| New
Holnam Cement Plant Announced, 1997
Tuesday, December 16, 1997
New Cement Plant Planned for Midlothian
Ninth kiln will try to avoid triggering federal action with unprecedented
control equipment
(Cedar Hill) - According to state documents, on October 16th Holnam
Texas L.P. filed for a state permit amendment to build a new cement plant
south of the one the company currently operates in Midlothian. If granted,
the facility would be the ninth cement kiln operating in Midlothian, already
the home of the largest concentration of cement manufacturing in the
country.
In a significant departure from the past, Holnam has proposed that the
new kiln, as well as its current plant, be equipped with “scrubbers” for the
control and reduction of a variety of pollutants, including Sulfur Dioxide.
This would make it the first cement plant in Midlothian to use anything more
than a dust collection system for air pollution control. Holnam’s decision
could have an impact on one of its neighbor plants, TXI, which is fighting
for
a new permit to burn hazardous waste.
Holnam states that the scrubbers are to help the plants avoid a federal
“Prevention of Significant Deterioration” review that would be triggered by
new emissions. Holnam also says they will reduce the total amount of
pollution
from its operations. But citizens believe there are also other federal air
quality standards driving the selection of scrubbers that the company is not
acknowledging.
According to the permit, the facility will be a “mirror plant” with a
single large rotary kiln providing roughly the same production capacity as
Holnam’s current kiln in Midlothian. A local citizens group, Downwinders At
Risk,
received a copy of Holnam’s new permit amendment and other documents as part
of an Open Records request to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation
Commission.
Midlothian is already home to three large cement plants and a steel mill.
In 1995, the state’s environmental agency found these facilities ranked as
the first (TXI), second (Holnam), third (North Texas Cement) and sixth
(Chaparral
Steel) largest air polluters in the Dallas-Ft. Worth region.
Midlothian cement plants have bumped up against federal air quality
standards before. In 1994 Holnam applied for an increase in Sulfur Dioxide
emissions when it started burning tires for fuel. At the time, computer air
modeling by
Holnam showed this increase would put the entire Midlothian area into a
non-attainment zone for National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). As a
result, Holnam requested that TXI “donate” some of its permitted Sulfur
Dioxide emissions to the company so it could proceed with its tire-burning.
TXI agreed, and cumulative totals were kept in check.
But Midlothian industries produce so much air pollution that the issue of
non-attainment is still being debated. In 1996, a monitor north of Chaparral
Steel and TXI recorded Particulate Matter pollution exceeding NAAQS
standards for the first time. This past year state officials lowered Sulfur
Dioxide emissions in the new permit TXI is seeking - over TXI’s protests.
Installation of additional pollution control at TXI has also become an issue
in the hearings over the new permit, with TXI rejecting scrubbers like those
Holnam is now installing as being “too costly.”
Click below for details about facilities of:
|
