South Park

Community Outreach

In March 2006, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency issued an Order of Approval allowing Lafarge North America Inc. to test burn whole tires as a fuel in its cement kiln.

The agency plans to hold a series of workshops in the community, at approximate six-month intervals, to present progress to date, summarize information received, discuss the implications of that information, and consider next steps. Additionally, the test results will be posted on the agency Web site.

Next report out:
Week of October 8, 2007

We will post here and send a project update out to individuals/community members on our e-mail and postal mailing list. Unfortunately a scheduling conflict came up and we won't be able to report out at the South Park Neighborhood Association’s monthly meeting on October 9.

Next meeting:
7:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 12, 2008
South Park Neighborhood Association’s monthly meeting
Neighborhood Center at 8201 – 10th Ave. S. in Seattle

Project update:
Since the last meeting with the community on May 3, 2006, Lafarge encountered project delays in completing the engineering and purchasing of equipment to support the feeding of whole tires at mid-kiln.  As a result, Lafarge requested and was granted a modification to the original order to adjust the testing schedule (see the revised order No. 9462) (PDF 0.2MB).  The only adjustment to the schedule is that the two-year test period for whole tires will be triggered by the installation of the whole-tire feeding equipment.  No additional whole-tire trial time was approved and the continuous monitoring requirements in the original order are still in effect. 

Additionally, the baseline test (using no waste fuels) was completed on June 6-7, 2006 as required by the original order.  A summary of results is available below (Baseline Test Comparison table (PDF 0.1MB) and graph (PDF 0.01MB). In brief, results show that emission rates for most toxic air contaminants were less than those estimated in the original application.  No emission factors were available in the original application for formaldehyde so the data from the baseline testing is new information.  One toxic air contaminant value which was higher than the original application was chromium.  Still, the emission rates for formaldehyde and chromium derived from this test are below Acceptable Source Impact Levels.

Request for public input:
In response to interest expressed at the May 3 meeting, the Clean Air Agency has since met with other organizations that work in the South Park area to consider a future multi-agency meeting with the community to discuss environmental health issues.  Representatives from these organizations would like to receive input from community members to better understand their interests and goals for such a meeting.  The Community Coalition for Environmental Justice (CCEJ) has agreed to collect this input.  You may download this questionnaire (PDF 0.1MB) and mail it to CCEJ at 1620 – 18th Ave., Suite 10; Seattle, WA, 98122 or if you prefer, you may e-mail your response directly to justice@ccej.org .

Sign up to receive notification of future meetings or when test results are posted online. E-mail amyw@pscleanair.org with your e-mail and/or postal mailing address.