Clean
Air: Recent Postings
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November 2007: Tire Energy Corporation has permanently shut
down its Martinsville, VA facility. We have posted the VA DEQ TEC shut down letter
signed in September.
Oct. 23, 2007: NEW STUDY
REVEALS ASPHALT PLANT DANGERS
- Today at a press conference in Spruce Pine, the
Mitchell County Citizens for Clean Air and the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League released an air pollution study of
the proposed Young & McQueen asphalt plant which shows that
air toxins would be deposited far from the plant site. The League’s
report shows dangerous levels offsite of formaldehyde, benzene
and arsenic. BREDL
Press Release | BREDL
Air Pollution Study of proposed asphalt plant | Asphalt Plants Page
October 2007: Proposed
Young & McQueen asphalt plant Factsheet - Young & McQueen are proposing an asphalt plant
near Spruce Pine in Mitchell County, NC.
July 30, 2007: ASPHALT PLANTS - CONTAMINANTS OF CONCERN: An overview of 7 toxic substances released from asphalt processing facilities and their known effects on human health
October 25, 2006: Lou Zeller's comments at the
Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality hearing on revised permit for Tire Energy Corporation's tire
incinerator in Martinsville, Virginia.
October 17, 2006: Lou Zeller's comments before the VA State Corporation
Commission regarding proposed
coal-fired power plant in Wise County, Virginia.
August 31, 2006: Duke Power proposes to triple the electric
power output of its Cliffside plant near Shelby, North Carolina.
The company predicts that emissions of nitrogen oxides will
double: from about 3,000 tons per year to nearly 6,000 tons/year.
Nitrogen oxides are the primary source of ground level ozone, a
pollutant which frequently exceeds National Ambient Air Quality
Standards in many parts of North Carolina. Ozone is a regional
problem; NOx emissions affect downwind counties and states.
Lou Zeller's comments
before the NC Utilities Commission
July 24, 2006: BREDL and our chapter Be Safe Not Sorry request NC DENR Division of Air Quality require South Atlantic Galvanizing in Graham, NC obtain an air pollution permit. BREDL letter to NC DENR
The League's July 17, 2006 comments reflect our opposition to North Carolina's pending agreement to allow several paper mills, plastics plants, a chromium plant and an aluminum plant to receive unwarranted exemptions from state and federal regulations limiting pollution which causes atmospheric haze: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Such factories should be required to install Best Available Retrofit Technology, also known as BART, to reduce their negative impact on air quality in national parks, wilderness areas and on public health. BREDL comments
Feb. 11, 2006: Stericycle
Dental Waste Management Plan - Reducing
Mercury Emissions with Title V Operating Permits.
The Alleghany County, North Carolina Board of
Commissioners voted unanimously on November 8,
2005 to endorse a plan to zone polluting
industries and high impact land uses. The move
was done at the request of local residents led by
Alleghany Citizens for Environmental Safety
(ACES) who are concerned about a proposed asphalt
plant locating in Laurel Springs on N.C. 18. The
ordinance effectively blocks a polluting industry
from locating within 2000 feet of a school, day
care, nursing home, medical facility, church or
residential dwelling. The vice president of the
asphalt company claims that the company’s
efforts to build are ‘grandfathered in’
because the company applied for a state air
pollution permit. However, no such right is
granted by the mere submission of a permit
application. View the ordinance that was passed
at: http://www.alleghanycounty-nc.gov/ordinances/1-296.PDF
Nov. 5, 2005: Factsheet: Toxic
Air Pollution Levels in Canton, NC from Blue
Ridge Paper Products, Inc.
Oct. 20, 2005: Analysis: Asphalt Plant versus Wood Stove
Pollution - Comparing Apples and Hedgehogs (a
household wood stove emits but a tiny fraction of
the pollution emitted by an asphalt plant.)
October 2005: An Overview of
Polluting Industry Ordinances: The Wilkes County
Model
Factsheet: Maymead Inc. proposed asphalt
plant in the Laurel Springs community of
Alleghany County, NC. (Oct.
24, 2005)
(Posted online 10/20/05) 2001 Minority
Report on Fugitive Emissions from Asphalt Plants - This report, submitted to EPA in
2001, was co-authored by BREDL and other groups. (.pdf, 5 MB)
(Posted online 10/20/05) Sept. 15, 1999
BREDL letter to EPA
regarding asphalt plant fugitive emissions. (.pdf)
Sept. 23, 2005: APAC: POLLUTING
WITHOUT BOUNDARIES
This is a report on APAC-Atlantic, Inc., one of
the nation’s largest transportation
construction contractors. The League's report
lists APAC's violations of environmental laws and
citizens’ complaints for the asphalt plants
which the company operates in Rutherfordton,
Burnsville, Penrose, Hendersonville and
Morganton, North Carolina. Our report is based on
public records on file in the NC Department of
Environment and Natural Resources Division of Air
Quality. The company’s track record in
western North Carolina reveals a corporation that
shows little care for the health and well-being
of the people who live nearest the asphalt
factories it operates.
APAC Atlantic proposed asphalt
plant in the Henrietta community of Rutherford
County, NC. (Aug. 11, 2005)
April 27, 2005: BREDL chapter members from Group
Against Stericycle Pollution (GASP for Clean Air)
joined David Mickey from BREDL and Kelly Heekin
from Healthcare Without Harm (HCWH) in a face to
face challenge of Stericycle's continued
incineration of medical waste in Haw River, NC.
The five activists traveled to Chicago where they
attended the company's annual shareholder meeting
where Martha Hamblin from GASP presented a
resolution calling on the company to adopt a plan
to stop incineration of medical waste. John
Powell, Heather Bjork, David Mickey and Kelly
Heekin spoke in support of the resolution and
cited Stericycle's recent violations for mercury
emissions.
After questions from other shareholders put
Stericycle management on the defensive, they
became argumentative about regulations and
contracts, and refused any suggestion that
Stericycle should not accept dental waste, the
source of the mercury contamination, for
incineration. Nevertheless, the resolution
received enough shareholder votes to be presented
again next year when GASP will return using
shareholder activism to promote corporate
responsibility.
Please check out the Health Care Without Harm
Stericycle Watch webpage to read statements
by David Mickey of BREDL, Martha Hamblin from
BREDL chapter Group Against Stericycle Pollution
(GASP), and other Haw River, NC residents made at
the annual Stericycle shareholders meeting held
on April 27, 2005. Statements from previous
meetings are also there.
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