Combustion and Waste Materials Conversion News

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Vol.6 No. 4           Gossman Consulting, Inc.            EDITOR: JIM WOODFORD

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Fairborn, OH: 3-4-98

The local environmental group which helped drive Southdown out of the hazardous waste as fuel business has amended a federal lawsuit filed in 1993. This time the group claims that Southdown is not following through on clean-up plans for a landfill area. The group claims that neither the judge nor the group were informed of a sale of the land until the last minute. The amended lawsuit now names both companies and asks for $50 million.

Alpena, MI: 3-5-98

A preliminary USEPA report indicates that the waters of Thunder Bay may have been impacted by run-off from old National Gypsum CKD piles. Spawning grounds have reportedly been impacted and the shoreline zone along the edge of the pile has been reduced. The report will also reportedly detail “chronic toxicity” both near and outside the immediate area of impact. The report is due out by May, 1998.

Mitchell, IN: 3-5-98

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has approved a plan for Lehigh Portland Cement to start burning tires. Burning tires is expected to lower the emissions of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen. The plan is to burn five tires per minute or 600 to 750 tires per day, the equivalent of approximately 2.5 million tires annually. When the system is ready, emissions testing will be conducted.

Charlevoix, MI: 3-6-98

State environmental officials have decided that Medusa needs to come up with some way to handle all CKD piles at their Charlevoix facility. Where previously it looked as if the company would only be required to address three CKD piles, the state has expanded that to include nine piles. Previous estimates for the three piles had been $2 million. The company has pointed out that the dust piles do not impact Lake Michigan or the surrounding groundwater but a complicated DEQ study intends to insure that arsenic and lead are, in fact, not a problem as well as any pH impact.

Nazareth, PA: 3-12-98

Essroc has agreed to pay $26,000 to settle an excessive nitrogen oxide and CKD emissions fine for the period beginning September, 1992 and ending in November, 1994. Essroc is also planning an estimated $239,000 in upgrades to the facility’s pollution control and monitoring systems. The settlement includes a continuous opacity monitor.

Chanute, KS: 3-14-98

Ash Grove is in the permitting process to install a new landfill west of Chanute. This new landfill has come about because of public concerns over blowing dust from an existing landfill.

Cleveland, OH: 3-19-98

Southdown has purchased Medusa Cement in a stock deal estimated to be worth $1 billion. While there are no immediate plans to change operations, the new combined company will be headquartered in Houston. Medusa earned $57 million last year on $376 million in revenues. The big question hanging fire in the hazardous waste burning cement manufacturing community is... what will Southdown do with the two waste fuel burning Medusa facilities in Alabama and Pennsylvania?

Fairborn, OH: 3-20-98

Heck, ya can’t even give it away. Southdown wants to donate 245 acres of land to a local wetlands association. However, due to assessment costs, the wetlands association has let it be known that they would rather act as a broker and find another owner for the land. Sewer and water assessments are expected to be around $210,000. The association would like to see the land operated by an organization with a land manager, such as the division of wildlife, the county parks department or the City of Fairborn. At any rate, the association is excited about the possibility that the land could once again become the headwaters for the wetlands corridor, as it was in the 1800's.

Duncanville, TX: 3-26-98

The permitting process continues for TXI as testimony is heard from both sides of the hazardous waste burning issue. One opposition point of view is repeated here for your entertainment: “Downwinders at Risk would be satisfied if TXI had more pollution controls, burned no metals, no chlorine and no solids, and were required to use a landfill like the incinerators use.” In response to this opposition position, a TXI spokesperson pointed out the obvious, “If you go down their list of requirements there’s nothing left to burn.”

Nazareth, PA: 3-27-98

Essroc is investigating an unfortunate incident concerning shot rock. A blast at the quarry resulted in rocks damaging nearby homes and cars. The rocks were reportedly as big as 1.5 feet by 10 inches. No one was injured and the company is performing a thorough investigation.

Frederick, MD: 3-28-98

Essroc is planning to open another CKD disposal area sometime next year. New state requirements include a ruling that the area be lined. Two other disposal areas are currently in use and have been since the plant opened in 1958. County approval will be required and public meetings are already in process.

