Catching Up With a Cement Plant's Past

Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action put CEMEX, Inc. on notice today that it intends to file suit in federal court to clean up the company's coal burning cement plant in Lyons, which threatens peoples' health and Rocky Mountain National Park.

According to Colorado Air Pollution Control Division records, the kiln at the Lyons cement plant has been modified numerous times since 1979, leading to steady increases in air pollution from the smokestack. Under the Clean Air Act, best available pollution controls must be installed whenever a modification leads to increased air pollution. The cement plant has now been illegally operating without pollution controls for nearly three decades.

Under the Clean Air Act, citizens can file suit against polluters to hold them accountable to clean air after giving them 60 days notice. Civil penalties can also be assessed. Polluters can be fined up to $32,500 per violation per day under federal law. CEMEX could be required to pay over $500,000,000 in civil penalties because of its violations.

CEMEX, a multinational cement and mining company headquartered in Mexico, also releases massive amounts of toxic air pollutants from its Lyons cement plant. According to the company's own records:

• 53 pounds of mercury are released annually. The amount of mercury released by the cement plant is equivalent to the mercury in over 34,000 household thermometers (53 pounds * 453.5 grams/lb. = 24,035.5 grams/0.7 grams per thermometer = 34,336).
  
• 0.114 grams of dioxins are released annually. The National Research Council of the National Academies recently described dioxin as "among the most toxic anthropogenic substance ever identified." There is no "safe" level of exposure to dioxin.

After 60 days, citizens can file suit against CEMEX in U.S. District Court in Denver. Once in court, citizens will ask a federal judge to hold CEMEX in violation of the law, to require CEMEX to install pollution controls, and to require CEMEX to pay civil penalties for its violations.