Pluming Awful

THIS IS NOT FOG.. THERE WAS NO FOG ON THIS DAY.

28TH NOVEMBER 2008

MP CALLS FOR DUST EXPLANATION:

Rugby MP Jeremy Wright is demanding a full explanation from Cemex over claims of another dust fall out from the plant. Several home owners in Long Lawford reported cars being showered in dust last Monday, some claiming it was the worst covering ever.

And now Mr Wright has asked company bosses to explain the fallout and is seeking urgent talks with the environment agency, which is investigating the incident. "I am becoming increasingly concerned with these incidents" Mr Wright said. "Of course it is true that things will occasionally go wrong in every industrial process, but Cemex have a particular responsibility to maintain the highest standards due to the plant's closeness to residential areas. It is highly inconvenient to people living near the plant to have dust on their cars and other property, but it is also perfectly rational for them to worry about what goes into their lungs. I have asked the management of the Cemex plant for an early explanation of this incident and I will be speaking next week to the Environment Agency about the action they intend to take. If the facts warrant it prosecutions should be brought against Cemex."
Reported in the Rugby Observer 27th November 2008.

PUBLISHED LETTER - DUST - CHROMIUM VI?

With the tedious regularity we have come to expect, Long Lawford and the surrounding area is yet again this week covered with thick, possibly dangerous dust. Cemex, the usual culprit for these health threatening assaults on our community have immediately taken their expected stance of “not our fault guv” unless of course you can prove it! The Environment Agency, possibly with an eye on easing Cemex’s ongoing plans for a massive refuse processing plant in Rugby, have likewise adopted the time honoured approach of saying they are carrying out tests on the dust, thus taking weeks to come up with a decision, and hoping the residents will have forgotten about it over the excessive period taken, then arriving at the blindingly obvious culprit of the fallout.

We may however be treated to one of the bizarre explanations they tend the favour recently in their desperate attempt to remove any blame from Cemex. Who can forget the recent explanation that pollen was the culprit, or the hilarious Sahara desert sand incident, where we were expected to believe that sand was lifted up from the Sahara desert, blown across the Mediterranean Sea, up the Bay of Biscay, across the Home Counties and London and was then deposited squarely onto Rugby, really!

There is however a serious side to all this, Cemex have recently had issues in Davenport in America where their cement plant was closed for a long period of time due to the local residents being exposed to 10 times the safe level (if there is such a thing) of Chromium 6, which is found in the cement process. This substance has known long term carcinogenic effects, and is the subject of possible legal action by the residents. To date, several concerned residents have written to the Environment agency to enquire if this substance is monitored in any fashion by the Agency at the Rugby plant and have met a wall of silence, I personally have contacted the Agency twice on this matter and have yet to receive a reply. I would strongly advise anybody with concerns for their families’ welfare to contact the agency as a matter of urgency and try and establish their criteria for checking the levels of this substance at the site, silence is not always golden, neither, as the residents of Davenport thought, is it safe just to assume that the plant is in safe hands because a Government Agency is tasked with monitoring it.

ITS PLUMING AWFUL!

WATCH:"THE BARRISTERS" BBC 2 FRIDAY 9.00 PM DECEMBER 5th..

IT FEATURES RUGBY'S BATTLE FOR CLEAN AIR!"

CARTEL?
CEMEX OFFICES RAIDED:
by European Union Competition Authority, in the UK and in Germany, (along with Lafarge )on suspicion of PRICE FIXING and operating a CARTEL. (4 Nov)  The cement industry was previously fined millions for operating as a cartel, dividing up cement markets and sharing information, according to EU competition documents.

CEMEX IN TROUBLE WORLD WIDE
Things are not going well for Cemex: President  Hugo Chavez seized Cemex plants in Venezuela and so far has not paid the demanded $1.3 billion in compensation. Chavez  said on TV that  Cemex fixed the price of cement, controlled the market, prevented the poor from getting houses,  and also polluted the air and the children's lungs. Also the BARRINGTON  Cambridge cement works is to close, with 87 redundancies, as it is suddenly  inefficient  and uncompetitive. It is feared that the HAZARDOUS FUELS burnt there will now come to Rugby's CO-INCINERATOR,  and to South Ferriby!! Cemex is rationalising and cost-cutting to try to service massive loans incurred as it took over RINKER and has made 10% of the world wide work force redundant, and is selling off properly all over the world.

