County disputes EPA study findings

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Madison County officials are reassuring residents about the air quality in the county after news reports, citing a 2002 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment, suggested Madison County ranked among the most at-risk areas in the country for contracting cancer.

Alan J. Dunstan, Madison County Board Chairman, said the EPA study – and information distributed by the agency – was misleading and overstated the air pollution levels found in the county.

“We do not take the issue of air quality for our residents lightly, and if we discover there are problems we will work with the EPA to resolve them,” Dunstan said. “But we do have several issues with this study.”

“First, the study was conducted more than seven years ago and does not reflect the current quality of the air in the county,” Dunstan said. “Since 2002, industrial plants in the county have spent millions of dollars and made substantial changes to reduce the pollutants released into the air.

Secondly, after speaking with EPA officials in Washington (D.C.) and quickly reviewing the data, the

only area in Madison County that had higher concentrations of air pollutants, according to the 2002 study, was concentrated in a very small portion of the county. The air quality in the remainder of the county – or more than 96 percent of the county – was, and is, more than acceptable.”

EPA officials acknowledged the methodology of the assessment utilized assumptions such as the type of industry and its typical emissions. In the case of Madison County, those assumptions were based on emissions from one specific area of the county near the Coke Plant, located adjacent to the Granite City Steelworks.

In 2003, U.S. Steel Corporation purchased what was commonly referred to as Granite City Steel and the Coke Plant and immediately initiated a program to upgrade the facilities and reduce potential harmful emissions.

“U.S. Steel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bring those facilities completely in-line with EPA standards in the six years of its ownership,” Dunstan continued. “While there may have been some emission problems at the Coke Plant in 2002, any problems that may have existed were corrected by the current ownership. And U.S. Steel, in partnership with SunCoke Energy, Inc., is currently constructing a state-of-the-art coke plant that is not only environmentally friendly, far exceeding EPA guidelines, but will utilize a heat recovery system to assist in generating electricity used at the steel works reducing the use of energy that is needed by our communities.”

Dunstan said it was unfortunate the EPA released the seven-year-old assessment prior to giving the county the opportunity to review and address assumptions made in the study. “EPA scientists made assumptions – which we believe are incorrect – released the information and created a great deal of concern among county residents,” Dunstan added. “County officials look forward to working with the EPA to accurately assess the air quality in Madison County, which I am confident exceeds all EPA standards.”

nathanhartman.info

press release