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EPA Places Stricter Regulations on Airborne Lead
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Robert N. Steinwurtzel, counsel for the Association of Battery Recyclers, called the new federal requirement unrealistic and questioned how the industry would meet the stricter standard.
"It certainly threatens the viability of the industry at those numbers," Steinwurtzel said in an interview. "The problem is that many of the facilities have installed all known control technologies. . . . What else is there to be done? No one's identified any other known control technologies."
Still, the association has estimated that two of the nation's seven battery recycling facilities that are currently being monitored will be able to meet the new restrictions, which will take full effect in 2017. The Institute of Clean Air Companies, which represents pollution-control manufacturers, has said that it could work to apply technology currently used in other operations to battery recycling plants.
Johnson said he understands the pollution cuts will pose a challenge for some emitters but emphasized that the Clean Air Act compels him "to protect public health with an adequate margin of safety" without taking economic considerations into account.
"While I recognize that there are perhaps some who don't like the new standard I just set, I set it on the basis of science," he said. "It is a stronger standard, and now it will be left to everyone to make sure that standard is being met."
Environmental groups criticized Johnson's decision to measure lead pollution levels over three-month averages rather than the one-month averages the agency's scientific advisers recommended. Averaging the readings over three months, they said, would obscure spikes in pollution that could threaten children and adults.
Frank O'Donnell, who heads the public watchdog group Clean Air Watch, said "a three-month average would permit smelters and other lead polluters to belch high levels of lead periodically and still be considered legal. The monthly average recommended by EPA's science advisers would limit the belches."
