Ohio EPA just posted a Draft Permit to Install for the
"New Steel International" steel mill -- a greenfield facility- to be sited on the Ohio River at Haverhill, OH. This facility
is being rushed through by Ohio EPA to be built by MMK - America, a Russian firm.
0.91 tons or 1820 lbs of mercury emissions to the air per year.....considering EPA's Toxic Release Inventory for point source air emissions for year 2005 data (latest available), this source would have been the largest in the United States had it been operating that year.
I haven't read the EPA hazardous air pollution control standard yet for this source category, but I'll take bets that EPA's rule doesn't regulate mercury at these steel industry sources in the same manner that EPA didn't regulate mercury emissions from coke ovens.
The draft wastewater permit for the facility contains no mercury effluent limitation.
The air permit application presently contains significant redacted material, including redaction of all of the process operating rates and significant other materials. Ohio Attorney Rick Sahli is working on this on behalf of the Tri-State Building and Construction Trades Council, which
has also retained me to review draft air and water permits for this steel plant.
Relevant URLs:
http://www.epa.state.oh.us/...
Draft air permit (warning 1200 page PDF file)
http://www.epa.state.oh.us/...
This is a PM 2.5 nonattainment area. Ohio EPA claims
the PM 10 emissions to be LAER controlled.
The facility's air emissions will be :
SUMMARY (for informational purposes only)
TOTAL PERMIT TO INSTALL ALLOWABLE EMISSIONS
Pollutant Tons Per Year
PM (stack) 971.77
PM (fugitive) 173.48
PM10 (stack) 971.49
PM10 (fugitive) 38.01
SO2 3302.67
NOx 3758.10
CO 10617.58
VOC 288.60
Lead 0.59
Fluoride 82.67
HF 32.16
HCl 268.80
H2SO4 79.98
Hg 0.91
Public Hearing: March 20, 2008
Comment Period Ends: March 27, 2008