MONEY SAVER ADVICE FOR CEMEX?
RUGBY CEMENT SHOULD BE CLOSED, AND THE REAL ESTATE SOLD OFF FOR LIGHT INDUSTRY AND HOUSING!

HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT ESSENTIAL!
WORSE IS YET TO COME - and now CEMEX in PARTNERSHIP WITH WARWICKSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL  want to build another WASTE BURNING and WASTE PROCESSING factory in Rugby, with yet another stack (45 metres), and semi-permanent plume of about 20 tonnes an hour, to pour out onto  this long-suffering, already disadvantaged area of "multiple  deprivation", where life expectancy, and life chances are not good! AVON VALLEY SCHOOL will be directly in line for the new fall-out, and the health-damaging PARTICULATE PM2.5 has DOUBLED there in three years since the "CO-INCINERATION " experiments began. What Did RUGBY BOROUGH COUNCIL and FABER MAUNSELL air contractors do? In June 20007, they took ALL the monitors away to ENSURE that "nobody knows"  about the increase in particulate, and the huge increase all over Rugby of exceedances of the daily objective for PM10  of 50 micrograms per metre cubed.

Meanwhile Cemex continues to breach its ENVIRONMENT AGENCY IPPC PERMIT - and to exceed the permitted ELVs for dioxin;particulate;cadmium, thallium etc etc. The Agency has threatened a £50,000 fine and/or 12 months in prison.


JEREMY WRIGHT MP FOR RUGBY:
acts as HOST for CEMEX at House of Commons Reception 20 November 7.00 pm, to mark the publication of a new book: "A CLIMATE FOR LIFE", along with Conservation International. Of course our requests for an invite have been met by stony silence. The EA says: "We have FULLY briefed MP Jeremy Wright . RBC is a hung council and its political leadership  has changed 3 times in the past 5 years. This presents a challenge to all involved!"

JEREMY QUESTIONS CAULDON SHEEP!
as the EA try to convince him that there is no need to worry at Rugby, and have  taken him to CAULDON cement plant to see "yet another typical cement plant like Rugby" - except it is  in a field full of sheep, miles from anywhere. Jeremy Wright was said to be disappointed that no-one lived within two miles, and that he could only ask local sheep what they thought about the emissions and dangers and increased risks to them and their environment and air. Disappointingly,   due to the lack of an interpretor,  Jeremy could not report back to the Rugby residents what the sheep actually said. The EA had falsely promised to trial the new DIOXIN continuous sampler at Rugby, but in the  trials at RADCLIFFE  it showed much higher readings than the conventional  twice a year (occasional on a good-day) sampling,  (OBVIOUSLY!!),  so they decided instead to trial it at Cauldon, thus ensuring no public questions as  only sheep would have to be told the result. When asked why they changed  their  minds and decided not to  protect the people of Rugby with better monitoring the Agency said "Don't you think these sheep deserve better protection as well?"  " instead of people?"   as actually is the case at Rugby!

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY UPDATE:
STILL REFUSES:  to attend community meetings; to answer any questions; provide information even under the Freedom of Information Act; discriminates against  any member of the public who asks questions; cannot monitor for chromium VI; puts burden of proof onto public etc.

