Missouri Coalition for the Environment

Doe Run Smelter Stack Looms Over Herculaneum

The jury awards $320 million for punitive damages for contaminating Herculaneum. See the St. Louis Post Dispatch story for details.

Jury finds contamination due to smelter. Awards $38.5 million.

See the St. Louis Post Dispatch story here.

Doe Run Smelter Stack Looms Over Herculaneum

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE) is opposing a plan to weaken the air monitoring system in Herculaneum, Missouri, home of the nation’s largest lead smelter and its legacy of toxic contamination.

MCE has sent a letter (2011-06-30_Comments_2011_Monitoring_Plan) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency detailing the flaws in a plan to remove a monitor that tracks dangerous pollutant levels in the air.

The Main Street air quality monitor in Herculaneum, Missouri records the highest lead levels in the nation. It also records the highest sulfur dioxide levels in the nation.

Lead is a toxic metal that poses developmental risks to children and health risks to people of all ages. Sulfur dioxide poses significant respiratory risks.

The Main Street monitor has historically registered pollutant concentrations violating health-based standards. Removal of that monitor will hide exposures to the highest contaminant levels in the area.

The critique of the plan, prepared by the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University School of Law notes that the monitor is part of a court-approved Consent Judgment involving the Doe Run Company, the smelter’s owner. Its removal may violate that agreement, as well as Clean Air Act requirements.

The City Administrator and the Mayor of Herculaneum sent the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources a letter March 31 demanding that the agency remove the air monitor on Main Street that tracks the amount of lead and sulfur dioxide in the air.  The letter gave the agency an “end of May” deadline. The letter cites “aesthetic” concerns about the view. To date the monitor has not been moved.

“Don’t ask don’t tell environmental protection has no place in Herculaneum,” said Kathleen Logan Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.  “It is ridiculous that protecting public health ranks below a clear view of Herculaneum City Hall. I would hope that Doe Run would oppose this effort at least until it demonstrates reliable compliance with new clean air standards and its cleaner smelter process comes on line.”

By moving the Main Street monitor, violations of clean air standards at the site will go undetected and could give Doe Run and the state inaccurate information about the effectiveness of air pollution control efforts, Smith said.

As recently as this past winter, the monitor registered 0.92 micrograms per cubic meter of lead in the air- six times the current public health standard.

“In the record, the City has said that the people who care about air monitoring have moved,” Smith said. “Frankly, moms and dads in Herculaneum care about their children’s health and they deserve to know whether or not the company is meeting safe air standards.”

Lead is a potent neurotoxin that is released from activities at the smelter. Sulfur dioxide exposures are linked to an array of harmful respiratory effects which can make breathing more difficult and increase asthma symptoms. Sulfur dioxide can also increase the formation of inhalable fine particle pollution which can lead to a number of health problems including stroke and heart disease.

Neither the Missouri Department of Natural Resources nor the Environmental Protection Agency have resisted the move. The City is proposing to move the monitor to Mott St., a location previously taken out of service because it consistently registered lower concentrations of pollutants than the Main Street monitor.

See for yourself whether the aesthetic concerns at City Hall outweigh public health concerns at the DNR air monitoring website.

The Post Dispatch reports that Doe Run Resources Corp. is keeping their operations in Herculaneum, Missouri and siting their new, cleaner lead smelting process in the Mississippi River town that has hosted their facility for decades. We applaud this move because the new process will be significantly cleaner in its air emissions than the old smelter that is scheduled to be dismantled in 2013.