State issues clean air permit for cement plant in Ste. Gen Coun

ST. LOUIS -- A Swiss-based company has received a draft clean-air permit from the state of Missouri, moving it closer to winning approval to operate the nation's largest cement plant.

Holcim Inc. wants to open a quarry and kiln operation on the Mississippi River in Ste. Genevieve County, but environmentalists are concerned the operation will increase air pollution.

The company currently operates a cement plant near Clarksville, north of St. Louis.

Leanne Tippett, program director at the state's clean-air program, said special care was taken to make sure the plant's operation did not adversely affect St. Louis' air quality.

The draft permit requires the use of equipment to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions that contribute to ozone pollution, which has been a problem for St. Louis. Environmental groups said the equipment is not the most efficient in preventing emissions.

The draft permit also states that hazardous waste would not be burned at the plant.

"We are very excited," Holcim spokeswoman Nancy Tully told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "We believe this reaffirms what we and supporters have said all along -- that we will be providing good-paying jobs in an environmentally sound way."

Leaders of environmental groups, which have yet to see the draft permit, had no comment on it Friday. They have complained in the past that state officials had not made public all the documents related to the negotiations. State officials said the documents were exempted from disclosure for competitive reasons.

The company will have 10 days to suggest changes. That will be followed by another draft, to be made public, followed by a 30-day comment period and a public hearing.

The final permit can be appealed to the state and the courts.

About 1,600 acres of nearby rolling woodland would be quarried over the next 100 years to provide limestone, the prime ingredient of Portland cement. The project would include a Mississippi River harbor for barges to bring coal to fire the kiln and to haul the finished cement to market.

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment has said the Holcim plant would more than double the production of ozone-forming pollutants in Ste. Genevieve County. The organization says that each year the plant would generate 26,000 tons of regulated pollutants and 8,000 tons of pollutants that form ozone.

Environmental groups had wanted the permit to require Holcim to install specific pollution control technology that would reduce the release of ozone-forming pollutants.

Tippett said Holcim maintains that technology was not feasible. She said the company agreed to install a different system that would also help to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides.