|
|
The meeting was requested in a letter to Lafarge from Assemblyman Tim Gordon (I-108th) in May, after the company's 2006 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) filing showed that the plant was the state's leading single source of airborne mercury, a dangerous neurotoxin. The filing, required by the government, showed an estimate of 380 pounds released from the plant's stack each year. Later testing of the plant's input materials yielded a revised estimate of 161 pounds.
The lower amount was still four times higher than the previous measurement a decade ago, and it raised concerns in communities in northern Columbia and southern Rensselaer counties, which are downwind of the plant.
Company officials met with Assemblyman Gordon in Albany and again at the plant on June 25, when officials from nearby towns were invited for a presentation on current testing efforts. Eleven elected and appointed officials attended.
The company has also announced plans to change the process by which it manufactures cement, switching to a newer, more efficient "dry" process over the next five years. Company officials say the change would cut the plant's energy use in half, thereby reducing the plant's emissions due to coal burning. But the impact that would have on pollution from the plant may depend in part on the volume of cement the company produces there.
The Stuyvesant Town Board had also contacted Lafarge with concerns following publicity surrounding the most recent mercury data. When Stuyvesant Supervisor Valerie Bertram announced at the July monthly meeting that Lafarge would be coming on August 7, resident Terry Kornbluh suggested inviting representatives from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. As a result, DEC Region 4 Director Gene Kelly was invited by Supervisor Bertram, and Deputy Supervisor Ron Knott said he expects Mr. Kelly will attend.
Lafarge spokesperson Mike Saeger says, "Lafarge is looking forward to the opportunity to talk about the progress being made here and brief the community on our recently announced proposal to modernize the facility which, if approved, would make it the most advanced cement facility in the state."
At the time the company announced the upgrade for the plant, Lafarge U.S. East Cement Unit President Joe Goss did not rule out the possibility that the new plant's production could increase. He said that permitted emissions limits could be the limiting factor.
Regulators at both the federal and state levels are now considering what those limits should be with respect to mercury. After a decade of pressure by states, along with environmental and public health groups, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced earlier this year that it plans to regulate mercury pollution at the 100 largest cement kilns by September 2009.
State officials are currently negotiating a renewal of the Ravena plant's permit, which expired in 2006. Mercury will be included in the agreement leading to the permit, and environmentalists are pushing for a 90% reduction by the year 2015. That is the same requirement the EPA has set for power plants in the state.
If previous town meetings are any guideline, company officials will face tough questions from citizens, some of whom have demanded for years that town and county officials take action to limit emissions from the plant. Stuyvesant resident Ned Depew has kept the issue on his town's agenda. He is a veteran of the ultimately successful battle to prevent St. Lawrence Cement from building a new cement plant in Greenport and Hudson. He has also fought the application submitted by Lafarge to burn ground-up tires, called tire-derived fuel, or TDF.
Lafarge received the permit to burn TDF, though the fuel has not yet been used, according to company officials. They have not commented whether Lafarge plans to burn tires in the future.
Mr. Depew wants to know whether the proposed plant will have state-of-the-art monitoring and controls. "Source control strategies that don't allow dangerous toxins to get into the exhaust stream in the first place" should be mandated he says. He also calls for "after-the-fact exhaust pollution removal procedures".
Another concern of Mr. Depew is concerns about the use of fly ash in making the cement. Fly ash is a by-product of coal-fired power generation, and pollution controls now required of many power plants tend to concentrate mercury in the fly ash. The DEC is holding a meeting this week to discuss tightening regulations on the use of fly ash, and Mr. Depew says he and fellow activists will attend.
Finally, he sees a need for the industry to be "closely monitored and enforced," based on what he says is poor performance in the past, citing the huge increase from the earlier report of 40 pounds of mercury, which was issued by the plant's previous owner.
"We'd like to know how they plan to restore trust in their oversight system. What new safeguards and monitoring procedures is DEC planning to put into place?" asks Mr. Depew.
The dangers of mercury in the environment are receiving increased attention. At a Senate hearing in Washington this week concerning the Clean Power Act, which she co-sponsored, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton used her home state as an example: "In New York, high levels of mercury in fish due to air pollution have caused the state Department of Health to recommend that infants, children under 15 and women of child-bearing age should not eat even a single serving of fish caught from 93 lakes and 265 miles of river in New York."
Stuyvesant Town Hall is on county Route 26A, 2.8 miles west of state Route 9, or .2 miles east of state Route 9J.
Supervisor Bertram said she expects a crowd. "Come early," she advised.
