HoustonChronicle



--  | Section: Local & State

Dec. 27, 2001, 2:52AM

Texas groups sue Alcoa for alleged air pollution

By ED ASHER

Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

Three Texas public interest groups filed a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit against Alcoa Inc. on Wednesday, alleging the aluminum giant is emitting illegal levels of air pollution.

The lawsuit, filed in Austin, said that when the company rebuilt the boilers that power its Rockdale smelter in the mid-1980s, it failed to install modern air pollution controls.

The result has been "thousands of tons more air pollution than allowed by law," said Jim Marston, director of the Texas office of the private, nonprofit group Environmental Defense.

That group is joined in the lawsuit by Neighbors for Neighbors and Public Citizen.

Alcoa spokesman Jim Hodson said he had not seen the lawsuit, but that the company told federal environmental officials in July it was committed to reducing emissions by up to 90 percent over the next five years at a cost of about $100 million.

State and federal environmental officials have reviewed the company's work on the Central Texas plant and have not indicated it needs any modifications, he said.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the federal Clean Air Act.

"When they rebuilt the plant, they were required by law to bring it up to current standards and decrease the amount of pollution they were putting out," Marston said.

"Instead, they increased the amount they were emitting and are thumbing their nose at the law."

The groups allege multiple violations of the law on most days for the past five years and seek at least $25,000 in penalties per violation.

That amount, if any, would be determined by a federal judge. However, if the groups prevail, Marston said, penalties could amount to millions of dollars.

SUIT SEEKS HALT TO ALCOA EMISSIONS

Company has said Central Texas smelter complies with law

The Dallas Morning News

December 27, 2001

By Randy Lee Loftis

Environmentalists sued Alcoa on Wednesday, accusing the world's largest

aluminum company of two decades of clean-air violations at its smelter in

Central Texas.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Austin, seeks to force Alcoa to

stop unpermitted emissions from the plant in Milam County, northeast of

Austin. The Alcoa facility, the largest smelter in North America, is one of

Texas' largest air polluters, according to state and federal records. Studies

show that the plant's emissions add to air quality problems in the

Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Alcoa spokesman Jim Hodson said the company had not seen the suit and could

not comment on its details. In a statement released in October, when the

plaintiffs filed a required 60-day advance notice of their intent to sue,

Alcoa said it had not broken the law and was committed to environmental

improvements.

Environmentalists say the plant lost its exemption from modern air pollution

standards when it underwent millions of dollars' worth of renovations in the

1980s.

Without the so-called grandfathered exemption, Alcoa would have had to apply

for a permit, spend perhaps $100 million on pollution control equipment, and

cut its air emissions by 75 percent or more.

Alcoa executives say the work was just routine maintenance and did not

trigger legal requirements for major air pollution improvements. They say

that a voluntary permit that the company seeks will clean up the air without

enforcement proceedings.

Filing the suit were the national groups Environmental Defense and Public

Citizen and a Central Texas group, Neighbors for Neighbors.

They invoked the citizens' enforcement provision of the federal Clean Air Act

that allows the public to sue if the government fails to take action against

violators.

In addition to halting emissions that the plaintiffs say are illegal, the

suit seeks civil penalties of up to $27,500 per day, reaching back as far as

the mid-1980s. The money would be paid to the federal government.

"Our goal here is to get these plants complying with law and to get the air

in that region cleaned up," said Jim Marston, an attorney for Environmental

Defense and director of the group's Texas office.

The emissions in question come from Alcoa's self-contained power plants,

which burn coal from the company's mine near the smelter.

The suit seeks enforcement under a legal provision called new source review,

which says major plant changes that increase emissions must be offset by new

permits and deep pollution cuts. During the 1990s the Clinton administration

filed suits or administrative actions against several power companies, saying

that they had illegally circumvented the requirements.

The government took no action against Alcoa.

The Bush administration is reportedly preparing to announce major changes

that would back away from vigorous enforcement of new source review

standards. EPA spokesman David Bary said the pending announcement is one

reason the agency has not acted in the Alcoa case. The new policy may affect

the EPA's decision, he said.

"Our dialogue with Alcoa continues, and the whole thing remains

undetermined," Mr. Bary said.

Officials of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, which is

also investigating Alcoa, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

GROUPS SUE ALCOA OVER POLLUTION

Lawsuit alleges that improvements at Rockdale smelter resulted in excessive

levels of air pollutants

Austin American-Statesman

Thursday, December 27, 2001

By Kevin Carmody

Three groups sued Alcoa Inc. on Wednesday, alleging that the company's

Rockdale smelter illegally dumped more than 1 million tons of health-damaging

pollutants into Central Texas air since 1986.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin seeks a permanent injunction

that would, in part, force Alcoa to spend millions of dollars to reduce

pollution levels and pay $100 million or more in fines for alleged violations

of the federal Clean Air Act.

