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New National Sulfur Standard May Impact Health, Coal Power Plants, Smelters
Dick Kamp / Wick Communications Environmental Liaison
November 19, 2009
Washington The US Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it intends to scrap sulfur dioxide (SO2) regulations under the Clean Air Act by June, 2010, eliminating current standards for 24 hours and a year, in favor of halting 5 to 10 minute "short term peak or STP" concentrations of SO2 that can potentially kill asthmatics, babies or the elderly.
"Short-term exposures to peak SO2 levels can have significant health effects - especially for children and the elderly - and leave our families and taxpayers saddled with high health care costs," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.
The regulation could dramatically change how such facilities as power plants, copper smelters and industrial facilities will control sulfur emissions in the future. It will be the first change in sulfur regulation since Richard Nixon and Congress established the EPA and made SO2 the first air quality standard in 1971.
Deadly sulfur smog in Donora, Pennsylvania in 1948 and in London in 1952 were catalysts for setting current standards; 12,000 died in London over a period of days. However, since 1980, evidence has amassed showing that sulfur-as measured by it's "precursor" or formative gas SO2, can alone and in combination with other particulates pose an enormous health risk to asthmatics, babies or heart victims in as little as 2 minutes.
Started in Arizona Dead bodies are not the basis of air pollution regulation in the United States; medical studies are. However the SO2 STP problem was dramatized in 1985 when a Cochise County, Arizona asthmatic was the first person monitored at home to measure pollution from the non-sulfur controlled Phelps Dodge (PD) Douglas Copper Smelter.
Rancher June Hewitt had a life-threatening asthma attack when SO2 levels exceeded 1000 parts per billion (pbb) over five minutes, 12 miles from the smelter.
EPA and the state of Arizona were friends of the court in 1985 Environmental Defense Fund lawsuits on behalf of Cochise County asthmatics and others against PD and the Magma San Manuel Smelter. The court found that the Douglas smelter created an "imminent and substantial endangerment" to health under the Clean Air Act and the smelter was permanently closed in January, 1987, under an EPA-approved consent decree and a treaty with Mexico.
The same court decision formed the basis of a 1987 EPA and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) three-year consent decree to clean up SO2 emissions from the Magma Copper San Manuel smelter north of Tucson. ADEQ fined the smelter up to $100,000 when it exceeded both 6 minute and one hour short term SO2 peaks. The smelter and mine both closed in 1999 for economic reasons.
Medical studies grew During the late 1980s California set a weaker hourly standard for SO2 than the new proposed EPA standard of between 50 and 100 ppb. By 1990, it was clear that coal fired power plants and pulp mills had joined smelters as short term peak hazards to asthmatics and evidence continued to accrue that SO2, combined with other pollutants, was causing serious health impacts.
An increasing number of studies by the 1990s concluded that very short SO2 exposures, as little as two minutes of moderate concentrations, were causing asthma attacks, and that deaths from very small increases in ambient SO2 and low birth weight were associated with short term SO2 increases all far below Clean Air Act standards. The impacts of particulates with sulfur such as sulfates, and sulfuric acid (SO2 combined with water) were found to cause lung disease that in turn aggravated heart conditions.
According to the new EPA Federal Register notice, the agency evaluated existing SO2 standards in 1996 and agreed that the standards could not prevent severe health risks from STPs, but declined to regulate the SO2 peaks and proposed voluntary state and tribal guidance to reduce their impacts.
The American Lung Association responded with a lawsuit and in 1998 the court said that the agency could not conclude that the risk existed without regulating it, and sent the regulatory process back to the EPA. Two Presidents later, EPA has a court-ordered June 2, 2010 deadline to develop a new standard.
Arizona Smelters Unlikely to Comply Hourly SO2 data for the Hayden and Miami smelter town in Gila County Arizona, on EPA websites, indicate that without improving sulfur capture, both towns are unlikely to comply with the new standard of 50-100 ppb on an hourly basis. Gila County attainment with the new standard will be based on the 4th worst hourly SO2 peaks from 2006-2008 and those ranged from 128 ppb at best in Miami to 370 ppb at worst in Hayden.