SENSITIVE ISSUES AND CONTENTIOUS SITES:
"We continue to receive regular requests for information from Mrs P who since January 2005 has been treated as a VEXATIOUS COMPLAINANT in accordance with our Complaints  and Commendations Policy. MRS P has been informed that we will only provide a response if her query related to a specific consultation, a pollution incident, or comes from the Rugby Cement Community Forum. (which the EA REFUSES TO ATTEND or to answer!) However MRS P is now using the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental nformation Regulations to seek extensive information not just about Rugby Cement, but also other sites e.g Castle cement at Ribblesdale. We are DISCUSSING how we will deal with such requests!" PAUL QUINN EA: 28th April 2006

DAVIDS AND RUGBY CEMENT!
WHO IS TO BLAME?
* DAVID HUDSON - EA "responsible"  for construction of works, IPC etc  since 1996.
* DAVID SHELDON - EA's writer of IPPC Permit, and several witness statements.
* DAVID ELVIN - EA's QC.
* DAVID EVANS - Rugby Cement's expert: "only harmless steam and CO2 come out of stack!"
* DAVID EDWARDS - began  Rugby case on legal aid, but had to drop out due stress and ill health.
* DAVID WOLFE - Matrix Chambers.

LANDMARK CHAMBERS LAUNCH CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL LAW?

Do these people think they can flit from defendant client to defendant client and then promote themselves as campaigners? I understand those barristers who don't get personally involved in the issues, and simply act as advocates, but I'm not clear how you can have it both ways???

"LANDMARK CHAMBERS Centre for Environmental Law will create a forum for discussion and commentary on all matters relating to environmental law, drawing on the expertise of chambers' practitioners and some of the most highly respected legal academics in the UK and overseas. The Centre will aim to keep legal practitioners abreast of developments in this fast moving area of law."

ACADEMIC PANEL: will draw on the expertise of leading thinkers in the field, currently comprises of Prof. Malcolm Grant, President & Provost of University College London, and one of the leading environmental lawyers and academics in the country, Dr Liz Fisher, Dr Bettina Lange and Eloise Scotford of Oxford University, Professor Robert Lee of Cardiff University, Cinnamon Carlarne of the University of South Carolina, USA and Richard Moules of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.

EXECUTIVE TEAM: comprising members of Landmark Chambers of whom the key representatives are barristers DAVID ELVIN QC(Chairman), James Maurici and Gwion Lewis and Joanna Poulton, Chambers Chief Executive.

"Environmental issues are a major concern today and the development of environmental law is one of the key mechanisms in securing the management of climate change, limiting and controlling pollution, managing sustainable development and in protecting our natural heritage. Our purpose in bringing together experienced academic and practicing lawyers is to stimulate legal thinking and debate, to consider the environmental issues facing us, and to make a contribution to the continuing development of this important area of modern law."

RDF IN CEMENT KILNS?
"Some danger and problems could arise as far as heavy metals are concerned, chiefly the more volatile ones due to their presence in the substituted fuels." "The mass fluxes of micro-pollutants and their origin are not yet completely understood and must be further examined." "It is evident that the use of alternative fuels can strongly worsen the emission of heavy metals pushing  them DANGEROUSLY towards  the limits." Which is WHY CEMENT PLANTS ARE NEVER BUILT IN TOWNS!
The EU reports on the negative impacts of waste burning in kilns show that although they can claim overall reduction in nitrous oxide emissions, local residents can suffer from the increases of mercury, lead and cadmium, plus PAH/PCBs and dioxin in the air.

TOXIC DUST FROM CEMEX?

THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY ARE TESTING TOXIC DUST IN RUGBY?

YES WE CAN!
ON SECOND THOUGHTS
OH NO WE CAN'T!
WE ONLY PERMIT!

JUST A MINUTE:
while we talk without hesitation, repetition, or deviation, about CEMENT plant EMISSIONS! At first the Environment Agency's own National Laboratory Service said they could quote for the analysis of the CHROMIUM VI in the ambient air and dust downwind of the Cemex Rugby plant, but now suddenly, (seemingly after reading this blog site), they cannot! They now suggest we get help elsewhere and contact AEAT for a quote, which we have done, as instructed by the EA's own laboratory, while the EA, which is supposedly the "regulator" which is "responsible for the permitting of toxic emissions in Rugby" (and elsewhere) stands by, in blissful ignorance, "head-banging" and "not knowing"!

