Displaying items by tag: Environmental Protection Agency

Ireland: A court has ruled that the Irish government need not pay legal costs for Environmental Trust Ireland president Michelle Hayes' challenge against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in mid-2022. Hayes unsuccessfully sued the EPA for issuing Irish Cement with a licence to use alternative fuel (AF) at its Limerick cement plant in May 2021. The AF will comprise up to 90,000t/yr of waste tyres, biomass and/or mining by-products.

At the costs hearing, the court noted that Hayes had already caused the EPA to incur 'very significant' legal costs. The court said that Hayes 'sought to have the taxpayer pay even more.' It added that, as a solicitor at Hayes Solicitors Limerick, which represented her in her unsuccessful challenge, Hayes stood to effectively benefit from any recuperated costs. The court concluded "It would mean that legal practitioners like herself are paid by the taxpayer for bringing environmental litigation which is unmeritorious."

Ireland: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a new date of 2 December 2020 for the hearing of objections against Irish Cement’s refuse-derived fuel (RDF) substitution plans at its Limerick plant. It was postponed from May 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Irish Examiner newspaper. The hearing will take place remotely due to local coronavirus-related social distancing rules.

Irish Cement received its preliminary licence to burn up to 90,000t/yr of RDF at its Limerick plant in September 2019. However, the agency has allowed an oral hearing due to local feeling on the matter. In a separate incident the integrated plant was previously fined Euro4000 for dust emissions in late 2018.

Ireland: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has postponed a four-day hearing over Irish Cement’s alternative fuel (AF) licence application, scheduled for May 2020, to an as yet unspecified date due to the coronavirus. Under the terms of the proposed licence, Irish Cement will be able co-process a maximum of 90,000t/yr of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), including tyres, in the single dry line of its 1.0Mt/yr Mungret plant in County Limerick. The EPA said that emissions from operations under the terms of the licence ‘will meet all required environmental protection standards.’

Irish Cement received its preliminary licence to burn refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in September 2019. The move attracted local resistance, with 4500 people participating in a protest on 5 October 2019.

The EPA has said that it will give all relevant parties notice ‘well in advance’ of the date of the rescheduled hearing, which will take place after the government lifts the country’s coronavirus lockdown. On 14 April 2020 County Limerick had 234 coronavirus cases out of an Irish total of 10,647.

Ireland: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has scheduled a four-day oral hearing in which it will review Irish Cement’s application for a permanent licence to co-process a maximum of 90,000t/yr of tyres and other waste materials as fuel in the single dry kiln of its 1.0Mt/yr Limerick plant in County Limerick. Irish Cement received its preliminary licence to burn refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in September 2019. The Irish Times newspaper has reported that 5000 local residents have since petitioned the EPA against permitting the practice, including ex-Irish rugby international Paul O’Connell and a former Love Island contestant.

The EPA said that emissions from operations conducted in accordance with the proposed licence ‘will meet all required environmental protection standards.’

Ireland: The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) says it requires more information on Irish Cement’s plans to use alternative fuels and raw materials at its Limerick plant before it can grant it a licence. The request has delayed the decision by the environmental body on whether the cement producer can co-process alternative fuels at the site.

It has asked the cement producer to provide more information on: waste acceptance capacity; raw materials, intermediates, products used or generated on-site; best available technology; emissions to atmosphere; human health; hydrology and hydrogeology; appropriate assessment; accidents and disasters; and baseline reports. The EPA added that before it could conduct a licence review it must out a ‘thorough’ environmental assessment of the proposals in the review application, including an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and an appropriate assessment. The EPA also said that it had received over 3500 individual public submissions on the application by Irish Cement.

Irish Cement wants to implement a Euro10m upgrade to its plant. This will include the development of land to facilitate on site handling, storage and introduction of alternative fuels with conveyor, storage tanks, uploading station, handling building, cooling tower and associated ancillary work. It first announced plans to co-process alternative fuels at the plant in late 2015.

Ireland: Irish Cement has been designated a national priority site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The subsidiary of CRH has been placed on a list of eight industrial sites that have failed to meet the necessary environmental standards. Six of the sites accounted for more than half of the complaints made to the EPA in 2017. The agency plans to update its priority list on a quarterly basis.

Ireland: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned Irish Cement to improve its environmental performance or face further sanction. The cement producer’s plant in Limerick, along with four other industrial sites belonging to other companies, have been identified on a National Priority Site List for enforcement. It added that these five sites represented less than 1% of EPA licensed sites but accounted for 8% of EPA site inspections completed so far in 2017. Three of the five sites has also accounted for over half of all complaints received to-date in 2017.

“A small number of sites have significant compliance issues and we consider them to be National Priority Sites for enforcement. The EPA will escalate enforcement action against companies and their directors, if necessary, if compliance does not improve,” said Gerard O’Leary, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement.

US: Regulators have scheduled a public hearing about Holcim's request to change the way it burns liquid wastes for fuel at its Holly Hill plant in South Carolina.

"We currently burn fuel in one place in the kiln and this permit will allow us to burn it further along in the process," said Holcim spokeswoman Robin DeCarlo. "It does not change the limits, but allows us more flexibility." Holcim burns a variety of hazardous materials as fuel in the place of fossil fuels. That includes waste solvents, oils, out-of-specification intermediates and products from various industries such as the paint, plastics and petroleum industries.

The public hearing is scheduled for 27 January 2015. The notice was released by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. The plant is currently allowed to burn waste-derived fuel in its cement kiln. The permit will allow the plant to also treat and burn the fuel in the precalciner.

Holcim is also seeking a permit to construct a new stream channel designed to protect the plant from potential flooding. The project is awaiting approval by the US Army Corps of Engineers. DeCarlo said that the company expects to receive approval to proceed though is not certain when it will occur.