The Asarco Hayden smelter emits more sulfur than any other smelter in the U.S. The Freeport McMoran Miami smelter emits approximately 1/3 the sulfur as Hayden but is located in an area subject to pollution inversions. Both areas are considered to be in attainment with current 3 hour, 24 hour, and annual SO2 averages.
Salt Lake City's Kennecott smelter has not had a problem with short term SO2 peaks since it was rebuilt in the 1990s and is anticipated to meet any new SO2 standard. EPA Region 9 Environmental Engineer Steve Fry said this is because "99% of fugitive workplace and stack emissions were captured by sulfuric acid plants, showing what the best available smelter control technology can do."
Freeport spokesman Eric Kinneberg said that the company would work with the National Mining Association in commenting on the new standards and that "these proposed regulations are currently being evaluated." Asarco had no comment by press deadline.
New Mexico could have problems if the new standard is on the stringent side because of coal fired power plant emissions from the San Juan and 4-Corners facilities. Their SO2 emissions are somewhat less concentrated, in part because power plants have more consistent sulfur emissions from constant coal burning than smelters burning erratic quantities of copper concentrates, said EPA's Fry.
He added that "maybe power plants using cleaner western coal could require new wet scrubbers to comply with new standards. The more difficult problems will be with high-sulfur coal power plants." A number of power plants in the Midwest are projected by EPA to not comply with the new standards.
Boulder attorney Robert Yuhnke won both the 1985 smelter lawsuits and 1998 decision for the American Lung Association against EPA that established the current rulemaking. Yuhnke said Wednesday, "It's been a long time coming, almost 25 years since we sued to protect Arizona asthmatics from copper smelting. Our lawsuit forced the agency to regulate but millions of Americans were put at risk by unnecessary asthma attacks because of the irresponsible disregard of the public's health by the industry hacks who were appointed to protect the nation's health for most of this decade.
Perhaps elections, more than lawsuits, make a difference."
ADEQ Director Ben Grumbles said Thursday, "We're reviewing the proposal. Existing controls have worked but it's important to always look at potential upgrades and updates. If EPA believes the science justifies a stronger standard we have a duty to look at it carefully."
Disclosure: Dick Kamp was a plaintiff in the 1985 smelter lawsuit.
November 19, 2009
Washington The US Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it intends to scrap sulfur dioxide (SO2) regulations under the Clean Air Act by June, 2010, eliminating current standards for 24 hours and a year, in favor of halting 5 to 10 minute "short term peak or STP" concentrations of SO2 that can potentially kill asthmatics, babies or the elderly.
"Short-term exposures to peak SO2 levels can have significant health effects - especially for children and the elderly - and leave our families and taxpayers saddled with high health care costs," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.
The regulation could dramatically change how such facilities as power plants, copper smelters and industrial facilities will control sulfur emissions in the future. It will be the first change in sulfur regulation since Richard Nixon and Congress established the EPA and made SO2 the first air quality standard in 1971.
Deadly sulfur smog in Donora, Pennsylvania in 1948 and in London in 1952 were catalysts for setting current standards; 12,000 died in London over a period of days. However, since 1980, evidence has amassed showing that sulfur-as measured by it's "precursor" or formative gas SO2, can alone and in combination with other particulates pose an enormous health risk to asthmatics, babies or heart victims in as little as 2 minutes.
Started in Arizona Dead bodies are not the basis of air pollution regulation in the United States; medical studies are. However the SO2 STP problem was dramatized in 1985 when a Cochise County, Arizona asthmatic was the first person monitored at home to measure pollution from the non-sulfur controlled Phelps Dodge (PD) Douglas Copper Smelter.
Rancher June Hewitt had a life-threatening asthma attack when SO2 levels exceeded 1000 parts per billion (pbb) over five minutes, 12 miles from the smelter.
EPA and the state of Arizona were friends of the court in 1985 Environmental Defense Fund lawsuits on behalf of Cochise County asthmatics and others against PD and the Magma San Manuel Smelter. The court found that the Douglas smelter created an "imminent and substantial endangerment" to health under the Clean Air Act and the smelter was permanently closed in January, 1987, under an EPA-approved consent decree and a treaty with Mexico.
