Washington – Environmental groups are upset over a new federal approach toward cutting mercury emissions at dozens of cement plants around the country, saying it defies a court order to toughen controls on the highly toxic air pollutant.
The Environmental Protection Agency defended the standard as an important step in curbing the flow of noxious fumes from industrial smokestacks.
The 200-plus cement kilns in the U.S. are the nation’s second- largest mercury emitters after coal-fired power plants.
James Pew, a lawyer with Earthjustice in Washington, said the mercury standard that the EPA announced on Monday applies only to new or modernized cement plants and doesn’t require the owners of existing kilns to retrofit them to reduce mercury emissions. “This is part of a long string of agency refusals to obey the law,” Pew said.
Keith Barnett, an EPA engineer, said the agency’s decision satisfies the requirements of the Clean Air Act to limit pollutants.
