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As widely reported this week, the EPA has passed a long anticipated set of rules regulating the emission of mercury and other pollutants from cement plants. Reactions have been predictable: dire predictions that the regulations “can’t be met” with existing technologies for certain plants and claims of the billions of dollars the new regulations will cost the industry. Industry spokespersons [...] On June 2, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled new sulfur dioxide (SO2) primary national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). The EPA’s main reason for revoking the former standards is the public health risk posed by sulfur oxides, which SO2 is a part. They claim that sulfur oxides react with compounds in the atmosphere to form particulates [...] With almost 900 ash-containing landfills nationwide, the proper disposal of coal ash was a problem that could be avoided no longer. Early last week, the Environmental Protection Agency finally announced a new proposed set of regulations on coal ash, the first time this by product is being nationally regulated. The main concern with this coal power plant after [...] Talks are still underway concerning government regulation of fly ash by-product. Members of the Portland Cement Association (PCA) are part of a coalition of various industries that are reviewing the legislation in attempts to find a universally satisfying proposal. The legislation is expected to take one of following three paths: 1) Classify the fly ash as hazardous except [...] EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced Monday that the agency would not push through regulations against large greenhouse gas emitters until 2011. Also, Ms. Jackson announced that the agency would raise the threshold for the Clean Air Act on regulating carbon dioxide emissions. The delay comes after multiple groups, including eight Senate Democrats, expressed concern on the potential [...] During this year alone, the cement industry is expected to spend approximately $3.5 billion to help control atmospheric emissions. By 2015, spending is predicted to rise to nearly $5 billion annually. Each region of the world is facing different challenges and taking different steps in order to meet increasing emission standards. In the United States, most of [...] Members of the Portland Cement Association (PCA), lobbying on behalf of the cement industry as a whole, are pushing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to not add new regulations limiting the amount of mercury and other pollutants emitted from cement plants. Their argument is based on the subsequent rise in production costs which would seriously hamper [...] The Environmental Protection Agency has attempted to classify fly ash as a national priority for recycling. Conversely, environmentalist groups are lobbying for the EPA to designate fly ash as a ‘hazardous’ by-product of coal power plants. The government agency is struggling through the opposition as it attempts to promote the re-use of the by-products through its Coal Combustion Products [...] Lehigh Cement will begin voluntarily testing of activated carbon injection technology, commonly used to reduce mercury at power plants, to reduce the emissions at its plant in Union Bridge Maryland. The mercury will be permanently sequestered in the final product. Lehigh believes it can meet the EPA proposal for 2013 mercury levels without negatively impacting the quality of [...] Two new studies released today will only serve to increase the public pressure on the EPA to regulate mercury emissions from cement kilns. The first, a USGS study, found mercury contamination in every fish tested from 291 streams across the country and levels in more than two thirds of them were “a concern to fish eating mammals”. [...] |
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