|
----- Original Message -----
From: William Freese
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 12:35 PM
Subject: Fw: Q & A session Folks
Last night we had our public hearing on Lafarge's
Permit to Install on byrning plastic in their 5 kilns.I had to delete the Alpena
News articles on the hearing because it put this post over the size limit. You
can go online to The Alpena news and they made front page yesterday and
today. As usual there were a number of Lafarge employees in attendance.
Only 4 or 5 of them spoke and their concern was the same. Don't jeopardize jobs
as Lafarge is a wonderful company to work for. We are not anti jobs but the
economy, especially building products and cement production, is down. We have
heard that the St. Mary's cement plant in Charlevoix has laid off a
number of its workers for that reason. Tax abatements that Lafarge received
requires them to maintain number of employees at 286. All sub-contractors
work for Lafarge is now being done by their own employees. Even secretaries
in the offices work Fridays out in the yard. No unions at Lafarge so employees
know they have to get up and speak for Lafarge or they could be
gone.
The so called trial burn continued on at a full
burn without a permit and as the MDEQ has said at their own risk. The trial burn
stack test was only for particulate matter and a couple of metals but there were
no tests for mercury emissions which was supposed to be the reason they switched
to plastic and wood chips. It was supposed to replace 30% of the coal and coke
used in the process. The plastic being burnt since October of 2007 was supposed
to be non-halogenated chlorine free plastic stripped from recycled milk and
juice cartons. There was about 150,000 tons or about a six month supply.
Lafarge found another source from recycling
Concepts and it is supposed to be new but damaged car parts. If those parts were
injection molded then they could be contaminated with the release materials.
Over 70% of molded plastic auto parts are made in China with some from India and
Pakistan. the quality and content are suspect because of where they are made. We
feel that it leaves an opening for auto fluff which has already been denied
because of its high dioxin content. We do not want to be backdoored like we were
with the Canadian fly ash.
Thanks especially to Alex Sagady for a great
presentation and to Kay Cumbow of CACC and others who sent letters
supporting HEAL's position to the MDEQ.
Bill Freese, Director
HEAL
|