Cement kilns across the country are spewing mercury emissions at twice the rate EPA estimated, as recently as 2006. Ten years ago Congress compelled EPA to regulate and reduce these cement kiln emissions, and EPA has pretty much ignored the request. In a recently released study conducted by Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project it is revealed that cement kilns are emitting more than twice the mercury EPA estimated.
An excerpt from a MarketWatch article below;
EPA Ignored Problem For 10+ Years Even Though Some Kilns Emit More Mercury Than Power Plants; Report Focuses on Cement Kilns in AL, CA, IA, IL, MD, MI, MT, NY, OR, SC, TX and WA.
For more than a decade after Congress told it to curb dangerous mercury pollution from cement kilns across the nation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refused to take action. Now, a new study from Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) documents the consequences of the EPA's failure: Cement kilns emit mercury pollution -- a threat to the health of pregnant women and children -- 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.
[...]
Entitled "Cementing a Toxic Legacy? How EPA Has Failed to Control Mercury Pollution From Cement Kilns," the Earthjustice/EIP report outlines specific recommendations for EPA and state agency action based on the following key conclusions:
-- Mercury emissions from cement kilns are almost twice as high as the agency has previously acknowledged, and in many states kilns are among the worst mercury polluters. EPA now estimates that cement kilns emit nearly 23,000 pounds of mercury each year, far more than the Agency's 2006 estimate of 11,995 pounds.
-- A relatively small number of cement plants that use extremely dirty raw materials and fuels are among the worst mercury polluters in their states and, in some cases, in the country. For example, some cement kilns release as much or more mercury as coal fired power plants.
-- Since 1974, cement production has increased 15 percent, and further increases are projected for the future. Rising levels of cement production in the U.S. mean that the cement industry's mercury pollution will grow even worse if left unregulated.
Earthjustice staff attorney James Pew said: "EPA's new data confirm that cement plants are among the worst mercury polluters in this country. EPA has refused to acknowledge this problem for more than a decade, and the mercury contamination in our food and waters has grown worse every year as a result. It is high time for EPA to do its job and make this industry clean up its toxic emissions."
The 23,000 pounds, or 11.5 tons, is roughly one quarter of the estimated mercury emissions from all coal fired EGUs in the country (48 Tons). What I find amusing is, many of the cement plants use EGU flyash in their product, thus emitting some of the mercury (trapped in the flyash) that was captured by the air pollution control devices at the power plant. So we play an industrial game of catch and release.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
http://www.examiner.com/a-1508440~Get_the_mercury_out.html
Editorial
Get the mercury out
The Baltimore Examiner Newspaper
2008-07-28
BALTIMORE -
EPA failure to reduce mercury from cement kilns puts us at risk and hurts business. But self-proclaimed environmental activists should not delude us that rigid enforcement will do much immediately to protect health.
Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice charge that the nation’s 150 kilns, including two in Maryland, expose us to at least 23,000 pounds of mercury a year. High doses of this heavy element cause a wide array of physical and mental diseases. It accumulates up the food chain, especially in fish. It harms babies in the womb. No one knows the dangers of long-term, low-level human exposure. Odds are, it’s bad.
EPA’s decade of dawdling is inexcusable, but activists’ efforts to push the agency merely shine a light on the universal immensity of the problem. Screeching about saving Earth from mercury is ludicrous. According to the Tennessee Valley Authority, the planet itself accounts for 40 percent of emissions.
Of humanity’s 60 percent contribution, Asia spews out half. The U.S. accounts for only 3 to 5 percent, and the EPA estimates a third of that is from coal power. TVA reported, “Mercury ... can travel great distances in the atmosphere ... a global problem that knows no national or continental boundaries.”
So, burning coal is overwhelmingly the biggest culprit. Who burns the most coal and makes the most cement? China, says the U.S. Geological Survey. China also emits more mercury due to primitive pollution-control technology.
Even if we could get all our cement kilns to zero, it would not reduce aggregate measurable health risks. It might even push more production to unregulated havens, which would emit even more mercury.
This shows the quandary of regulation. For example, one source of U.S. kiln mercury is disposal of ash scrubbed — due to regulations — from coal power. But the most important thing it shows is the opportunity for another technology developed here due to government regulation to become a huge, value-adding industry. That has been the case for 35 years of U.S. environmental technology leadership, first forced on us by President Richard M. Nixon.
China and other booming nations are learning the hard way that pollution is a deferred cost that accrues and compounds, and eventually must be paid. China’s cement production increased almost 40 percent in the last three years, almost entirely in primitive, dirty plants.
Soon they will realize they have to get the mercury out. Let us ensure when they turn to us, we know how.
That is why delaying environmental regulation that forces advanced technology not only puts world health at risk, it hurts business.
Examiner
Post a Comment