|
BACK
For Immediate Release September 19, 2005
Maine Board of Environmental Protection to probe Dragon Cement pollution licensing muddle.
Thomaston cement maker Dragon Cement Products' pollution licensing problems go under the spotlight on Sept 22nd, when Maine Board of Environmental Protection - the state's top citizen environmental board - asks the Department of Environmental Protection's pollution officials to explain why Dragon continues to be allowed to pollute the region's watershed, aquifers and neighborhoods without being licensed to do so. The Board will meet September 22nd at the Holiday Inn /Ground Round on Civic Center Drive adjacent to the Augusta Civic Center. The Dragon Cement issue will be reviewed in the meeting's afternoon session 1:00 pm. At its regularly scheduled September 22nd meeting. the Board will get a briefing on the company's licensing woes by DEP official Paula Clarke, of the Solid Waste Management division. Following the briefing, the BEP will decide whether to consider "assuming jurisdiction" over the troubled company's pollution licenses. At that time, the company and the citizens' group will be asked to provide additional information to help the board make its final decision on taking over the licensing. The decision by the BEP to get a briefing on Dragon's pollution licenses comes in reaction to a request by citizens' group Neighbors for a Safe Dragon asking the Maine Board of Environmental Protection to take over the permitting process. In their letter, the group notes that for the last 15 years Dragon Cement has discharged wastes into the Thomaston environment with no state or federal license to do so. They also noted that test wells and surface water testing at the site confirm that runoff from the company's cement kiln dust pile has significantly impacted ground and surface water. Moreover, DEP noted that "water quality at the Site continues to degrade." In 1991, Dragon applied to the DEP for after-the-fact special licenses for its waste piles. But finding that the company could not possibly comply with state pollution laws, Maine DEP opted to simply take no action, neither approving nor denying the company's application. Instead, in 1995 the agency drafted a so-called "Schedule of Compliance" for Dragon, allegedly to come up with a timeline for the company to achieve compliance with state law. This document was finally approved by the DEP this year. Yet according to NSD, even that document may be unworkable, as the company has no permit issued to it to comply with! "We're just fed up" said Ron Huber, president of Neighbors for a Safe Dragon. "While the DEP twiddles its thumbs, a toxic plume of runoff from Dragon's CKD pile continues to spread through the area's aquifers. DEP won't put its foot down; maybe the Board of Environmental Protection will make them enforce state law." The group is also asking the Board to require Dragon to fund an independent study mapping the past and present dispersal of its wastes into the area's air, land, groundwater and surface waters, and to develop and implement a plan for remediation of their pollution impacts. In the past, the Board of Environmental Protection has "assumed jurisdiction" over Maine DEP permitting and licensing processes regarding runoff and noise issues from expansion of the Knox County Regional Airport, as well as over the amount of waste that salmon farms can discharge into state waters from their marine feedlot operations. Maine DEP's Paula Clarke will appear before the Board of Envionmental Protection at 1pm September 22nd in Augusta at the Holiday Inn /Ground Round on Civic Center Drive adjacent to the Augusta Civic Center. 1:00 pm. About Dragon Cement's pollution problems: Click Here About the Board of Environmental Protection
|