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY AND CEMENT PLANT WORLD IN SHOCK!
as Davenport investigation reveals very high chromium VI readings, but it is still business as usual! "We have already TOLD YOU dumbos in Rugby so many times that ALL THE RAW MATERIALS AND WASTE FUEL SUBSTITUTES used in the CO-INCINERATING CEMENT PLANTS, such as TYRES and RDF which replace COAL, and MILL SCALE and SLAG which replace iron oxide, are all the same in terms of emissions, and ALL THE SAME TO US!" says the UK's Environmental pollution permitting Agency.

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY JUST GUESSING?
Maybe the Environment Agency are still wondering what chemical contents the substituted mill scale and slag actually have, as these "industrial waste alternative raw material replacements" are being merrily substituted in the UK's cement industry WITHOUT the MANDATORY EU WASTE CODES or the MANDATORY DUTY OF CARE NOTES - so maybe the Environment Agency are actually in the same position as the rest of the UK - JUST GUESSING!. Perhaps its time for a little science lesson for the Agency, which for so long has poured scorn on the Rugby residents, scoffing at us, and dismissing our genuine concerns?

TOXIC DUST FROM CEMEX?
The answer is blowing in the wind - see Nov/Dec 2008 edition of THE HIGHLANDER from the Bonny Doon, as it explains how the hexavalent chromium was discovered in the air at the local elementary school, where the internal air is now being analysed. Young people are much more at risk, and it accumulates in the body and is one of the causes of lung cancer. The Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District (MBUAPCD) is now studying the Cemex operations and air quality impacts with a view to allowing the plant to start up again. Visit www.mbuapcd.org/index.cfm/Cat/67.htm to learn more. Ed Kendig apparently told the Santa Crux Sentinel: "We have to remember it will take a long period of stable operations and monitoring before we can draw conclusions about how satisfactory the Davenport plant's emissions are."

ENVIRONMENT COUNCIL UPDATE:
Despite the Rugby Cement Community Forum being told by Cemex on 8 October 2008 that there was NO chance of any funding for the planned September/early October meeting of the FOCUS GROUP, which gained endorsement and support at the WORKSHOP 17 September, and that the community should "pay for it ourselves", a change of heart has occurred among the "big three". Further additional funding to add to the £25,000 already invested by the Environment Agency, Cemex and Rugby Borough Council in finding a "new way forward with open honest meaningful community engagement and timely provision of accurate independently verified data, and with a real opportunity for the local stakeholders to have a say about their environment, amenity, air quality and health" is now back on the Agenda. Watch this space.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT FAILURE:
The two Cemex applications for a waste plant at either, or both, SOUTHAM or RUGBY MALPASS seem deficient, in that they have not complied with the EIA Regulations. Even WCC planners have spotted that - although they did initially accept the proposals, which have not made the mandatory BPEO assessments and have not compared the two alternative proposals. It seems these will not now be able to go to the WCC Regulatory Committee on 15 December as scheduled, and it is back to the drawing board for Cemex and GOLDERS ASSOCIATES. See WCC planning portal.



HOUSE OF LORDS TOLD
"NO-ONE BUT LILIAN IN RUGBY OR IN
THE WHOLE WORLD,
CARES ABOUT CEMENT PLANT EMISSIONS!"
by gullible, or loyal, or misdirected, or misinformed, or misunderstanding, scientifically-challenged Agency lawyers : in order to extort costs! Meanwhile the five Lords, in their wisdom, have handed down a most "peculiar and controversial" judgment in which they could not even agree between themselves on most of what they had heard, and some of them seem to think that "secret communications" behind the public's back, in order to prevent environmental, and air quality information about health damaging toxic pollutants from getting into the public arena, is quite OK by them, and is only the expected and usual course of the UK's government departments.

* Para 54: LORD HOFFMAN: "But the present case does not involve the construction of anything, so in my view falls outside of the EIA Directive." Err - so excuse me but how do they get the wastes into the plant then? What are these new constructions , that have been nodded through by the WCC planning department (see WCC web 23 January 2003), buildings presumably invisible to the eye of some judges?

