Happy Earth Day! 2

In September 2008, Mercury, Power Plants, Fish and Cement Kilns was posted.

In response to that post, Mercury and Cement Kilns was posted about the Ravena, New York community who have been affected by the Lafarge Ravena Cement Plant.

.

In January 2009, Cement Kilns and Highly Toxic Mercury Pollution explained that EarthJustice had reached a settlement regarding mercury pollution from Cement Kilns and EPA standards were to be announced in March 2009.

It included the following --

.

The report -- titled "Cementing a Toxic Legacy?" -- drew on the latest EPA data, which found that the nation's 151 cement plants generate 22,918 pounds of airborne mercury each year. Previously, EPA believed that cement kilns accounted for about 11,995 pounds of annual mercury emissions...

one-seventieth of one

teaspoon of mercury can

contaminate

a 20-acre lake and make

the lake's fish unsafe to eat.

.

Earth Justice announced --

.

Federal Government Cracks Down on Mercury Pollution From Cement Kilns
Air pollution rules from new administration will cut mercury pollution by between 81 and 93 percent
April 21, 2009
Washington, DC -- The federal government is proposing, for the first time, to reduce airborne mercury pollution from cement kilns with new rules issued today. The new standards will cut mercury pollution from the nation's more than 150 cement kilns between 11,600 and 16,250 pounds (or a reduction of 81 to 93 percent), according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Led by Lisa Jackson, the EPA Administrator newly appointed by President Obama, EPA is proposing first time standards for cement kilns of mercury, hydrochloric acid, and toxic organic pollutants such as benzene. In addition, the agency is strengthening the outdated standards for particulate matter to better control kilns' emissions of lead, arsenic, and other toxic metals.

Local and national environmental and public health advocates cheered the news, which follows a decade of delay and represents a hard-fought victory for those who have long pushed for these mercury limits. The new standards are being proposed as part of a court settlement reached between the US Environmental Protection Agency, the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice representing Sierra Club and community groups in New York, Michigan, Montana, California and Texas, and the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Earthjustice prevailed in a string of lawsuits aimed at forcing EPA to set limits for airborne mercury pollution from cement kilns for nearly a decade. Such limits were due under the federal Clean Air Act in 1997.

"This is great news and is a promising sign that the new leadership at EPA and in the White House is serious about protecting public health and the environment," said Earthjustice attorney Jim Pew. "By stopping pollution at its source, we can keep mercury from poisoning the fish we eat. Bit by bit, we can reclaim our nation's waters and protect our children's health and our environment from dangerous mercury pollution."

Although cement kilns have avoided controlling their mercury pollution until now, they are one of the largest sources of mercury emissions nationwide and the worst mercury polluters in some states. But kilns can curb their mercury emissions by using cleaner raw materials, cleaner fuels, and readily available technology like scrubbers and activated carbon injection.

In addition to requiring kilns to cut their mercury emissions, the proposed rules also limit, for the first time, kilns' emissions of the acid gas hydrochloric acid which acts as a lung irritant and other highly toxic pollutants such as benzene. In addition, they will significantly reduce cement kilns' emissions of particulate (PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution, pollutants which damage heart and lung function.

"The Obama EPA is waking up to community voices which have been calling for years for protection from the cement industry's toxic spew" said Marti Sinclair, Chair of the Sierra Club's Clean Air Team. "The spell which has enthralled EPA to corporate interests has been broken by the dogged persistence of Americans fighting for what is right."

The new rules would also require cement kilns to monitor their mercury emissions for the first time. In the past, the industry has been notoriously lax about reporting these emissions: a study last summer from Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) found that cement kilns emit mercury pollution at more than twice the level estimated as recently as 2006 by the EPA, which only started to collect data on the problem in 2007.

The report -- titled "Cementing a Toxic Legacy?" -- drew on the latest EPA data, which found that the nation's 151 cement plants generate 22,918 pounds of airborne mercury each year. Previously, EPA believed that cement kilns accounted for about 11,995 pounds of annual mercury emissions.

Mercury is dangerous in even very small doses; one-seventieth of one teaspoon of mercury can contaminate a 20-acre lake and make the lake's fish unsafe to eat. But a study by the University of Florida found that when mercury pollution is reduced, ecosystems can indeed bounce back, documented by reduced mercury levels in fish and certain bird species within just a few years.

A dangerous neurotoxin, mercury interferes with the brain and nervous system. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, eight percent of American women of childbearing age have mercury in their bodies at levels high enough to put their babies at risk of birth defects, loss of IQ, learning disabilities and developmental problems. The build up of mercury in aquatic systems and the resulting fish contamination undercuts the million-job industry supported by the nation's 45 million recreational fishers and renders a portion of the hard-won catch unfit for human consumption.

Additional Resources:

For an interactive map showing the locations of cement kilns nationwide, including kiln-specific information, please visit:

http://www.earthjustice.org/library/features/cement-kilns/interactive-map-of-featured-cement-kilns.html
For an interactive web feature illustrating how cement manufacturing creates mercury pollution, please visit:

http://www.earthjustice.org/library/features/cement-kilns/mercury-emissions-from-cement-production.html
For an interactive web feature illustrating how mercury impacts humans, please visit: http://www.earthjustice.org/library/features/cement-kilns/mercury-and-bioaccumulation.html
For a report documenting the recreation fishing economic engine, please visit

Sportfishing in America: An Economic Engine and Conservation Powerhouse

Two Seattle Cement Kilns From Above
This video features two Seattle cement kilns, located just outside of downtown Seattle. Mercury emissions from these sites impact hundreds of thousands of people around the Puget Sound. Toxic levels of mercury in fish affect everyone, especially children and pregnant women.




A Bay Area Cement Kiln From Above
This video features the Cupertino cement kiln, located just outside San Francisco. Mercury emissions from this site impact hundreds of thousands of people in the Bay Area.


