Home
Donate Online
About Us
Contact Us
Allies
DFW's Smog Problem
Facilities
Midlothian, Texas
Cement Kiln Primer
Links
Newsletters
Citizen's Respond
Archive
National Citizens Cement Kiln Coalition
Sign Up For Green Mountain Energy and They'll Donate $25.00 to Downwinders
(click here)
 

Downwinders At Risk
PO Box 763844
Dallas, TX 75376

Phone (972) 230-3185

Email:  Click Here

www.DownwindersAtRisk.org

donate online

                                          

Senator Dick Durbin & Senator Barak Obama meet Downwinder Family The Alred's from Midlothian, Texas
Downwinders At Risk Board Member and family take their cause to Washington, DC.

 

“Cementing a Toxic Legacy? How EPA Has Failed to Control Mercury Pollution From Cement Kilns,"  Special Report: Dangerous Mercury Pollution from Unregulated Cement Kilns in US about Twice as High As Levels Previously Projected by EPA
EPA Ignored Problem For 10+ Years Even Though Some Kilns Emit More Mercury Than Power Plants; Report Focuses on Cement Kilns in AL, CA, IA, IL, MD, MI, MT, NY, OR, SC, TX and WA.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 23, 2008 – For more than a decade after Congress told it to curb dangerous mercury pollution from cement kilns across the nation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refused to take action.  Now, a new study from Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) documents the consequences of the EPA’s failure:   Cement kilns emit mercury pollution – a threat to the health of pregnant women and children – at more than twice the level estimated as recently as 2006 by the EPA, which only started to collect data on the problem in 2007.
 
The unregulated pollution from cement kilns is emitted in or nearby many major U.S. urban areas and also within a few miles of such major bodies of water as the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Huron and the San Francisco Bay. Mercury pollution already has impaired rivers, lakes, and streams throughout the United States, making certain fish unsafe to eat.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8 percent of women of childbearing age in America already have mercury in their bodies at levels high enough to put their babies at risk of birth defects, loss of IQ, learning disabilities and developmental problems.
  • Cementing a Toxic Legacy? How EPA Has Failed to Control Mercury Pollution From Cement Kilns," Press Release click here >>

Download the Report

 

Local Environmentalists Build Float Featuring
Larger Than Life Rick Perry Kissing Smoke Stack,
Vow to Shadow Perry Across State Until Election Day

Trying to draw statewide attention to what they say is Governor Rick Perry’s unwavering favoritism toward obsolete toxic-waste burning cement plants and other polluters, DFW-based Downwinders At Risk showed up outside the Gubernatorial debate in Dallas tonight with an 8-foot tall Rick Perry kissing an equally large smoke stack, mounted on a 16 foot hay trailer from Midlothian.
donate here >>

  • Keep the Float Afloat ... donate here >>
     
  •  Erin Brockovich visits Midlothian, Texas to visit with residents about air pollution.
    click here >>

     
  • Historic Settlement Puts Dallas-Fort Worth On Faster Track for Clean Air  After months of negotiations, environmental and public health groups announced today that they have reached an historic accord with local, state and federal government to end the first lawsuit ever filed over dirty air in Dallas-Fort Worth.
    click here >>
  • A new DFW Clean air Plan is Being Written Now Will Cement Kilns be Targeted? Right now, the state of Texas is writing a new clean air plan for DFW that is supposed to have us breathing better air by 2010. The plan needs citizen input.  Visit www.dfwairplan.org for more information.

  • Dallas-Fort Worth Cement Kiln Study On January 11, 2006, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality released its draft report on the technical and economic feasibility of adding modern pollution controls for Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) to the 10 cement kilns in Midlothian, Texas, just south of Dallas-Ft. Worth.
    click here >>

  • Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Latest TRI Data Released for 2004 - The latest Toxic Release Inventory for 2004 was released in April 2006. Nearly 400 tons of various kinds of toxic pollution were released into the Midlothian's air, land and water in 2004, including over 1000 pounds of Mercury, 25,000 pounds of Lead, 58,000 pounds of Benzene, 89,000 pounds of Toluene, and 600 pounds each of Styrene and Naphthalene.
    click here >>

  • 2006 Dallas-Fort Worth Cement Kiln Study 2006 State Implementation Plan, go to www.dfwairplan.org

  • Activists from Across County Travel to Testify Against Cement Kiln Pollution - EPA continues to allow mercury, other pollutants from cement production industry click here >>
  • Becky Bornhorst: EPA, Clean up our air! North Texas homemaker will attend today's hearing on kilns, but many Americans can't  click here >>
  • 2005 “No Place Like Home” (D Magazine, May 2005) 
    click here >>
  • 2005 Environmental Groups and Citizens Protect Public Health and North Texas Air Quality Again with TXI Settlement
    click here >>
  • Historic Settlement Between Environmental Groups and Cement Plant Hailed as a Victory for North Texas Air Quality
    click here >>