A decision Thursday by the N.C. Division of Air Quality (DAQ) puts a proposed cement manufacturing operation in New Hanover County one step closer to full approval.

The DAQ announced Friday it has issued a revised air quality permit to give Titan America/Carolinas Cement Co. more time to begin construction on the cement manufacturing facility it plans to operate at 6411 Ideal Cement Road in Castle Hayne. The permit revisions also bring the facility’s air permit limits into accordance with new requirements set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – a change that results in a higher limit for annual emissions, the news release stated.

The release further stated that the time extension was needed because the original permit would have expired this month if Titan had not begun construction of the facility. Construction has been delayed by a lawsuit brought against the DAQ by the Southern Environment Law Center, challenging the project because of potential adverse environmental impacts.

The permit revisions issued Thursday extend Titan’s authorization to construct for an additional 18 months, according to the news release.
The revised permit also changes the facility’s limits for particulate emissions in light of recent changes in methods that the EPA allows cement plant operators to use in calculating their emissions.

“EPA erred in setting its 2010 emission limits and monitoring system for PM [particulate matter],” Bob Odom, general manager for Carolinas Cement, wrote in the company’s official response to the DAQ announcement. “The monitoring method EPA required was a 30-day continuous compliance system. This monitoring technology could not reliably measure PM emissions at such low levels. In December 2012, EPA amended its PM standards and monitoring methodology to correct this error.”

The EPA’s revised standard doesn’t really change the emissions limits, Odum continued in the statement.

“It’s important to remember that although the form of the standard changed from a lower numerical value based on 30-day monitoring method to a higher numerical value based on a three-hour stack test, that this did not change the stringency of the limit,” he wrote, comparing the change to measuring temperature using Fahrenheit scale rather than Celsius.

“The Fahrenheit value is not ‘warmer’ just because the number is higher,” Odum stated.

Mike Giles contests Odum’s statement. Giles, who is coastal advocate for the N.C. Coastal Federation, said that the EPA’s revised standard has less to do with correcting an error and more to do with succumbing to lobbying by the Portland Cement Co., which wanted particulate matter standards relaxed.

“What Titan is going to be allowed to do is emit 32 tons more of particulate matter per year [than was allowed in the original DAQ permit],” Giles said. “There is technology out there to reduce their pollution load even lower than their original 2012 permit limit. They wanted the additional increase in allowable pollution. I’ll give you a dollar to a doughnut they will emit more pollutants.”

Giles cited two studies to illustrate the effect opponents say the Titan operations will have on the environment and on public health. “Our own commissioned study found that, even in a five-month period, there is the potential for hundreds of hospital days and lost work days for people in the area as a result of the particulate matter emitted by Titan. Is that worth it to the community? We don’t think it is.

“There is also a new study by MIT that states that particulate matter is one of most hazardous pollution problems in the country, because the particulate matter becomes embedded deep in the lungs,” Giles said.

He also said that, if Titan secures the remaining environmental impact and other federal and state permits and does start operating in Castle Hayne, it may consume such a high percentage of allowable particulate matter emissions for the area that other, cleaner industries would be unable to locate in the region.

On Aug. 5, several hundred people showed up at a public hearing the DAQ hosted at University of North Carolina Wilmington to solicit comments on the issuance of the revised air permit.

Jana Albritton, a spokeswoman for the League of Women Voters’ Lower Cape Fear chapter, submitted a statement from the group that expressed the organization’s opposition to issuing a revised air permit for Titan – and to allowing Carolinas Cement to operate at all. The league’s statement echoed the comments of many individuals at the hearing.

Of particular concern to the organization, the document stated, were contamination of the river resulting from the direct discharge of effluent, the loss of 600 acres of wetlands, the risk of compromising the aquifer as a result of limestone mining at the site, and the expected increased contamination of air and water with mercury and chromium VI emissions.

Speaking in support of the permit issuance was Ronald Sparks, a Wilmington engineer and former Wilmington City Council member. Sparks agreed with many others who voiced support for the Titan project when he pointed out the need for good-paying jobs in the region and expressed his confidence that the plant would not contribute to environmental pollution.

“As a professional engineer, physicist and cyberneticist, I am aware of the technologies available to clean the emissions from air and water in manufacturing processes,” he wrote in a statement submitted along with his verbal comments. “I believe the high scrutiny of the planned plant  . . . will insure that this plant is the cleanest plant in its industry.”

“We’re disappointed with DAQ’s decision to allow Titan to increase the amount of hazardous air pollution emitted by the proposed plant and will carefully review the agency’s analysis for compliance with the Clean Air Act,” Geoffrey R. Gisler, staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, wrote in an email.

Odum underscored his company’s commitment to compliance.

“This modification to our air permit does not change the fact that Carolinas Cement will operate within the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, will consistently work to ensure the safety of public health and the environment, and will operate the cleanest, most advanced cement plant in the world,” he said in his statement.