Enclosure 2 to Comdtinst 16478.12
PRIORITY RANKING PLAN FOR ATON BATTERY RECOVERY
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1.0 Introduction
The U.S. Coast Guard maintains approximately 12.000 fixed lighted aids to
navigation (AtoN) in the major rivers, coastal waters and adjacent
shorelines of the United States, its territories and possessions. From the
1960's to the mid-1980's, most lighted AtoN were powered by disposable
"primary" batteries that contained small amounts of mercury. During the
period, many spent batteries were disposed of at the AtoN. These batteries
also entered the environment as a result of AtoN being destroyed by
collisions, storms, floods and vandals.
The Coast Guard has undertaken the following steps to address this problem:
Reduced the number of batteries used by converting
the vast majority
of lighted AtoN to solar power.
Implemented policies prohibiting improper disposal
and creating a
battery tracking system to account for every battery
used.
Begun a systematic; phased program to recover lost
batteries
nationwide.
The Volpe Center has provided technical and scientific assistance to the
Coast Guard in its recovery effort. This documentation presents the
methodology and results of a model developed to priority rank aquatic and
terrestrial AtoN sites for survey and possible recovery operations. The
rankings are based on objective criteria, and are intended to assist Coast
Guard decision makers choose where to concentrate limited resources in a
multi-year effort.
The priority ranking of an AtoN site is not proof that batteries are
located at the site, or a recommendation whether any batteries found should
or should not be recovered. The ranking model relies on projections of
historic battery consumption at fixed lighted AtoN and implicitly assumes
that the batteries used were left at the site. To date, the prototype
survey and recovery investigations, as well as Coast Guard survey effort,
have found that
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Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
Priority Ranking Plan for Aton Battery Recovery
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