Protect What is Close to Your Heart

The St. Vrain Valley Community Watchdogs have taken aim against CEMEX, and how their recent lies are threatening the health of the Lyons, Colorado community. The following guest editorial by the Watchdogs was just printed in the Old Lyons Recorder and is worth a read by anyone who is concerned about the polluters in their community.

Guest Editorial - Protect what is close to your heart
BY ST. VRAIN VALLEY WATCHDOGS

The Cemex mass mailing letter dated January 2007 began with a warm and folksy "Dear Neighbor" and was ended by the current Plant Manager Steve Goodrich with a "Sincerely yours." In between, numerous typos and misspellings can be noted, and a statement that news is provided that "closes the books on past events." Importantly, and far more disturbing, one finds Cemex's attempt to describe and sum-up its permit compliance problems as "primarily data monitoring issues."

It's hard to know just where to begin addressing the lack of candor and sincerity in this letter. But a good start is to say that many residents in the community found the letter to be dismissive of the magnitude of the problems at the Cemex-Lyons plant and many of us found the letter offensive to our intelligence. We found chatter about distribution of penalty fines, chatter about a brief moratorium on burning tires (keep in mind that The Sierra Club law suit related to this matter is not yet resolved) and chatter about dust control (an important, yet secondary, compliance issue). We found mention that emissions testing was undertaken after discovery of operational temperature exceedances, and that testing indicated no threat to public health, but we found no mention or acknowledgement that for years the Plant failed to notice and/or to self-report (as required by its permit) thousands of these operational problems. We found no acknowledgement that they had to be advised of the temperature exceedances by the Colorado Air Quality Control Division that regulates and oversees the Plant's air quality permits. We found no acknowledgement that at the time of the alleged temperature exceedances no one knew what emissions might be being released into our community. And we found no news that specifically addressed any changes being made at the Plant that resolve the problems at the Plant that resulted in 72,067 temperature exceedances recorded during 2004 (keep in mind that many thousand additional alleged exceedances were found by the State during inspection of 2003 and 2005 data).

Let's flip quickly to the State of Colorado's comments in 2005 regarding the problems at Cemex and specifically to one of the two most recent Notice of Violations (NOV), Case number 2005-049, issued to Cemex by the Colorado Air Quality Control Division. This is the State of Colorado division that regulates and that oversees compliance by Cemex with the air quality control permit granted to it by the State, which in part allows Cemex to manufacture cement in the St. Vrain Valley. The NOV we refer you to was issued to Cemex in 2005 and is one of the NOV's issued to Cemex that resulted in the current fine of $1.5 Million. You'll recall that this is the same NOV that cited Cemex for 72,067 temperature exceedances occurring in 2004. It is stated within the NOV:

"Based upon the following observations made during Mr. Carr's inspection and other records, CEMEX has failed to operate the Plant in a manner consistent with good air pollution control practices, in violation of Section II, Condition 24.4.1 of Permit No. 95OPBO082."

Very briefly, let's examine Cemex's compliance history since 2000. The Colorado Air Quality Control Division provided a very handy history of Cemex compliance from 2000 through 2005 in its Cemex Plant Inspection Report dated June 14th, 2005. The list of deficiencies identified by the state of Colorado is far too long to include here, but the reader is encouraged to contact Mr. Gary Kaufman, Legal Administrator, Colorado Air Quality Control Division, at garrison.kaufman@state.co.us for copies of all inspection and NOV documents. A broad spectrum of types of deficiency is listed for 2000-2004 and it's worth noting a few of them: "Failure to operate the raw material dryer in compliance with the PM limits in the Operating Permit [year 2000]", "Failure to notify the Division of excessive opacity from an upset as required [year 2001]", "Failure to exhaust emissions from the A-frame through baghouse control equipment from April 2001 through August 2003 and claimed 99 percent control efficiency on APEN submitted to the Division on 6/20/03 [year 2003]", and "Failure to operate equipment to [sic] in a manner consistent with good air pollution control practice for minimizing emissions minimize [sic] air pollution, Cemex is using explosives to remove obstructions from within the "conditioning spray tower" which results in predictable emission releases [year 2004]". The State lists 26 additional deficiencies for these years.

Take a look at the State's summarized history of Cemex compliance and recall that, as reported in April, 2006 by the Old Lyons Recorder, Cemex promoted the Plant Manager who was at the helm at the Lyons Plant during this time period to the position of national cement operations compliance officer for all 12 Cemex plants across the country: "CEMEX USA is pleased to announce that their Lyons Plant Manager [...] has accepted a national corporate position Cement Operations Compliance Manager. His new responsibilities include serving as the liaison with all CEMEX plants in the USA to ensure full compliance with all environmental regulations. And further, according to the Boulder Daily Camera on April 29th, 2006, he would spearhead a national effort focused on creating a corporate environmental-management system! As Susanna Duarte, V.P., Cemex U.S. Communication & Community Relations, commented, "[the Lyons plant manager's] experience has put him in a position to be a unique asset for the corporation, and we wanted to leverage that at the national level."

Cemex is a Mexican-based, cement manufacturing giant with numerous facilities in the US and the rest of the world. Look for yourself at Cemex's compliance record at other plants in the US and Puerto Rico by searching under "Cemex" in the EPA's ECHO website (Enforcement & Compliance History Online) at www.epa.gov/echo/. The EPA has listed seven Cemex operations as "High Priority Violators," of which the Lyons Plant is just one. In response to Cemex issues nationwide, in 2006 the National Alliance of community organizations across the United States (visit http://www.stopcemexmegamine.org) was formed to share resources and to resist and oppose, as needed, the agendas of Cemex in the US.

So with all this in mind, ask yourself...what's needed to ensure Cemex-Lyons compliance with its permits? What's needed to determine problem areas within the Plant? What yardstick does the community need to measure compliance efforts? A thorough, independent, environmental engineering audit would be a good place to begin. And the results should be made public along with a summary of how and when Cemex will address each issue raised by the audit. It must be, as a minimum, a thorough and candid assessment of equipment, monitoring devices, computer software, management and operations protocol, staff, staff training, and other similar categories.

Protect what is closest to your heart: your family, friends, and lungs.

Sincerely,
St. Vrain Valley Watchdogs, P.O. Box 82, www.stvrainwatchdogs.org, Hygiene, CO 80532