The same court decision formed the basis of a 1987 EPA and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) three-year consent decree to clean up SO2 emissions from the Magma Copper San Manuel smelter north of Tucson. ADEQ fined the smelter up to $100,000 when it exceeded both 6 minute and one hour short term SO2 peaks. The smelter and mine both closed in 1999 for economic reasons.
Medical studies grew During the late 1980s California set a weaker hourly standard for SO2 than the new proposed EPA standard of between 50 and 100 ppb. By 1990, it was clear that coal fired power plants and pulp mills had joined smelters as short term peak hazards to asthmatics and evidence continued to accrue that SO2, combined with other pollutants, was causing serious health impacts.
An increasing number of studies by the 1990s concluded that very short SO2 exposures, as little as two minutes of moderate concentrations, were causing asthma attacks, and that deaths from very small increases in ambient SO2 and low birth weight were associated with short term SO2 increases all far below Clean Air Act standards. The impacts of particulates with sulfur such as sulfates, and sulfuric acid (SO2 combined with water) were found to cause lung disease that in turn aggravated heart conditions.
According to the new EPA Federal Register notice, the agency evaluated existing SO2 standards in 1996 and agreed that the standards could not prevent severe health risks from STPs, but declined to regulate the SO2 peaks and proposed voluntary state and tribal guidance to reduce their impacts.
The American Lung Association responded with a lawsuit and in 1998 the court said that the agency could not conclude that the risk existed without regulating it, and sent the regulatory process back to the EPA. Two Presidents later, EPA has a court-ordered June 2, 2010 deadline to develop a new standard.
Arizona Smelters Unlikely to Comply Hourly SO2 data for the Hayden and Miami smelter town in Gila County Arizona, on EPA websites, indicate that without improving sulfur capture, both towns are unlikely to comply with the new standard of 50-100 ppb on an hourly basis. Gila County attainment with the new standard will be based on the 4th worst hourly SO2 peaks from 2006-2008 and those ranged from 128 ppb at best in Miami to 370 ppb at worst in Hayden.
The Asarco Hayden smelter emits more sulfur than any other smelter in the U.S. The Freeport McMoran Miami smelter emits approximately 1/3 the sulfur as Hayden but is located in an area subject to pollution inversions. Both areas are considered to be in attainment with current 3 hour, 24 hour, and annual SO2 averages.
Salt Lake City's Kennecott smelter has not had a problem with short term SO2 peaks since it was rebuilt in the 1990s and is anticipated to meet any new SO2 standard. EPA Region 9 Environmental Engineer Steve Fry said this is because "99% of fugitive workplace and stack emissions were captured by sulfuric acid plants, showing what the best available smelter control technology can do."
Freeport spokesman Eric Kinneberg said that the company would work with the National Mining Association in commenting on the new standards and that "these proposed regulations are currently being evaluated." Asarco had no comment by press deadline.
New Mexico could have problems if the new standard is on the stringent side because of coal fired power plant emissions from the San Juan and 4-Corners facilities. Their SO2 emissions are somewhat less concentrated, in part because power plants have more consistent sulfur emissions from constant coal burning than smelters burning erratic quantities of copper concentrates, said EPA's Fry.
He added that "maybe power plants using cleaner western coal could require new wet scrubbers to comply with new standards. The more difficult problems will be with high-sulfur coal power plants." A number of power plants in the Midwest are projected by EPA to not comply with the new standards.
Boulder attorney Robert Yuhnke won both the 1985 smelter lawsuits and 1998 decision for the American Lung Association against EPA that established the current rulemaking. Yuhnke said Wednesday, "It's been a long time coming, almost 25 years since we sued to protect Arizona asthmatics from copper smelting. Our lawsuit forced the agency to regulate but millions of Americans were put at risk by unnecessary asthma attacks because of the irresponsible disregard of the public's health by the industry hacks who were appointed to protect the nation's health for most of this decade.
Perhaps elections, more than lawsuits, make a difference."
ADEQ Director Ben Grumbles said Thursday, "We're reviewing the proposal. Existing controls have worked but it's important to always look at potential upgrades and updates. If EPA believes the science justifies a stronger standard we have a duty to look at it carefully."
Disclosure: Dick Kamp was a plaintiff in the 1985 smelter lawsuit.
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