First Draft
Abstract
This paper is about cement plant in Missouri. It is said that this cement plant is connected with environmental problems. So this paper argues that what the cement plant are, how this influences to the environment and what are the solution of it are. To solve this problem, we need to use technology or not.
When I arrived at the airport in St. Louis my friends picked me up. The first time I saw the Mississippi River, I said to my friends that I like this kind of river. However, they told me that the Mississippi River has serious problems. And I was very shocked that Mississippi river is very dirty. It is known as the one of the longest river. I was surprised and I became interested in the cause of that. I had an opportunity to read about the cement plant during writing class. In that article, this cement plant will carry more air and water pollution to Mississippi river. Then I also found that Missouri has a serious unemployment problems and it is the one of the reasons that Missouri has a cement plant. This environmental problem is related on unemployment problems and I am very interested in it.
First of all, I will explain about cement plant briefly. Holcim Inc., a Swiss based company, has a plan to build the one of the largest cement plan on Mississippi river in Ste. Genevieve County. It is 40 miles south to St. Louis. According to Sara Shipley “cement plant gets air permit”, this cement plant was permitted and the company will be do this on Mississippi river (Shipley, 2004). This cement plant is said that it will carry economic growth to Missouri but also they will carry serious environmental problems. There are many arguments and problems over this cement plant from many points of view. In this paper, I focus on the point of the company, the environmentalist and environmental group’s points of view.
So, what are the merits of this cement plant? First, I want to explain about the advantages of this plant. This cement plant will bring 200 full time jobs and 1000 construction jobs. Missouri has a serious unemployment problem and this cement plant is supposed to be a helpful to solve unemployment problems. Also, Missouri accepted the final construction that allowed a $600 million cement plant (Cement plant plan advances, 2004). They are going to be great impact to economic and business of Missouri. Missouri strongly feels the possibilities on it.
However, there are many factors that related to the environmental problems by this cement plant. To build a cement plant means leads the destroying the environment. Missouri state and the company have heated arguments over this cement plant about environmental problems. It is considered that there might be water and air pollution (Shipley, 2004; State issues draft clean-air permit to cement plan, 2004; Cement plant plan advances; Inskeep, 2004). There are many aspects and points of view that these environmental problems are whether serious or not. According to the Columbia Daily Tribune on “cement plant plan advances”, some environmentalists said that it would emit thousands of tons of pollution (Cement plant plan advances, 2004). There are three environmental problems that we should consider and solve.
First, it is water pollution. What is water pollution and what kind of solutions do we have by the cement plant? Nancy Tully, the Holcin Inc. Spokesperson said that this plant would be decided in Ste. Genevieve County because of a great limestone (Inskeep, 2004). Ste. Genevieve is built in rock, limestone. Cement is also contained a lot of limestone. Limestone plays an important role to treat and neutralize water. So, the company said that they think Ste. Genevieve County is value place where is the good quality of limestone. The company wants to use the role of the limestone in Ste. Genevieve to solve the environmental problem, especially, water pollution. According to the commissioner Albert Fults, Ste. Genevieve County, “A lot of lime that comes out of here goes actually to water treatment plants” (Inskeep, 2004, p1). Moreover, there is another support that the company chooses Ste. Genevieve to build the cement plant. It is estimated that barges is going to carry four millions tons of cement produced every year in the river. The place where the limestone will be built is an old limestone quarry. I wonder that the limestone works well or not. However, it is a kind of key to persuade the Missouri department and environmental groups over this cement plant.
Second, it is about the forests. I cannot see the connection between this cement plant and degradation of forests. However, according to the National public radio, Holcim Inc. is creating over 60 acres of wetlands to build the cement plant (Inskeep, 2004). Among them, 14 acres is going to be taken to make a harbor. It means many forests will be cut down. 2,200 acres of all 3,900 acres will be kept as conservation area. However, environmentalists do not satisfy this fact. They think the fear of dredging and widening of Mississippi is very serious. So, they made a long list that is considered to be bad problems over this cement plant and also they need the special solution on it. The question is if these forest problems happen, what influence to human beings and the earth? Degrading of forests damage many animal species and animals (Miller, 1994). That means it damages the species diversity, genetic diversity and ecosystem diversity.
