fuel efficiency.
5) One of the issues that came up when we spoke with tire manufacturers was supply.
- Perfect Equipment, Inc., a wheel weight manufacturer that makes lead and steel wheel weights and a supporter of LD 986, says that they can adequately supply the state with steel weights if Maine phases out lead.
6) Cost Difference?
- Assuming that you use 2 wheel weights per tire, using steel instead of lead wheel weights would cost an extra 20 to 30 cents per tire, increasing the cost of balancing a tire from $12 to an average of $12.25, an increase of 2 percent to the overall cost.[5]
- With increased economies of scale resulting from more and more states acting to phase out lead weights, this extra initial cost is likely to be nominal or eliminated.
7) Lead wheel weights are banned in other jurisdictions and are on their way out.
- There has been a national dialogue on phasing out lead wheel weights because of their impact on the environment for some time.
- Europe banned the sale of lead wheel weights in 2005.[6]
- Lead wheel weights are effectively banned in California due a lawsuit settlement filed against lead wheel weight manufacturers because of drinking water contamination. The manufacturers agreed not to sell lead wheel weights in the State of California as part of the settlement.[7]
- Vermont passed a law in 2008 to ban lead wheel weights for use in new vehicles.
- US EPA has convened the National Lead Free Wheel Weights Initiative: “To encourage the transition away from the use of lead for wheel weights, the US EPA has created an opportunity for entities engaged in the manufacture, distribution, sale and use of wheel weights to participate in a voluntary effort to accelerate this transition.”[8]
- Nearly every major car manufacturer uses safer alternatives to lead wheel weights.[9]
- Through Governor Baldacci’s 2006 Executive Order on Safer Chemicals, safer alternatives to lead wheel weights are currently in use by State of Maine and University of Maine fleets.[10]
[1] Gearhart, Jeff. Lead-Free Wheels. The Ecology Center http://www.leadfreewheels.org/problem.shtml
[2] ibid
[3] Bleiwas, Donald. “Stocks and Flows of Lead-Based Wheel Weights in the United States.” US Geological Survey. April 2006. http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1111/
[4] Gearhart, Jeff. Lead-Free Wheels. The Ecology Center http://www.leadfreewheels.org/problem.shtml
[5] “Wheel Balancing Cost.” Cost Helper. http://www.costhelper.com/cost/cars/wheel-balancing-aligning.html
[6] Zimmerman, Martin. “Lead Wheel Weights to be Phased out of California by End of 2009.” Los Angeles Times. 8/21/08: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wheels21-2008aug21,0,6289041.story
[7] Zimmerman, Martin. “Lead Wheel Weights to be Phased out of California by End of 2009.” Los Angeles Times. 8/21/08: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wheels21-2008aug21,0,6289041.story
[8] “National Lead Free Wheel Weights Initiative.” US EPA. http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/wastemin/nlfwwi.htm
[9] Ibid.
[10] “State of Maine: Clean Government Initiative.” Maine DEP. http://www.maine.gov/cleangovt/initiatives.htm
