midlothian industrial plant emission data- front burner（米德工业工厂排放数据——优先地位）.doc

NOT “JUST STEAM” A Review of “Emissions Data from Midlothian Industry” For the Texas Senate Natural Resources Committee, September 9th, 2008 In the summer of 2008 Amanda Caldwell and Susan Waskey, two University of North Texas Geography graduate students, did something no one had previously done. They added up all the emission reports submitted to state and federal government by the three cement plants and adjacent steel mill in Midlothian. Their report, “Midlothian Industrial Plant Emission Data” was the first to try to document the cumulative impact from what is the largest concentration of smokestack industries in North Texas. Although there has been an operating cement plant in Midlothian since 1960, emission data was only available from the state beginning in 1990, and from the EPA beginning in 1988. The last available data from both sources is currently 2006. Besides providing an idea of the total pollution burden imposed by these facilities for the first time, Caldwell and Waskey also spotlight the differences in reported volumes of air pollution when industry submits emissions reports to the state versus the federal governments. The two databases reveal some interesting contrasts in tracking 16 years of air pollution emissions that call for closer examination. Caldwell and Waskey’s work definitively puts to rest the oft-repeated unofficial explanation by the companies and their boosters that that plant’s emissions are “just steam.” In fact, pollution from the smokestacks of these facilities is the largest industrial threat to public health in North Texas, and has been for decades. 1. The Facilities Texas Industries, Inc. (TXI) cement plant One dry kiln Four wet kilns Fuel: coal, hazardous waste, permitted for tires Holcim US Inc. cement plant Two dry kilns Fuel: coal, tires, oil filter fluff, petroleum coke, used oils Ash Grove Texas L.P. cement plant Three wet kilns Fuel: coal and tires Gerdau Ameristeel, (formally Chaparral Steel