Neighbors for Neighbors, Environmental Defense and Public Citizen say that

Alcoa made significant improvements to the power plants at its smelter in the

mid-1980s without getting the permits or installing the pollution controls

that federal law requires when such improvements increase pollution levels.

The excess 1 million tons of lung-damaging sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides

and soot particles is 10 to 20 times more than the amount the plant should

have emitted between 1986 and 2000 if it had installed the required

pollution-control equipment, said Reed Zars, a Wyoming lawyer who is

representing the groups.

The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission and the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency have not finished investigations into whether Alcoa

violated state or federal law. The state investigation started in March after

Neighbors for Neighbors, a 500-member citizens group, discovered records in

conservation commission files that the group says support its allegations.

Alcoa spokesman Jim Hodson said company officials had not been served with

the lawsuit and couldn't respond to its specific claims but that Alcoa stands

by earlier statements that the maintenance work didn't violate federal or

state laws. He also said Alcoa now plans to spend $100 million to

significantly reduce nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide emissions.

"After all the facts are presented and evaluated, we are confident the courts

would be in agreement with our position," a statement that Hodson provided

said.

An issue in the case might be whether Alcoa's improvements constituted a

significant enough modification to fall under stricter federal rules.

An emissions increase of 40 tons per year is considered significant for

sulphur dioxide under federal law. Alcoa averaged an additional 5,800 tons of

sulphur dioxide releases during the two years after the plant improvements --

or 145 times the amount that should have prompted emissions controls, the

lawsuit alleges.

The facility emits about 105,000 tons of pollutants annually.

ALCOA SUED OVER CLAIMS OF POLLUTION FROM ROCKDALE PLANT

The Associated Press

Web Posted : 12/26/2001 4:33 PM

Environmentalists and public interest groups sued Alcoa Inc. in federal court

on Wednesday, claiming the aluminum company's smelter in Rockdale is the

source of illegal levels of pollution.

According to the lawsuit filed by Environmental Defense, Public Citizen and

Neighbors for Neighbors, Alcoa's Rockdale facility was overhauled in the

1980s but was not fitted with modern air pollution controls.

The result has been thousands of tons of air pollution that pose potential

health risks, the lawsuit said.

Alcoa spokesman David Neurohr said he hadn't seen the lawsuit that was filed

in U.S. District Court in Austin, but said company officials have already

pledged to reduce emissions at the facility.

In a previously released statement, the company said it was committed in July

to drastically reduce emissions by up to 90 percent over the next five years

at a cost of about $100 million.

State and federal environmental officials continue to "review the work that

we did in the 1980s" Neurohr said.

According to the groups, the plant's smokestacks pump out more than 100,000

tons of pollution annually, including 60,000 tons of sulfur dioxide. The

groups accuse the company of violating the federal Clean Air Act and Texas

law.

"We believe that forcing Alcoa to clean up its pollution can be a gift of

life and health for Texas citizens," said Jim Marston, Texas regional

director of Environmental Defense.

Public Citizen spokeswoman Kelly Haragan said the goal of the lawsuit isn't

to shut down the plant but to force the company to upgrade with current

anti-pollution technology.

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa is the world's largest aluminum company.

12/26/2001

Wednesday December 26, 8:21 pm Eastern Time

GROUPS FILE POLLUTION SUIT AGAINST ALCOA IN TEXAS

(UPDATE: Adds comments from Alcoa spokesman paragraph

3 and 7)

AUSTIN, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Environmental and public interest groups filed

suit on Wednesday against Alcoa Inc., the world's biggest aluminum producer,

alleging violations of the Clean Air Act by the company's smelter in

Rockdale, Texas.

The suit, filed in federal district court in Austin, Texas, alleges that

Alcoa reconstructed boilers that power the smelter in the mid-1980s but did

not install modern equipment to reduce air pollution as required under the

Clean Air Act.

Alcoa said the lawsuit is unnecessary because the company made a voluntary

filing with state regulators in July, pledging to make deep cuts in air

pollution caused by the smelter which is located some 50 miles (80 km)

northeast of Austin.

Alcoa says the work on the boilers did not amount to a ``major modification''

and that therefore it was not required to install new pollution controls at

the time. The matter is currently being reviewed by both state and federal

regulators.

The suit, filed by Environmental Defense, Public Citizen and Neighbors for

Neighbors alleges that the work resulted in a significant increase in

emissions of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and

solid particles.

The three groups are asking the court to fine Alcoa $27,500 per day and order

the company to install modern equipment to reduce pollution if their

allegations are upheld.

Alcoa spokesman Jim Hodson said the company has made a voluntary commitment

to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by 50 percent by the end of 2002 and

emissions of sulfur dioxide by 90 percent over the next five years.

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