Who:
Sandy Bihn
Western Lake Erie Conservation Chair
Where:
Oregon, OH
A proposed new coke plant(steel component) with emissions up to 8 million pounds per year was and still may be built on Western Lake Erie's shallowest Great Lakes shores(Michigan and Canada border the north shores). The mercury amount of mercury was hidden in the application as a Hazardous Air Pollution(HAP) with quantities difficult to understand terms - 10 to the minus.The mercury amount was up to 680 pounds annually and would be one of the largest mercury sources in the Great Lakes. The Western Lake Erie and Ohio Chapters of the Sierra Club hired an expert to prepare comments on the permit and to research mercury emissions for Best Available Control Technology(BACT). The State of Michigan, Ontario Province in Canada, and Twenty Eight Environmental organizations objected to the mercury emissions and to the granting of added ozone emissions just before ozone nonattainment went into effect. Ohio E.P.A. issued the permit June 14, 2004 and set a Great Lakes mercury precedent by limited mercury to 36 pounds per year. In addition, the permit disallowed venting during maintenance, and required testing and other controls. But there were no restrictions on ozone emissions and the Toledo, Ohio area was declared nonattainment June 15, 2004. The company, with undisclosed owners and operators, Sierra Club, and Harbor View(an environmental justice area)appealed the permit. Before the appeal process was complete, the company and OEPA agreed on a new draft permit with no mercury limit, venting permitted and tests reduced. Attorneys for the Sierra Club say that the appeals process took jurisdiction. The new permit and the legal issues are pending. Using Ohio as a standard, the Sierra Club and OEPA helped to obtain a 48 pound annual mercury limit for a Cambria County, Pennsylvania coke plant.
