Union Bridge, New Windsor grapple with cement company's plan for 4.5-mile conveyor

By Joe Burris | joseph.burris@baltsun.com
May 3, 2009

If the 465-foot Lehigh Heidelberg Cement tower were in downtown Baltimore, it would be the fifth-tallest high- rise, an unassuming structure in a busy skyline. But the structure dominates Union Bridge, a pastoral Carroll County town of just over a thousand people that's known for its quaint antique stores.

"At night, they light the tower up like Cape Canaveral," said Union Bridge Mayor Bret Grossnickle. "Opinions vary on whether it's an eyesore. It's been around so long that people are used to it."

The town and the plant have managed to co-exist, with a few contentious moments along the way, for nearly 100 years. But those relations have been strained by reports of the plant's mercury emissions - an issue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is trying to address with new industrywide regulations. And now they might be tested again as Lehigh proposes to build a nearly five-mile transportation route to carry limestone from a quarry in neighboring New Windsor to the Union Bridge processing plant.

In some ways, the relationship between Lehigh and the town is rare. Although ownership has changed several times since opening in 1910, Lehigh has roots in the community as deep as that of many residents. Plant manager Kent Martin says about 40 percent of Lehigh employees reside in Union Bridge (pop. 1,089) or New Windsor (pop. 1,350). Lehigh subsidizes the Union Bridge fire department and allows the department to use its facility for training exercises. It conducts plant tours by the busload and holds community meetings.


"We've been here for a long time, and we will continue to be here for a long, long time, but the proximity to Union Bridge is a challenge," said Martin, who lives in Westminster. "I've traveled to hundreds of cement plants around the world, and this is one of the closest proximity that I've seen to a town for a cement plant.

"But one of the things that is unique in being in a rural area like this is that there's a lot of people here who have connection to the Union Bridge facility. There are a lot of people who have ownership to the plant in sons, fathers and family members who work here."

Lehigh officials say its limestone reserves in Union Bridge, situated in the heart of the Piedmont Plateau, may run out in about 12 years, so mining from the New Windsor quarry is key. Among proposals under consideration is building an overland conveyor. The company, which owns about 50 percent of the proposed conveyor path, anticipates that 1.7 miles of it will be put underground. Many area residents want the entire thing underground.

"We have talked a lot to the community, to the government officials. We've listened to concerns and we're trying to incorporate those concerns into the designs of the different options we're looking at," said Martin, noting that construction is probably about five years away.

Talk of the conveyor comes as local residents have been grappling with an EPA report suggesting Lehigh released 376 pounds of mercury into the air in 2007 - 10 times as much as the previous year. Lehigh officials say the higher number was the result of more precise testing, not any drastic change in plant emissions.

Last month, the EPA proposed requiring cement plants, which are among the nation's leading air polluters, to reduce emissions of mercury and other contaminants by more than 80 percent by 2013. The regulations are the first seeking to govern what is discharged when limestone, clay and other materials are cooked into the main ingredient in concrete. The proposal would require plants such as Lehigh's - the nation's fifth-largest Portland cement plant - to install equipment or make other changes to limit release of toxic substances.

"As far as pros and cons are concerned, the pros are that they employ people and they contribute to the area financially," said Peter Pearre of Union Bridge. "But like any major industry, there is a price to pay in terms of finding out about the mercury. They seem to have a very convoluted story from one year to the next, and the more they're being monitored by the government, the better."

Such issues are not uncommon between industrial complexes and townspeople fiercely protective about what gets placed in their backyard. Some community residents were suspicious of the plant long before its current owner, Germany-based Heidelberg, purchased it in 1977. Their trepidation, they say, is borne out of caustic attitudes from previous owners.

"Some of the management that came in here lately has honestly been more reasonable to deal with than what we had before," said George Maloney, a founding member and board chair of the 300-member New Windsor Community Action Project, a group formed in 1987 to address concerns with the plant.

"Back years ago, there were pitched battles; I've seen people crying in meetings," he added. "I've seen people that upset. They didn't want all the dirt and the pollution and all the commotion that is caused by the mining industry."

Nowadays, NEWCAP members say, the two sides have a more amicable relationship, and in recent years, Lehigh has changed many of its procedures in response to community concerns. For example, residents complained that many did not hear the siren signaling an impending quarry blast; Lehigh now calls residents at home to notify them of blasts.

"It's a mixed blessing," said Dan Strickler, NEWCAP president. "They give the community industry and provide cement, which the country needs for building structures.

"You can't just say, 'Get rid of it.' You have to compromise. We hold meetings and they invite us to meetings. They don't jump at all of our suggestions, but we do have an exchange of information."

Both sides are hoping for the same result with the proposed conveyor. Lehigh recently took several local groups to Nazareth, Pa., to explore a facility that is similar to the conveyor it is proposing. Maloney said one suggestion was placing the entire conveyor underground, then covering it with an area for cattle to graze. He said the group was told such an approach was not feasible.