Summerville, SC: 4-1-98

Giant Cement Holding, Inc. has announced a $900,000 write-off for the fire at the Pennsylvania facility “based on an estimate of the probable costs.” The company also pointed out that it has been burning only coal at the Pennsylvania facility and estimates the cost of not using waste fuels at approximately $80,000 per week.

United States: 4-2-98

In a recent safety publication, a case was highlighted where a company was cited for a work violation even though workers had been trained on the issue. Signed training sheets were insufficient to dismiss the citation. The company would also have had to prove that specific company rules had been communicated to employees, potential violation situations were monitored, and that these rules would have been enforced.

Midlothian, TX: 4-2-98

TXI has announced that a permit application was filed with the TNRCC to construct a new kiln system at their Midlothian cement plant. This new kiln would supplement existing production capacity to the tune of 1.5 million tons of cement per year. The new system will reportedly employ the latest technology and replace some existing equipment, therefore no increase in emissions is anticipated.

Washington, DC: 4-3-98

A recent Internet article, published by an organization that is totally independent of any hazardous waste thermal treatment group, pointed out what the cement manufacturing industry has known for all too many years. The expected USEPA proposal to drop from what was previously deemed as a safe level of lead emissions of 670 micrograms per dry cubic meter to 100 micrograms/dscm is a combination of junk science and cutthroat competition. Thanks can be extended to the Environmental Treatment Council and Carol Browner’s EPA manipulation of scientific data to get the results that they want. Lock Haven, PA: 4-7-98 Following a turn-around to replace refractory brick, the incinerator at the Drake Superfund site is again burning contaminated soils. More than 16,800 tons of soil have been burned at the former chemical site. More than 252,000 cubic yards are scheduled for incineration.

Bath, PA: 4-8-98

Some citizens are using the Keystone incident as a renewed opportunity to call for the Keystone hazardous waste burning permit to be revoked following the release of the PADEP findings on the Keystone incident. The state DEP report found that the Keystone incident was “the result of a series of equipment problems, inadequate waste management protocols and practices, and operator errors.” The fire ultimately snuffed itself in the storage tank. Legislators are also using the incident as another excuse to drag out tired old legislation to outlaw the burning of hazardous waste in Pennsylvania cement kilns. Man-oh-man, this editor gets tired of those legislative attempts. It has been tried all across the United States and doesn’t make any more sense now than it did the first time it was tried.

Robbins, IL: 4-9-98

The Illinois EPA has cited Robbins Resource Recovery & Foster Wheeler for over 700 violations which include 78 occasions between June, 1997 and December, 1997 of excess CO and 40 occasions of excess HC. There were also allegedly 500 occasions of when one of the two burners at the facility was operating under the required 1,500 °F burner temperature. An IEP spokesperson stated that the violations do not appear to be of immediate health threat, although “because there were so many violations, it certainly indicates some kind of systemic problem.” The incinerator takes garbage from a dozen suburbs.

Portland, OR: 4-10-98

Ash Grove Cement has invested over $2 million in a transport system for methane gas from a nearby landfill. The landfill closed in 1991. The gas is being used to make quicklime at the Rivergate facility. The lime produced here is used by the steel industry and paper pulp producers.

Bath, PA: 4-10-98

The State Department of Environmental Protection has announced that the limited supply of oxygen and vapor in the tank at Keystone was the only thing that kept the earlier “flare-up” from exploding. A DEP representative was quoted as saying that “If there had been more oxygen, we feel that Tank Three could have failed. It could have ruptured; it could have blown apart.” To this editor, it sounds as if maybe things worked the way they should have. It would appear by the DEP report that there was a limited supply of oxygen (as should be the case) and the vapors were not at an explosive level (as should also be the case). Perhaps the DEP representative should also have said that if a meteor had struck the tank farm (similar to what is currently being depicted in the movie Deep Impact) then it is also likely that Tank Three would have failed. There are, no doubt, numerous other scenarios that “could have” happened, but they didn’t. Keystone is being criticized for not including a similar scenario in their health risk assessment; but the bottom line is, there wasn’t a giant explosion, there were no resulting injuries and the contingency plan seemed to work.

