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- Lillian Chance and June Lackey have lived in Optimist Park all their lives. Now they have an asphalt plant across the street to look forward to.
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This contrasts to cities like Durham, which require a 1,500-foot buffer. When developers last year proposed that Durham reduce the buffer to 750 feet, residents-led by the NAACP and with the help of Environmental Defense, a national nonprofit group-convinced the city council to reject the proposal.
"This rule change would have allowed a number of asphalt plants to have been built in Durham," says Kristen Thornburg, of the North Carolina chapter of Environmental Defense. "It would have exposed a large number of Durham residents to unhealthy levels of air pollutants, and could have resulted in numerous adverse impacts to public health and welfare."
The Gray Zone
The majority of air emissions from an asphalt plant come from the main stack (silo), and the process of heating the liquid asphalt cement and rock. These emissions include particulates (dust), sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and toxic air pollutants such as benzene, formaldehyde, nickel, mercury and arsenic. The liquid asphalt also releases hydrogen sulfide, the compound responsible for the odor generally associated with "hot tar." Fumes from asphalt storage and loading areas, as well as the trucks, account for the remaining air emissions, collectively referred to as "fugitive emissions."
The NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), says facilities are not allowed to emit pollutants that exceed any of the state's air toxic limits at or beyond their property lines. Thus, citizens should not be exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution if they live near plants that meet the state's air toxic rules.
Several environmental groups, however, say asphalt plants pose serious environmental and health risks, including asthma, nausea, vile odors and reduced visibility. The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) is one of the most active and outspoken critics of asphalt plants in North Carolina.
"Under the Clean Air Act, there are "major sources' of pollution, like power plants and paper mills, then there are minor sources, which don't have the potential to produce 100 tons per year of a given pollutant," says Louis Zeller of BREDL. "Asphalt plants are in that in-between, gray area. The plants are dirty enough to produce major pollution under the Clean Air Act, but they take on "operational limits.' They can mix asphalt for only so many hours a year, and produce a given amount of asphalt, which enables them to escape some of the regulatory constrictions and permits of a major source."
BREDL has waged several high-profile battles against asphalt plants, including one case in Pineola, in Avery County. Residents there had long complained that the Maymead Materials asphalt plant released noxious odors and adversely impacted their health and quality of life. BREDL released a study indicating that residents who lived near the plant suffered from asthma and other respiratory problems. According to the study, the plant also reduced the property values of nearby residences up to 56 percent. Avery County tax adjustment officials used distance from the plant and noxious odorous emissions as the bases for property value devaluation. The plant is still in operation.
BREDL was also involved with a 1997 case in Watauga County where residents were fighting a proposed asphalt plant in Boone. After much debate, the NC Division of Air Quality (DAQ) denied the company's application for an air permit.
"We delayed the permit for over a year, while we conducted a meteorological study of the area, and the EPA conducted their own study to re-examine the process for estimating the pollutants from asphalt plants," says DAQ information specialist Tom Mather. In addition, the Boone City Council enacted an eight-month moratorium to discuss new zoning regulations. In the end, the EPA elected not to require any special controls for asphalt plants, and the DAQ concluded the plant wouldn't pose any undue environmental threat as long as it met air quality regulations. However, during that time, the Boone city council enacted stricter zoning laws, which prevented developers from building the plant.
"We have no control over where a facility is located," says DAQ's Mather. "If they can meet the air regulations, they get a permit. Not to say there aren't problems associated with asphalt plants. They're just not very popular; you get a lot of truck traffic, and they do have a lot of emissions that can be smelly. It's not the kind of thing you'd want to live close to. But that's a zoning issue, and we're in the environmental business. However, we definitely support local government to take action to zone these things properly."
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City planning flaws created Optimist Park fiasco
