PCS Phosphate criticizes EPA phos acid rule

Washington — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to examine the economic impacts on low-income and minority populations of its recently proposed phosphoric acid air regulations, PCS Phosphate Co. Inc. said in a letter sent to the agency in December. EPA extended the comment period on the proposed rule to Jan. 21 after receiving requests from The Fertilizer Institute, The Mosaic Co., PCS Phosphate and a testing company that serves the phosphate industry (GM Dec. 22, 2014). PCS Phosphate also said the proposal lacked any analysis of how increased environmental compliance costs might affect the community surrounding its Aurora, N.C., phos acid plant. That area includes a higher percentage of poor residents than the national average. The failure to “adequately address” the economic effects of the proposal does not comport with a 1994 Executive Order on environmental justice, PCS said. The letter was sent by the law firm of Covington & Burling. “EPA is only considering ‘risks’ from  pollution, which it found to be negligible, while ignoring the economic and employment effects on minority and low income communities from setting the [National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants] ‘below the floor’ even where not  necessary to do so for health reasons,” the letter said, adding that PCS’s phos acid plant in Aurora “will be adversely affected by the portion of the rule that sets a ‘below the floor’ NESHAP for mercury from calciners.” The lawyers called on EPA to perform a separate analysis of the impacts and effects on low-income populations, “since a large population living around the Aurora facility, located in Beaufort County, N.C., for example, live below the poverty line (20.6 percent), exceeding the national average (14.9 percent). Any workforce reductions caused by the proposed rule, if adopted, at this facility could potentially increase those living below the poverty line.”