BAAQMD Portland Cement Workshop (2011)

The staff of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District conducted a public workshop to present, discuss, and receive comments on the draft Regulation 9, Rule 13: Nitrogen Oxides, Particulate Matter, and Toxic Air Contaminants from Portland Cement Manufacturing (Rule 9-13).

BACKGROUND
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (District or BAAQMD) has the authority to regulate air pollutant emissions from stationary sources throughout the nine counties surrounding the San Francisco Bay. Portland cement manufacturing requires the application of intense heat to raw materials such as limestone and iron to cause chemical reactions in the raw materials and fuse them together to produce cement clinker. The clinker is then ground into a fine powder and mixed with gypsum and other additives to produce cement. Air pollutant emissions from cement manufacture include criteria pollutants (carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds) and toxic air contaminants (ammonia, benzene, hydrochloric acid, dioxins and furans, mercury, and other trace metals). There is one Portland cement manufacturing facility in the Bay Area: Lehigh Permanente operated by Lehigh Southwest Cement Company and located in unincorporated Santa Clara County west of Cupertino.

DRAFT PROPOSAL
In 2010, the United States Environmental Protection Agency adopted amendments to federal rules to reduce air emissions from Portland cement manufacturing, with compliance due in September of 2013. District staff has evaluated the standards of these rules to ascertain their application to the Lehigh Permanente facility and to determine what additional measures could be employed to ensure that emissions of air pollutants are reduced in a health protective, cost effective manner. Based on this evaluation, District staff has developed a draft rule to limit emissions from cement manufacturing in the San Francisco Bay Area. The proposed rule considers measures at Lehigh Permanente to mitigate emissions and decrease their effect on public health.

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• Cupertino
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• portland cement
• Lehigh
• cement
• permanente
• California