With permission, ccSCOOP publishes here excerpts from the text of the presentation made by Susan Falzon, Director of Friends of Hudson, the Columbia County–based environmental advocacy group that, in the first five years of this decade, led the opposition to the construction of a new cement plant in Greenport and has been in the forefront of advocacy for greater control of toxic emissions from cement kilns:
In 2007, the attorneys general of nine states (Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York), with leadership from New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, added considerable weight in joining the legal challenge that resulted in the court settlement that has brought about the new EPA rules announced today.
I know I speak for all the involved community groups when I say how much we appreciate Earthjustice’s consistent leadership and support. Despite our best efforts, none of us alone could have brought about this outcome. EJ’s tagline—“Because the earth needs a good lawyer”—has never been more relevant than in this situation. . . .
The rules announced today by the EPA set limits on the allowable amount of mercury, hydrochloric acid, polycyclic aromatics, and particulates that can be emitted by cement kilns throughout the US. While we haven’t yet seen the rule that will apply to new sources as well as to existing kilns, we have reason to believe that the at-the-stack caps will reduce overall mercury emissions in this industry by about 13,400 which is estimated to be a 60 to 80 percent reduction.
Mercury is a highly potent neurotoxin that can affect every individual exposed to it—even prior to conception, because it can be passed from a pregnant woman to a developing fetus. Individuals of every age and gender are susceptible to mercury’s harmful effects, but it is particularly damaging to infants and children because it has potentially destructive effects on the developing nervous system and brain. Prenatal and infant exposure to mercury can cause retardation, cerebral palsy, deafness, and blindness. Even in low doses, it may cause delays in walking and talking as well as shortened attention spans and learning disabilities.
In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 8 percent of women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their blood to put a baby at risk of cognitive and developmental damage. In a report in 2000, the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council found that approximately 60,000 children per year in the US may be born with neurological problems due to in utero exposure to methyl mercury.
In adults, mercury poisoning can cause fertility problems, irregular blood pressure, memory and vision loss, and may also be associated with heart attacks.
So we can see that limiting mercury exposure by limiting emissions from cement plants will go a long way to reducing the heavy emotional costs to affected families, as well as potentially reducing the financial burdens and social impacts on the public health system and special needs education.
Residents in this area have borne a specifically heavy burden because of our proximity to the state’s three cement plants. Sometime in 2003, Friends of Hudson became aware that the Ravena plant was emitting massive amounts of mercury, unrestrained by federal or state guidelines. During the course of our participation in DEC’s review of Lafarge’s tire burning permit application, we called upon the DEC to limit mercury emissions at Ravena. The state agreed but never actually got around to it, because Lafarge signaled its intent to modernize its equipment at around the same time that the EPA agreed to issue these new rules. So we’ve been in a holding pattern with regard to mercury emissions at Ravena.
Throughout this period and as recently as late last month, Lafarge representatives, when questioned or challenged about their mercury emissions, have hidden behind the technicality that they were meeting all stringent federal and state guidelines. Of course, while this is technically true, it masks the ugly reality as far as mercury and HCL are concerned and shows a very cynical disregard for residents of the community that hosts them and for all who are downwind (and “upstream”) of their stack.
Meanwhile, throughout our region, women of childbearing age and their children are continuing to be exposed to massive amounts of mercury, and people in affected communities have begun to see mounting anecdotal evidence of children with behavioral problems and learning disabilities, as well as alarming incidences of rare childhood cancers. . . .
So today’s announcement is a long overdue watershed moment for all of us. It marks the first step in the end of a decade long battle. These new rules will require this industry to rethink both the raw materials they use as well as their manufacturing processes. For the first time, it will require accurate monitoring and measuring of these pollutants and will cause the need for using appropriate control technology.
By 2013, the compliance date for the new rule, twenty-three years after the Congress amended the Clean Air Act calling for the creation of these rules, we will finally see them implemented. And this implementation will go a long way to reducing mercury levels in the global mercury stream, throughout the US and specifically here on the ground in New York State.
We are very appreciative that the EPA in this Obama administration has seen its way clear to finally doing the right thing in this case.
We welcome these rules. They are the missing link between what we have long known about mercury’s effects and our ability to protect ourselves. With today’s announcement, the EPA is providing the public and the state regulatory agency with an important tool for reducing our exposure.
