Sludge Watch ==> Cement kilns - chuffing out mercury into the environemtnt

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Cement kilns emit mercury. Sewage sludge has high levels of mercury. There 
are no air pollution controls on North American cement kilns.  So we should 
not put sludge into cement kilns....
not in Ontario,  not in Nova Scotia, not in California, not anywhere.

Also, sludge (and animal meal and other high phosphoric acid materials) can 
cause the corruption of the cement...changing the minerology, slowing the 
set up time and reducing strength.

...........................................

Provided below is an excellent story on cement plants, which are a huge 
source of unregulated mercury pollution--with around 100 plants  in the US. 
With the upcoming UNEP Governing Council meeting coming up in 2007 with 
mercury on the agenda, it would be nice to know if there are any estimates 
on how many plants there are in the EU--and worldwide.

Michael

Michael Bender
Mercury Policy Project/
Ban Mercury Working Group
1420 North St.
Montpelier, VT USA 05602
<http://www.mercurypolicy.org>www.mercurypolicy.org
802-223-9000


................................................................
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Cement plants are state's top mercury pollution source
Emissions control regulations lag; contamination poses health risks


By Dan Shapley
Poughkeepsie Journal


While the national and state governments have started a crackdown on toxic 
mercury pollution from power plants, the largest sources of mercury in the 
Hudson Valley remain completely unregulated.

The Hudson Valley's cement plants are owned by the world's largest cement 
manufacturers and they are New York's two largest sources of mercury air 
pollution, according to the latest federal data. The industry and the 
Environmental Protection Agency agree the technology that exists to reduce 
emissions wouldn't work well on cement kilns, but critics are skeptical.

"It's mind boggling that it doesn't happen. Mercury is a well-known 
neuro-toxin," said Susan Falzon, a board member of Friends of Hudson, a 
nonprofit fighting for strict controls on cement plant emissions.

"From the perspective of the public, with the power plant regulations, the 
public believes the EPA and the DEC (Department of Environmental 
Conservation) are protecting public health from the effects of mercury. 
They're not," Falzon said.

The LaFarge Building Materials Inc. cement plant in Ravena, Albany County, 
and the St. Lawrence Cement Co. plant in Catskill, Greene County, top the 
state's mercury emissions list. Those two plants accounted for nearly 40 
percent of New York's mercury pollution.

The EPA has been successfully sued - twice - by environmental groups seeking 
to force the agency to set rules for curbing mercury emissions from the 
nation's 100 cement kilns, as the Clean Air Act requires.

The rule it proposed under a court order, this fall, would require no 
reduction in mercury emissions.

Power plants may use a system called activated carbon injection to curb 
mercury emissions. Such systems would be costly for cement plants and could 
increase other types of liquid and solid wastes, EPA spokesman John Millett 
said. Because plants use limestone mined at the plant, setting a standard 
based on the level of mercury in limestone would also be unfeasible, he 
said.

Processes differ

In a power plant, a bag house traps dust from its boiler, then the activated 
carbon injection system could be used to extract mercury. But a cement plant 
kiln's high temperatures would melt a bag house, and the carbon injection 
won't work in the presence of excessive dust, said Luc Robitaille, corporate 
director of environment for St. Lawrence Cement Co., which is part of 
Holcim, a Swiss company with worldwide operations.

"They ruled that there is no technology that exists in the cement industry 
to control mercury," Robitaille said.

Critics of the decision point to Zurich, Switzerland, where a cement plant 
is the world's only kiln using mercury controls. They also say emissions 
control is a chicken-and-egg process, and sometimes the requirement to 
reduce emissions is needed to spur technological innovation.

New York, which just set strict mercury control rules for power plants, will 
turn its attention to other major sources of mercury pollution after it 
implements the power plant program, Department of Environmental Conservation 
spokeswoman Maureen Wren said.

This spring, the DEC permitted LaFarge, which is based in France, to burn 
waste tires along with coal at its Ravena plant, which it bought five years 
ago. That has a slight potential of increasing mercury emissions, but John 
Reagan, the plant's environmental manager, said an increase was "not 
likely."

Mercury occurs naturally on Earth, and can be released when soil erodes or 
volcanoes erupt. However, mercury concentrations in lake sediments have 
ebbed and flowed in lockstep with the trends of coal-fired industry.

Cement kilns emit mercury both from burning coal and processing limestone 
and the degree of mercury in limestone deposits being mined influences how 
much particular plants emit.

