Community wants cement plant mercury emissions gone

STUYVESANT — “Go the extra mile.” That was the unspoken message of speaker after speaker at Thursday’s meeting between the public and officials from Lafarge Cement and the Department of Environmental Conservation.

More than 100 people from both sides of the Hudson River packed Stuyvesant Town Hall to query representatives of the company, whose Ravena plant is the largest emitter of airborne mercury in New York state.

Plant reps repeated several times that they are engaged in a ground-breaking study of their mercury emissions, and that they need to know what kinds of mercury they are emitting before they can purchase the appropriate control technology. They could not promise that it would be applied before the new plant was built, however; for now, it’s a waiting game for local residents until the plant’s tests are completed this fall.

In addition to answers and more questions from Lafarge representatives about its environmental impacts, there was also some good news for Columbia County concerned citizens from the DEC: An air monitor for particulate matter will be placed in the county in 2009.

“The plant is safe and complies with all environmental requirements,” said Lafarge’s Regional Environmental Manager Bill Voshell.

“There are no standards for mercury emissions,” said Ned Depew of Stuyvesant. “So when you say we comply with all the standards, you’re saying we’re doing nothing. As if you were keeping us safe — it’s not happening.”

He then quoted from the Web site for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to the effect that, “The nervous system is very sensitive to all forms of mercury. Methylmercury and metallic mercury vapors are more harmful than other forms, because more mercury in these forms reaches the brain. Exposure to high levels of metallic, inorganic, or organic mercury can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and developing fetus.”

“It says they have been unable to establish a safe level of exposure to mercury,” Depew said. “The New York state attorney general has called for a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions from industrial sources. Our group is calling for our industrial neighbors to do that, make a 90 percent reduction

“They do apply such strict standards in Europe,” he said, addressing Plant Manager Martin Turecky, a native of Czechoslovakia. “They don’t make the profits you do here, but they get by. I’m asking you to extend the same concern for the safety and health of the people in this room as you do for your workers.”

Voshell stressed that the plant abides by the Air Toxins Registry of New York state.

Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District member John Vadney said he was amazed to see the Lafarge representatives at a public meeting.

“We’re being poisoned,” he said, adding that he had tried to obtain information about the quantities of toxins the company has been putting out, and had run “up against a brick wall.”

“Cement is not what holds this country together,” he said, “it’s people. We expect a good neighbor.”

Physician Jeffrey Monkash indicated he found it incredible that the plant is one of the nation’s biggest emitters of a toxin, and they don’t know how much they’re emitting.

Peter Donahoe of Stuyvesant Falls noted that the proposed 500-foot stack is probably the largest structure between Albany and New York City.

Turecky said this was because the new plant would have five stages, built on top of each other; the plant that had been proposed by St. Lawrence Cement for Greenport would have had a 400-foot stack, but had only four stages, he said.

Donahoe wondered why the plans to modernize the plant don’t fall under the New York state coastal policies. Plant Environmental Manager John Reagan said he didn’t think it would, because it’s located more than a mile from the river.

Several questioners asked about the types of fuel that would be used. Turecky said tires would be burnt for fuel, since the plant has a tire-burning permit, and if the company decided it wanted to burn other fuels, it would have to apply for permits to do so.

Susan Falzon of Friends of Hudson asked what other U.S. Lafarge plants burn; Lafarge Engineer Sam Fujimoto said the list is long. The South Carolina plant is permitted for shredded, non-recyclable plastics and paper products; the Kansas City plant burns plastics; the Michigan plant is looking at burning waste plastics; another plant burns hazardous wastes in a “well-monitored” way.

“So it’s not inconceivable this plant could consider that?” Falzon asked.

“The cost of energy is going up,” Fujimoto said. “If there’s a source nearby, we’d consider it.”

Jim Travers of the group Selkirk/Ravena Citizens Against Pollution said that the city of Albany has a landfill adjacent to the plant and it would be tempting for the company to use refuse-derived fuels. Fujimoto said no RFD is being used in Lafarge plants in the U.S. Travers noted that no filtration system can capture particles less than 2.5 microns, or PM 2.5.

He said he was as much concerned about the emissions of dioxins and furans as he was about mercury.

Fujimoto said a water spray is used to limit the amount of dioxins and furans.

Travers urged that the company keep its cement kiln dust, which the company estimates has 11 pounds of lead and four pounds of mercury annually, on its own property. Reagan said most of the CKD is landfilled in a hazardous waste dump; a smaller amount is sold.

Germantown Supervisor Roy Brown said because of the prevailing north-south winds under 1,000 feet, the towns north and south of the plant along the river, such as Germantown and Stuyvesant, are most subject to its emissions. He asked DEC Regional Director Gene Kelly whether the Board of Supervisors’ request for an air monitor would be honored.

“I’ve talked to county representatives,” Kelly said. “[The air monitor] will be freed up by the end of the year. I expect to redeploy it here in Columbia County. We’re open to different locations [within the county].”

He added that the device only measures PM 2.5, not mercury, but said he was in conversation with the Department of Health to see if there is anything that can be used to measure mercury.

And he said the DEC would “take a searching look at [Lafarge’s] application when it comes in. Everyone understands the cement plant is not serving their needs or our needs.”

The topic of noise pollution also surfaced during the meeting.

“For seven years my wife and I tolerated low frequency pulsations through the front of our house, compliments of Lafarge,” David Wicks of Ravena said, “24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. The former plant manager was in my living room. His first suggestion was, ‘Do you have earplugs?’ He was sincere.”

Lafarge inherited the problem from Blue Circle Cement, the plant’s previous owner. The noise finally stopped last fall, Wicks said, when the drive motor on kiln two was replaced.

He wondered what the redesign of the plant would portend for noise.

Fujimoto said it was too easy to say yet, but there are now more requirements for sound baffles than there were in the past.

But mercury was the main focus of the meeting.

“I was shocked to hear about 380 or 160 pounds of mercury,” said Tim Croft of Schodack Landing. “I think it’s imperative that Lafarge exceed whatever the government regulations are. That would be a matter of pride for me. If I took two or three ounces of mercury and dropped it into a reservoir, I’d spend my life in Guantanamo Bay. It takes a certain character to say, ‘we’re going to do the best job we can.’ I ask that of you.”

Lee Jamison of Stuyvesant noted that the Hudson Valley Business Journal has a story that the Food & Drug Administration is considering the safety of dental mercury fillings.

“You guys have to get rid of this stuff,” she said. “You should tell us how you’re going to do it better.”

To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.