.
Take action and send a letter of support to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Cement Kilns and Highly Toxic Mercury Pollution

Kudos to Earthjustice for finally reaching a settlement to reduce mercury pollution from cement kilns, EPA standards to be presented by March 2009.

.

The smoke discharged from cement kilns appears clean, but carries its mercury pollution and other toxins with it to contaminate rivers, streams, neighborhoods, drinking water and to accumulate in the environment where it persists.

.

Voluntary industry emissions estimates have been grossly understated, which accounts for significant discrepancies between industry estimates and estimates based on production calculations.

.

So much for voluntary compliance!

.

The industry friendly Administration has ignored public health hazards, scientific facts and the law.

.

In their fact sheet,
The Bush administration has utterly failed
to protect the public from toxic mercury pollution.

CEMENT KILNS—These facilities release vast quantities of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) into the air every year, including approximately 5 tons of mercury. For four years, the Bush administration has refused to set standards to control this pollution and protect public health in spite of a December 15, 2000 federal court’s order that EPA issue regulations to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic chemicals from cement kilns. The Bush administration’s continued refusal to respond to this court order has forced Earthjustice, on behalf of the Sierra Club, to file a writ of Mandamus to compel the administration to finally act on the court’s order and issue protective regulations.

.
COAL-BURNING POWER PLANTS—Power plants are one of the most well-known sources of mercury pollution, releasing some 48 tons of the toxin into the air each year. Rather than propose standards that would provide the maximum achievable controls for this toxin, the Bush administration proposed to reclassify mercury from power plants as a non-hazardous air pollutant. The new definition doesn’t change the dangers mercury poses to health and the environment, but it does weaken and delay standards for the control and reduction of this toxic pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

.
And this from the announcement --
.
The report -- titled "Cementing a Toxic Legacy?" -- drew on the latest EPA data, which found that the nation's 151 cement plants generate 22,918 pounds of airborne mercury each year. Previously, EPA believed that cement kilns accounted for about 11,995 pounds of annual mercury emissions.
.
one-seventieth of one teaspoon of mercury can contaminate a 20-acre lake and make the lake's fish unsafe to eat.
.
The following is a list of the most egregious offenders from Earthjustice, hopefully to appear on search engines to brand the producers, watch for some of these names to appear on campaign donors' lists --
.
The Ash Grove Cement Plant in Durkee, Oregon has the dubious distinction of being the worst mercury polluter of any kind in the country, emitting more mercury into the air than any power plant, steel mill or hazardous waste incinerator. In 2006 Ash Grove reported to the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory that it emitted 2,582 pounds of mercury. Based on information Ash Grove submitted to EPA in 2007, however, actual emissions may be as much as 3,788 pounds a year.
.
Lafarge North America, Inc., shows up on the Top 10 Polluting Cement Kiln list twice, at rank four and rank five with its plants in New York and Michigan. By Lafarge's own calculations the kiln in Ravena, New York emits 400 pounds of mercury per year.
.
Lehigh's Union Bridge, Maryland, plant is located approximately 75 miles northwest of Baltimore. It is the fifth largest cement kiln in the United States, able to produce nearly 2 million tons of clinker annually. The Lehigh cement kiln at Union Bridge reported to TRI in 2006 emitting only 35 pounds of mercury pollution; but Lehigh reported in newly released TRI data for 2007 emitting 376 pounds of mercury. However, as reported in "Cementing a Toxic Legacy?" this kiln also has the capacity to emit as much as 1,539 pounds of mercury a year. This is particularly significant given the plant's proximity to the Chesapeake Bay.
.
The largest concentration of cement manufacturing in the entire country is just outside of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex in Midlothian, Texas. Citizens of Midlothian are burdened by five plants operated by Holcim, Ash Grove and Texas Industries, all within a 6.5 mile radius of each other. Combined, these plants emit just under 200 pounds of mercury on an annual basis, and thousands of tons of other dangerous toxic air pollutants.
.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Hanson Permanente Cement operates a kiln in Cupertino, California. This kiln is located within a major residential area in close proximity to several Cupertino schools. It is also located within five miles of the San Francisco Bay, which is currently contaminated with mercury. The Hanson Permanente kiln reported emitting a staggering 494 pounds of mercury pollution in 2006 to the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory. EPA failed to include Hanson Permanente Cement in any of its information requests, leaving open the possibility that its mercury emissions could be even worse.
.
The CEMEX kiln in Davenport, California is of similar concern. That kiln, located right beside homes and farms along California's coastline and only 40 miles north of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary, reported emitting 172 pounds of mercury pollution to the Toxic Release Inventory in 2006. The Davenport kiln is one of those for which EPA refuses to release data gathered in 2007.
.
The Lafarge site in Alpena, Michigan is a five-kiln plant, and in 2006 was the nation's third largest cement plant. These kilns collectively reported emitting 360 pounds of mercury in 2006. The Alpena cement plant is of particular concern because it sits on the banks of Lake Huron and in close proximity to residential areas of Alpena.
.
As a footnote to any interested in DIRTY COAL, Earthjustice offers
Economic Valuation of Human
Health Benefits of Controlling
Mercury Emissions from U.S.
Coal-Fired Power Plants
.
The following was previously posted --
Mercury, Power Plants, Fish and Cement Kilns
Mercury and Cement Kilns

Mercury and Cement Kilns

In response to Mercury, Power Plants, Fish and Cement Kilns , the following comment was received that I call to your attention:

The environmental lawyers of Weitz & Luxenberg P.C. have begun speaking with those in the Ravena, New York community who say they have been affected by the Lafarge Ravena

Cement Plant. For more information, please visit

http://www.weitzlux.com/lafarge_1935726.html