Fish is contaminated

Mercury contaminates fish, and people are exposed primarily by eating 
tainted fish - including fish caught in pristine moountain streams, or 
bought from grocery stores.

The body is slow to release mercury, so toxic levels can accumulate, 
particularly in children and unborn babies, leading to brain damage and 
other neurological problems. Consumers are often confused by conflicting 
advice on eating fish, which accumulate contaminants but also supply 
protein-rich meat and healthy Omega-3 fatty acids.

The federal and state governments have taken a number of steps to curtail 
mercury pollution. Mercury has been phased out of use as an ingredient in 
many products, like batteries, for instance.

States also publish advisories against eating fish from certain waters - 
including Chodikee Lake in Ulster County andd the entire Catskill and 
Adirondack Mountain regions. Women and children should avoid frequently 
eating many fish species because of the risks of mercury contamination.

However, advisories are posted only on those lakes and streams that have 
been tested, and some experts believe many untested waters are also 
contaminated.

Cement plant emissions represent a gap in the national push to reduce 
mercury pollution, restore polluted streams and make fish safe to eat.

The debate over national mercury regulations on power plants highlighted the 
risks that downwind communities face from specific smokestacks. For that 
reason, several states, including New York, rejected the federal strategy of 
allowing power companies to trade mercury pollution credits so long as the 
nation's overall pollution level decreased. Instead, New York has required 
all coal-fired power plants to reduce emissions by 90 percent by 2015.

When that rule takes effect, the two Hudson Valley cement plants will 
release three times as much as all New York's power plants combined, 
assuming emissions from the kilns stays constant.

Air pollution is key worry

Air pollution permits in the Hudson Valley are granted based on weather data 
from Albany that suggest pollution is primarily dispersed and carried east 
by prevailing winds.

New research suggests, however, the Catskill and Berkshire-Taconic mountains 
act like a funnel to channel winds â?" and presumably the pollutants they 
carry - into the valley. They also can trap low-lying air masses in the 
valley, while westerly winds flow over the top.

David Fitzjarrald and Jeff Freedman of the Atmospheric Sciences Research 
Center at the State University of New York at Albany, last month completed a 
three-year, $650,000 study paid for by the National Science Foundation. The 
research has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

"What goes on in the Hudson Valley is a phenomenon called channeling and 
it's been more extensively studied in the Rhine Valley in Germany - another 
heavily industrialized region where they'vee studied how the valley affects 
the winds," Fitzjarrald said.

"As you start thinking about where the outflow goes from one of these tall 
stacks ... that would lead to serious uncertainties about who would be 
getting the dose."

The scientists plan a follow-up study that could begin in fall and last two 
years. If funded again by the National Science Foundation, they would try to 
create a computer model describing the air flow in the Hudson Valley. That 
could then be used for air pollution models to better predict the effect of 
specific industries.

Many risks unaddressed

While the overall level of mercury in the atmosphere will decrease 
significantly as a result of national and state efforts to curb power plant 
pollution, many smokestack-specific risks of mercury were left unaddressed.

The nation's largest source of mercury was the Lehigh Southwest Cement plant 
in California. Five more of the nation's top 100 mercury polluters are 
cement plants, including LaFarge's Ravena plant, which landed at No. 89.

Three of the nation's top mercury polluters were gold mines, including two 
of the top 10.

Another six of the nation's top polluters were steel plants. New York's No. 
3 mercury polluter is a Finger Lakes-region steel plant.

The five other on the top 100 list were other types of metal or chemical 
plants.

In 2000, a federal judge ordered the EPA to draw up rules for limiting 
mercury, hydrochloric acid and hydrocarbons at the nation's cement plants. 
The decision was prompted by a lawsuit by EarthJustice and the Sierra Club, 
and the judge agreed the new rules were required by the Clean Air Act.

After the EPA took no action, the environmental groups joined with others in 
a coalition and again sued successfully, in 2004, to force action.

Last fall, the EPA proposed new rules, and determined new and existing 
plants would face limits on hydrochloric acid and hydrocarbons, but that 
cost and technological barriers prevented regulation of mercury. The 
environmental coalition has protested. A final decision is expected in 
December.

"It's just ridiculous," said Jim Pew, an attorney for EarthJustice. "These 
guys are big emitters and for whatever reason, EPA has decided to blow it 
off."

Dan Shapley can be reached at 
<mailto:dshapley at poughkeepsiejournal.com>dshapley at poughkeepsiejournal.com