Report decries Lehigh River toxins. Cement plant blames math error for ranking as major polluter.
Updated: Sep. 28, 2022, 2:49 p.m. |
Published: Sep. 28, 2022, 2:38 p.m.
A report by Environment America and other policy advocates labels Lafarge Whitehall cement plant along the Lehigh River as one of the country's biggest sources of direct-discharge water pollution, based on EPA data for 2020. The company says its self-reported numbers erroneously exaggerated its enivronmental impact.Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com
Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com
A new national report based on federal data shows that one of the biggest river polluters in the U.S. is along the Lehigh.
But the cement plant in question — Lafarge Whitehall — says it's a math error, that it accidentally exaggerated the amount of toxic discharges in its own reports to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Still, environmental advocates say there are large quantities of hazardous pollutants flowing down the Lehigh Valley's namesake waterway, like others around the country.
"Far too many of our waterways are still plagued with pollution, including industrial facilities that continue to release large volumes of toxic substances that are threatening our health and our ecosystems," said Flora Cardoni, field director for PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center. She said the confusion around Lafarge's self-reported data is "one example of the larger need to clean up our water and make sure these industries are switching to cleaner alternatives or using pollution control measures when possible."
PennEnvironment's national organization, Environment America, on Wednesday issued a report titled "Wasting Our Waterways." The U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group are also listed as authoring groups. Together, they recommended ways to strengthen the 50-year-old federal Clean Water Act, which will be subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case to be heard next week.
MORE: See the full report and its methodology (PDF)
The waterway report considered the amount of toxins released directly into waterways based on Environmental Protection Agency data for 2020, the most recent complete year available. It acknowledged that the federal system tracks hundreds — but not all — pollutants, and that industries like oil and gas extraction facilities are exempt from reporting, which likely means that reported amounts are undercounts.
The Lehigh River flows beneath the Route 873 bridge near the borders of Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties south of Lehigh Gap.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com
In raw pounds of toxins, the Lehigh ranked outside the nation's top 50 polluted waterways in 2020. But, the report says, when the measurement is adjusted to account for the relative effects of different pollutants — a measure referred to as toxicity-weighted pounds equivalent — the Lehigh watershed ranked 13th most in the country.
The Lehigh watershed contains the nation's second-most chemicals that can impact people's reproductive health, and 30th most cancer-causing chemicals, the report says.
The Lehigh empties into the Delaware River, which is a source of drinking water for millons of people. The Delaware watershed did not appear in the report's rankings.
The waterway report also labeled the biggest polluters in every state based on discharge reports that nonexempt companies submit themselves.
For Pennsylvania, that was Lafarge Whitehall. The facility clocked in as the 15th biggest polluter in the U.S. in 2020, by the report's measurement of weighted discharge. (The report and EPA data list the facility under the name Holcim. The two companies merged in 2015.)
Another measure used by the EPA is Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (or RSEI). An RSEI score considers the amount of toxic chemicals, how they move through the environment, potential human exposure and other factors.
Lafarge Whitehall's RSEI score was 100 or less from 2011 to 2018. But it skyrocketed above 500,000 in 2019 and 2020. The plant currently holds the fourth-highest RSEI score in the U.S.
But a Lafarge spokesperson said the company's self-reported numbers were wrong. She said there were "mathematical errors that exceeded or multiplied the original numbers in the thousands." Lafarge says it is now reviewing the tabulation and will report corrected findings to the EPA.
The Whitehall cement plant uses Lehigh River water only as coolant, not for treatment, said spokesperson Jocelyn Gerst. She said elevated pollutant levels may be from other sources upriver.
"At our Lafarge Whitehall plant, we work hard to remain compliant with all our state and federal regulatory requirements, including those that pertain to stormwater discharges," Gerst said in response to questions ahead of the report's release.
Previously, the Whitehall facility was among 15 cement plants involved in a 2010 settlement with the EPA for violations of the Clean Air Act.
"It's a shame that we're relying on corporations that are motivated by their own profits to self-report about pollution that they're discharging into our waterways," said Northampton County Commissioner Tara Zrinski, speaking at Wednesday's PennEnvironment news conference on the banks of the Lehigh in Allentown about 7 miles downriver from the cement plant. "How can we trust their measurements where there's no one independently understanding what is in their discharges? That's a problem with the system."
The authors of the waterway report recommended that the EPA update water-pollution standards, add to its list of reportable chemicals and ensure that all streams, wetlands and other waters are protected, among other measures.
A stack from the Lafarge Whitehall cement plant rises above the wooded Lehigh River bank, seen from Northampton's Canal Park.Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com
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Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.