Washington, DC: 4-13-98

A USEPA report has concluded that exhaust from diesel engines are probable causes of cancer in people. The report is draft at this time, but that has not previously stopped the Browner EPA from making their case in the press before the science is reviewed. The draft report states that cancer risk could be as high as 1 in 100 even at levels previously considered safe. If the release of this draft report is similar to previous draft report releases then you can bet on diesel engine regulations whether the science ultimately supports new regulations or not.

East Chicago, IL: 4-15-98

Coming as old news by the publication of this issue of CWMCN, Pollution Control Industries has refused to take the Vietnam era napalm which they had earlier agreed to blend into cement kiln fuel (CWMCN, Volume 6, Issue No. 1). It was national and international news, compliments of CNN, so there is little need to detail the story here. It is worth noting that many newspapers editorialized that burning the napalm in cement kilns was not a problem, and that the issue was more of a public relations nightmare than anything else. Disposal of the napalm in cement kilns has been kicked around since the mid 1980's. Most waste fuel site managers have looked at the issue at one time or another. It is unfortunate that a perfectly practical solution cannot be implemented because of misinformed public outcry.

Washington, DC: 4-23-98

Due to recent court hearings concerning “double jeopardy” lawsuits, escape from facing more than one lawsuit for the same violation is becoming less likely. A Supreme Court ruling and a reversal of decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed an OSHA fine and a criminal fine from a separate but related law- suit to stand. As a general rule, violations are considered criminal only if the violations have been classified as willful and also caused serious injury or death. The bottom line is, the ruling allows that a company can be criminally prosecuted even after having received penalties from a federal organization such as OSHA (and one must assume MSHA as well).

Niagara Falls, NY: 4-29-98

Occidental Chemical has agreed to drop multi-million dollar claims against the city of Niagara Falls. The claims involved 19-year-old lawsuits stemming from the evacuation of the neighborhood built over Love Canal. The city spent about $10 million on the 1978 evacuation and initial clean-up of the site. Occidental’s predecessor, Hooker Chemical, used the site as a “state-of-the-art” landfill from 1942 to 1953. Those familiar with this giant fiasco may remember that the city wanted the land and was willing to pull “imminent domain”-type tactics to get the land. Occidental acquiesced and the city proceeded to breach the landfill cap as it developed the site. An Occidental spokesperson pointed out that “It’s the end of an era. It really is, and we’re looking toward the future.” Occidental still has a facility in Love Canal.

Summerville, SC: 5-1-98

Giant Cement Holding has announced the completed acquisition of Solite Corporation and certain of its operations. Solite is a leading lightweight aggregate(LWA) producer, block producer and resource recovery company. The transaction includes three LWA manufacturing facilities, which burn hazardous waste,and a hazardous waste drum processing and fuelblending facility in Alabama.

Around the Nation, USA: 5-19-98

Names and regulatory references have been omitted for this story. A docket item was obtained in conjunction with review and comment of a proposed regulation. Unfortunately, the docket item did not appear to be complete as it was just a few pages from an obviously larger write-up of some sort. Follow-up phone calls to both the keeper of the docket items and the author of the docket item in question evoked an identical response, “That shouldn’t be in the docket.” The author of the docket item in question then suggested that the information requester (a common citizen like you and me) should call the keeper of the docket items associated with the proposed rule to see if the keeper would pull the docket item in question out of the docket and substitute a related article which had resulted from the incomplete docket item. The information requester offered to see what could be done. Now that is citizen participation.

Oxford, MS: April 1998

Those endocrine disrupters keep rearing their ugly heads. In an ongoing study, an environmental toxicologist at the University of Mississippi is assessing the ability of estrogen-like chemicals to modulate the endocrine system of catfish. The study will be in conjunction with a colleague at the University of Tennessee and will look at the actual chemical state of sewage in a treatment plant , focusing on the ability of estrogenic chemicals to survive treatment. The role of animal waste will also be examined because apparently, “Egg laying chickens, for example, excrete a great quantity of this hormone, which often enters the environment through storm water run-off.” No word yet on whether or not chickens will be fined if their waste water treatment plants are not operating properly.

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