4
put the resulting solution in bottles. Petitioner sold the
reclaimed mercury to individuals and entities in the gold mining
industry for use in extracting the metal from ores. Sometime in
1980, petitioner began experiencing competition from an
individual who was also recovering mercury from batteries. The
competitor obtained batteries from the same sources as
petitioner. By 1981, petitioner’s primary source of income was
the recovery and sale of purified mercury directly to users.
Sometime in 1982, the State of California imposed hazardous
waste regulations that rendered scrap battery processing
impractical for petitioner. In 1983, the California Department
of Health Services Toxic Substances Control Program (DHS) began
requiring the DOD to deliver mercury only to a California
hazardous waste permitted facility. Petitioner was not able to
obtain a hazardous waste facility permit which would have
required extensive engineering documentation, and prohibitively
high hazardous and environmental insurance. Hence, it was
impractical for petitioner to proceed with mercury reclamation
from scrap batteries because of the costs associated with a
hazardous waste facility permit. Nevertheless, petitioner
attempted to continue in the mercury business, with sources other
than batteries, until he ultimately ceased selling mercury on May
31, 1988.
In 1983, in response to petitioner’s cessation of the
activity of extracting mercury from batteries, petitioner’s wife
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