* Para 84: LORD MANCE: "Second the plan to change to tyre burning did in any event involve not inconsiderable physical adaptation of the company's site and plant..... covered reception area with sprinklers for 300 tonnes tyres (now 600 tonnes!), mechanical conveyors, metering system, airlocks, and new combustion chamber." Lord Mance has done his homework, and sees quite clearly.

* Para 30: "There is an unchallenged finding of fact that the ONLY change in operation proposed by the application, namely the use of TYRES, would not have significant negative effects on human beings or the environment", totally ignoring the actual facts of the case regarding the turning of the works into a full scale co-incinerator, which then allowed unlimited substitution by various WASTE FUELS. Ignoring also the HEALTH EFFECTS of the substitution of the various raw materials by INDUSTRIAL WASTES that were discretely added, unseen, into the (hidden) IPPC application. There was only one closely-guarded copy in Rugby, at the Borough Council's so-called Environmental Health Department, and no-one got any chance to see that until after the consultation was closed - while they kept on holding sham-meetings, and giving out misleading and false information and non-technical summaries (the kid's version?) about tyre burning and about NONE OF THE OTHER WASTES that were included in the IPPC application!!

* Para 64: "In the present case there was no breach of European Law, and the ONLY breach of domestic law was the FAILURE TO DISCLOSE INFORMATION about the predicted effects of emissions." Well done for that recognition that it does not matter to mislead the public and not to tell the truth about environmental impacts.

* Para 64: "Since then, however, the actual emissions from the plant have been monitored." Err.. no my noble lord, sorry yet again but , the emissions from the plant have NEVER been monitored, nor has any attempt to monitor them ever been made!

WHAT EVER NEXT?
A little bird told me that the Environment Agency's own lawyers have now suddenly decided that "environmental issues are indeed serious concerns!" Not then their usual dismissive approach. They plan a yet more devious trick planned in order to "infiltrate groups, and to keep an eye on the public", and that they, in order to poach work from long-standing dedicated environmental public interest lawyers are setting up a new department. This will then "co-incidentally" enable them to mislead, and to spy on the campaign groups, and to "keep the enemy closer to them". They now propose to run with the fox, and hunt with the hounds, by setting up an ENVIRONMENTAL LAW DEPARTMENT to assist the members of the public who are concerned and weary and wary of being polluted by - the Environment Agency and those it purports to regulate. STRANGER THAN FICTION!

CEMEX SHUT DOWN!

DAVENPORT CLOSED!

Image copyright Jodi Frediani

WHAT IS GOING ON?
APPARENTLY the people who live DOWNWIND and near the CEMEX DAVENPORT USA plant are being POISONED and EXPOSED to a TEN-FOLD CANCER risk due to the CEMEX operations. Cemex have been forced to shut down the KILN, and LOW LEVEL POINT SOURCES in MILLS etc and the TRANSPORT - because the authorities in the USA believe the CANCER-CAUSING CHROMIUM VI is being emitted from everywhere!

CHROMIUM VI: GOOGLE IT! FIND OUT! for yourself, DON'T take my word for it!
Search: Cemex; Davenport,USA; chromium VI/hexavalent chromium; mill scale; slag; Rugby Cement; CANCER!

SEARCH AND YOU WILL FIND!
..that ANY replacement by "alternative fuel" in co-incinerating cement plants REQUIRES (sham) trials, like the 700 - 1,000 TONNES each day at Rugby; BUT the raw materials have NO trials when substituted by "industrial wastes" with NO EU WASTE CODES and NO DUTY OF CARE NOTES!


SUBSTITUTE RAW MATERIALS IN SECRET
So WHAT exactly causes the EXCEEDANCES (ten- fold) of CANCER-CAUSING pollutant?
What exactly are they burning at RUGBY?
Dont't ask me, ask the UK's ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY!
IF they will answer!

VEXATIOUS! is the name given by the EA to anyone who asks questions! So "he who asks no questions will NOT be told a lie! So watch the wall my friends while the Environment Agency go by!"

(Thanks to Jodi Frediani for permission to use her photograph.)