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Star-Telegram | 12/13/2006 | Standard for cement kilns criticized

Star-Telegram | 12/13/2006 | Standard for cement kilns criticized
Sam Boyle  |  by www.nzherald.co.nz. All rights reserved. 3.01 | 16:13

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WASHINGTON - Environmental groups are upset over a new federal effort to cut mercury emissions at dozens of cement plants around the country, saying it defies a court order to toughen controls on the highly toxic air pollutant.
The Environmental Protection Agency defended the standard as an important step to curb the flow of noxious fumes from industrial smokestacks.


The more than 200 cement kilns in the United States are the nation's second-largest mercury emitters after coal-fired power plants, which are installing pollution-control equipment under state programs required by the EPA. North Texas is home to three of the nation's largest mercury-emitting cement plants, owned by Ash Grove Cement, Holcim Inc. and TXI Operations.


James Pew, a lawyer with Earthjustice in Washington, said the mercury standard that the EPA announced Monday applies only to new or modernized cement plants. He said the regulation doesn't require the owners of existing kilns to retrofit them with scrubbers or other equipment to reduce mercury emissions.
"The EPA decided to allow every cement kiln to continue to emit as much mercury as it likes," Pew said.

"This is part of a long string of agency refusals to obey the law."
About 80 percent of the cement used in the United States, Pew said, is produced at plants owned by foreign companies, among them giant firms in France, Switzerland and Mexico.
Keith Barnett, an EPA environmental engineer who helped craft the mercury rule, said it satisfies the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, in which Congress listed 189 of the most toxic pollutants and directed the EPA to set limits on them.


"We determined that what cement kilns are currently doing meets the minimum requirements under law," Barnett said. "This is a judgment call that we have to make when we evaluate each [pollutant] source category."
The new EPA standard also targets cement kiln emissions of hydrocarbons, a class of pollutants that's less toxic than mercury.


Mercury, a heavy metal whose consumption has been linked to memory loss, birth defects and other neurological disorders, enters waterways from rain. Its toxicity is then concentrated by a type of water bacteria. Fish transmit mercury to people, with tuna and other species higher in the food chain carrying higher levels.


At least 40 states have warned residents about eating mercury-laden fish from their lakes, rivers and creeks.
The owners of cement kilns say they release 12,000 pounds of mercury a year into the air. Environmentalists say the total is probably much higher because most mercury emissions reported to the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory are estimates, not measurements.

The EPA said its new rule will reduce mercury emissions from cement plants by 1 ton -- 2,000 pounds -- a year, or one-sixth of the current reported level.
Some cement companies have voluntarily started measuring their plants' mercury emissions. The estimated annual emission of 58 pounds from a cement factory in Alpena, Mich.

, rose tenfold after its operators began measuring the emissions, according to Pew.
"EPA doesn't require them to measure," Pew said. "If they were taking this issue seriously, they could have done that years ago.

"
Andrew O'Hare, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Portland Cement Association in Washington, said winds can carry airborne mercury thousands of miles. Much of the mercury contamination in the United States, especially in the West, comes from factories in China and other rapidly industrializing parts of Asia, he said.
The three cement kilns in North Texas have long been a source of controversy; some Midlothian residents have complained that the plants are harming people.

The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, along with Texas health officials, is conducting a study designed to determine whether emissions from TXI's plant in Midlothian have adversely affected nearby residents' health. The study is expected to be completed early next year.
Ash Grove's Midlothian plant is the largest mercury-emitting cement plant in Texas, according to the federal statistics, discharging 150 pounds of mercury and mercury compounds in 2004.

The plant ranked 27th nationwide. Holcim's Midlothian cement kiln ranked 60th nationwide for total emissions of mercury and its compounds; TXI's plant ranked 77th.
Cement plant officials aren't talking much about the new mercury rule.


Lance Latham, an Ash Grove spokesman, said the company is still reviewing the rule and referred questions to the Portland Cement Association, the industry trade group.
Holcim also declined to discuss the specific mercury rule. But Michel Moser, the Midlothian plant's manager, defended the company's commitment to environmental issues, noting the cement kiln installed scrubbers there in 2000 to reduce plant emissions, including mercury.


Randy Jones, TXI's vice president of corporate communications and government affairs for the Dallas-based company, did not return three phone messages seeking comment.
Staff writer Scott Streater contributed to this report.
Cement kilns are required to report mercury emissions to EPA's Toxic Releases Inventory, but the reports can be estimates instead of measurements.

Here are the reported mercury releases of Texas plants in 2004:
Ash Grove Cement, Midlothian, 150 pounds
Holcim Inc.

Read more on by www.nzherald.co.nz. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Ash Grove, United States, North Texas, Cement Association, Grove Cement, Txi Operations, Portland Cement, Holcim Inc, Ash Grove Cement, Portland Cement Association
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