Laserfiche WebLink
<br />• Haul truck capacity has increased from 75 ton payloads to 95 ton payloads <br />with the introduction of a new fleet of trucks. This means fewer trips for the <br />same tonnages. <br />• Haul distances have been reduced with the opening of the new quarry. <br />• The open acreage at the old, plant quarry reached a maximum of about 375 <br />acres in the spring of 1997. We have already reclaimed 50 acres south of <br />Hygiene road as dryland pasture and 55 acres as a lake. We are in the <br />process of reclaiming another 220 acres which will be complete in the spring <br />of 1999. <br />• Dust hauling and disposal has seen major changes. We have already cut the <br />CKD waste in half over the last two years. We are working to halve it again. <br />We have moved the disposal point closer to the plant with a 1/2 mile <br />roundtrip compared to 2.5 mile roundtrip in past years. <br />• We are planning to install an underground reclaim belt to put rock into the <br />plant system. This will eliminate about 80% of the loader work at the south <br />end of the plant. <br />These are the key activities and projects used to net out the emissions <br />calculated from the requested permit changes. In fact. these changes will <br />amount to a sjgnificant reduction in emissions on the order of 240 <br />tons/year of total Rarticulate and 120 tons/year of PM-10 (fine particulate <br />less than 10 micronsl. In order to expedite the permit changes, Southdown <br />chose to make the permit changes concurrently. By making the changes in this <br />fashion rather than doing the quarry first and the separator second, the company <br />was not credited for many of the improvements in air quality it had made and <br />could rightfully claim. As a result of not being credited for several emissions <br />improvements, the actual permit application indicates that the plant would <br />increase its emissions by 20 tons/year of total particulate and 10 tons/year of <br />PM-10. The EPA considers these increase as below the significance level. <br />What does this mean to our neighbors? <br />It means that many of the old, grandfathered, unregulated emissions sources are <br />being eliminated and new, permitted, regulated sources are taking their place. It <br />means that the real particulate emissions from the facility will dramatically <br />decrease by the spring of 1999. Yes, we believe there will be noticeable <br />improvements. <br />As explained earlier, by reducing our CKD losses, plant production will increase <br />by a small percentage, 5 to 7%. Our average truck traffic is less than 75 truck <br />loads per day. With the conversion of some of our waste into finished product, <br />the average truckloads on a given day may increase to about 79/day. Even <br />peak shipping days would only be a small change from 140 to about 147. <br />3 <br />