Groups push state for mercury emission limits

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jill Bryce

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Citizen environmental groups called on Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the state Wednesday to put stricter limits on mercury emissions from the Lafarge cement plan on Route 9W in Ravena.

They said the plant is the single largest source of mercury emissions in the state, and they are requesting that the state Department of Environmental Conservation test the state’s other cement plants for their mercury output and set emissions limits.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently released 2006 emissions data in its Toxic Release Inventory program, and the Lafarge cement kiln in Ravena was the state’s largest source of mercury pollution in the air. It released 400 pounds of mercury, according to the 2006 figures in the federal report.

“Cement kilns are notorious polluters of our air and water,” Laura Haight, NYPIRG’s senior environmental associate said Thursday during a news conference at the Legislative Office Building.

DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis “should blow the whistle on these facilities and require them to cut their mercury emissions down by at least 90 percent.”

Lafarge reported in 2003 that it emitted 40 pounds of mercury from its smokestacks, but testing revealed the plant actually released about 400 pounds of mercury into the air.

Keri Powell is an attorney with Earthjustice, which is suing the EPA over its decision not to set mercury limits on cement plants. “New York’s cement kilns are the state’s silent mercury polluters,” said Powell. “For years the Lafarge cement kiln has gotten a free pass from the federal government, which has neglected to set a national standard limiting mercury pollution from the cement industry.”

There also are no state limits on mercury emissions from New York’s cement plants.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is currently negotiating air pollution permits for Lafarge, according to DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren.

DEC recognizes the impacts of mercury, and it’s particularly dangerous to children and women of child-bearing age, said Wren.

“We know Lafarge must act now to reduce the plant’s emissions,” she said.

Representatives from Lafarge could not be reached Thursday to comment.

Separate from what Lafarge may do, DEC has been developing permit conditions because Lafarge’s permit is currently expired, Wren said. “We have developed draft permit conditions that will substantially reduce the plant’s mercury emissions, among other restrictions.”

Mercury is the main focus of these permits.

The draft permit for Lafarge is complete and a public comment period will be held before the permit is finalized.

The DEC is committed to requiring Lafarge to implement these and other mercury reductions, according to Wren.

Wren said DEC is also revising the permits for the St. Lawrence cement plant in Catskill and the Lehigh plant in Glens Falls with a focus on mercury.

The mercury is formed when mercury-tainted coal waste, or fly ash, is burned in the manufacturing process. The fly ash is a byproduct of residues created in the combustion of coal.

The three plants account for nearly half of the total of annual mercury emissions from all 26 of the state’s coal-fired power plant boilers, according to Powell.

“Mercury is a very dangerous metal which is changed into methyl mercury, the most dangerous form, which forms in sediments and concentrates in fish that people then eat,” said Dr. David O. Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany.

He said that methyl mercury causes loss of IQ and shortened attention span in children and increases risk of heart disease in adults.