One of the best things to come out of communicating with Lehigh, he said, is dispelling inaccurate rumors.

"You get a lot of crazy rumors, people saying, 'They're going to come through Joe's house,' and that kind of stuff," Maloney said. "If you have a group like NEWCAP, people get a pretty good idea of what's going on."

Still, there are some views Lehigh cannot do much about - namely, those of the tower. While some stargazers complain that it interferes with the night sky, most folks take its hulking presence in stride.

"People come here and ask, 'What in God's name is that behind your house?' " said Cindy Franz of Union Bridge. "We tell them, 'Oh, we do space shuttle launches from here.' "

By Stephanie Desmon | stephanie.desmon@baltsun.com
April 22, 2009


The Lehigh plant is among the largest mercury pollution sources in Maryland, the Environmental Integrity Project says. (Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett / September 19, 2006)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to require cement plants - which are among the nation's leading air polluters - to reduce emissions of mercury and other contaminants by more than 80 percent by 2013.

The regulations are the first seeking to govern what is discharged when limestone, clay and other materials are cooked into the main ingredient in concrete. The proposal would require plants such as the Lehigh Cement Co. kiln in Carroll County to install equipment or make other changes to limit release of toxins.

"We can save more than a thousand lives each year," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said Tuesday in announcing the rules. "Mercury and other chemicals flowing into these communities are health hazards for children, pregnant mothers, local residents and workers - people who deserve protection."

Lawsuits filed by Earthjustice and the Sierra Club over the past decade prompted the agency to agree to regulate cement kiln emissions for the first time.

"It is going to cut some of the worst, most toxic pollution that threatens our health from some of the worst polluters that operate in this country," said Jim Pew, an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm.

The EPA will accept public comment on the proposal before issuing final regulations.

There are more than 150 plants in the United States that make Portland cement, the most common type. The Lehigh plant in Union Bridge is the nation's fifth largest. It is the second-largest source of mercury pollution in Maryland, said Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project.

The plant reported spewing 376 pounds of mercury into the air in 2007, 10 times what it reported the year before - and far below one group's estimate that it potentially is putting more than 1,500 pounds of the toxin into the air each year.

Tim Matz, director of environmental affairs for Lehigh Hanson, which owns the Union Bridge facility, said the company will review the EPA's proposal. He said officials worked with the EPA for two years as the agency developed the new rules.

In Union Bridge, he said, the company could install equipment to clean the air before it leaves the stacks. The company also is considering changes in the way it makes cement, which could include capturing the mercury before it is emitted and encasing it in the final product, rendering the mercury harmless.

Other plants, however, may not be able to adhere to the new standards and could be forced to shut down, Matz said. "It is a legitimate concern that some plants will not be able to meet [the standards] no matter what they do," he said from his Irving, Texas, office.

The EPA estimates that the benefits outweigh the costs, but those costs are high. The estimates for changing the plants to meet the goals range from $222 million to $684 million.

Mercury in the air eventually falls into water, where it changes into methylmercury, a highly toxic form that builds up in fish.

Pregnant women are urged to limit consumption of many fish caught in the Chesapeake Bay because of mercury contamination. Rockfish, for example, should be eatern by a pregnant woman just once a month.

Estimates vary as to how much mercury is emitted by cement kilns nationwide, though the EPA says they are the fourth-largest source of mercury pollution in the country, behind coal-fired power plants, among others.

Aside from reducing mercury emissions by 81 percent, the EPA estimates that the new rules would cut hydrochloric acid by 94 percent, sulfur dioxide by 90 percent and particulate matter by 96 percent.

"These are kind of the forgotten polluters on the American scene right now, and this is finally bringing a spotlight to what they produce out of their smokestacks," said Jim Schermbeck, a board member with Downwinders At Risk, an air pollution advocacy group outside Fort Worth, Texas.

"These guys need to be brought into the 21st century," he said.

Source: Baltimore Sun, April 22, 2009

Officials at Lehigh Hanson, parent company of Lehigh Cement Co. in Union Bridge, said that while their reported mercury emissions were 10 times higher in 2007 than 2006, they are waiting for the federal government to announce a standard for the pollutant in March before taking action to reduce emissions.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory, the Union Bridge plant released 376 pounds of mercury into the air in 2007, up from the 2006 reported amount of 34 pounds.

Three environmental groups are calling on the state to crack down on mercury pollution from a Carroll County cement plant and a Western Maryland paper mill, arguing that they are contaminating fish in local rivers, streams and lakes.

The two facilities are among the top five mercury polluters in Maryland, according to federal data. But unlike the other three, which are coal-burning power plants, there isn't a specific state or federal law requiring them to reduce emissions.

Disruptive nature of conveyor belt worries property owners

UNION BRIDGE - The county has received no official request to amend an agricultural land preservation easement to assit Lehigh Cemetn Co. in building a conveyor belt transportation system between the new Windsor quarry and the Union Bridge plant, officials told residents at a community meeting Monday night.