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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