Third, the biggest problem is air pollution. It is the easiest problem to understand the influence of them all. Environmentalist said that it would cause more than double the ozone pollution in Ste. Genevieve County (State issues draft clean-air permit to cement plant). That is why it takes five years to accept this controversial plant. Next, I will explain about Nitrogen Oxide. Nitrogen Oxide is one of the causes of air pollution. It is also known as greenhouse gases (Miller, 1994). It can determine the earth temperature and climates called greenhouse effects. The biggest problem of this is to degrade the ozone layers. However, why the air pollution and degradation of ozone are paid attention so much? Because ozone layers are important as the global sunscreen. In other wards, ozone layer protects our health from 99 percent of sun’s UV radiation which is reaching the earth surface. There are two views regarding the ozone layer. One is natural and other is man made. In this cement plant case, it is man made. If there is no ozone layer, the earth would be too cold to live for human beings. Nitrogen Oxide is also known as secondary pollutants. All of this produced by combination of fossil fuels. Above all things, environmentalists and environmental groups have heated arguments to solve air pollution. According to Leanne Tippet, who is a director of a clean-air program, it is not that harmful to St. Louis (State issues draft clean-air permit to cement plant, 2004). Carla Kelin, who is the director of the Ozark chapter of Sierra club, said “we’ve been concerned about the entire facility from the start” (Cement plant plan advances, 2004).
However, to solve these air pollutions, Missouri department made efforts to be strict of the emissions of nitrogen oxide (Shipley, 2004). Holcim Inc. tried to solve this problem using upgraded technology, however, it is expensive but “selective catalytic reduction could remove 80 to 90 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions” (Shipley, 2004). They can save about 26,000 tons of pollutants and 8,000 tons which is from ozone. However, Missouri department think that it was not feasible and they decided to strict the limitation of the emission of nitrogen oxide.
This cement plant will carry both good and bad things. Instead of taking a lot of jobs, it also brings the environmental problems. This plant is rally large facility. It is the second largest Nitrogen Oxide source in the last 20 years. Also, St. Louis had terrible ozone problems throughout the region. So, St. Louis is considered that it is already over the limitation. They have heated arguments and quarrel for a long time to solve the ozone problems. According to the National Public Radio, the company is asked about why it is easier to get off. Ozone problems are in not only St. Louis but also Chicago and any other place. “The environmental Protection Agency told Missouri that if it doesn’t tighten restrictions on the Holcim plant, it shouldn’t issue a final permit before getting approval from the governor of the state that’s directly downwind—Illinois” (Inskeep, 2004, p3).
I feel that it should take much time to solve the environmental problems. That is because it is too late when something bad happens to the environment. This cement plant will bring many jobs that will save Missouri from the depression; however, we should not forget it may also bring serious environmental problems in the future. And I wonder that Holcim inc. thinks this cement plant will lead to serious environmental problems or not. If this company does not notice this affect on the environment, I think that these problems will never be solved clearly. It is natural that the company says that there is not much harmful. Because, they want to successfully build this cement plant in Ste. Genevieve. So, what is the most important thing is to know the fact and find the key not to pollute air as much as possible. Not only the environmental groups but also the company needs to make a list related to environmental problems that will occur. And the company and Missouri government need to decide what is the most important thing. In other words, they should make the order of priority to solve the environmental problems.
Finally, after I researched, I found that to solve these environmental problems over this cement plant is very difficult. That is because this cement plant is one of the largest one in the world. They can consider every situation that might occur. However, in my opinion, Missouri has a right to control the emission of nitrogen oxide. For the first time, I think that the up graded technology is helpful and useful to solve this problem. However, it is too expensive and I think that technology might be cause of environmental problems in the future. So, the best solution is to be strict about the permission of the emission of nitrogen dioxide and Missouri department has to have an great environmental groups who can support and solve the cement plant. Moreover, not only Missouri department but also citizens need to know this fact that is related on environmental problems. That is because, if something bad happen in the future, the biggest victim is people especially who live in St. Louis. There are not best solutions to solve environmental problems. However, there is a better solution that is to reduce the damage of the environmental problems.
Reference:
Cement plan plant advances. (2004, June 9). Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved Sept 2. 2004 from http://www.showmenews.com/2004/jun/20040609Busi008.asp
Inskeep, S. (2004, May 13). Environmental groups in Missouri attemping to block construction of cement plant from National Public Radio. Retrieved Sept. 25. 2004 from LexisNexis
Klaas Pangman, J. Guide to Environmental Issues. (1995, Apr. 25). Office of Solid Waste and Emergence Response.
Miller, G. (1994) Environment; Problems and solutions.
Train, R. (1974, Jan). Cement manufacturing. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Shipley, S. (2004. June 9). Cement plant gets air permit. St. Louis Post Dispatch. P-A01. Retrieved. Aug. 25, 2004 from LexisNexis
State issues draft clean-air permit to cement plant. (2004, Jan 25). Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved Aug-30, 2004 from http://www.shoemenews.com/2004/jan/20040125NEWS069.asp
This paper is about cement plant in Missouri. It is said that this cement plant is connected with environmental problems. So this paper argues that what the cement plant are, how this influences to the environment and what are the solution of it are. To solve this problem, we need to use technology or not.
When I arrived at the airport in St. Louis my friends picked me up. The first time I saw the Mississippi River, I said to my friends that I like this kind of river. However, they told me that the Mississippi River has serious problems. And I was very shocked that Mississippi river is very dirty. It is known as the one of the longest river. I was surprised and I became interested in the cause of that. I had an opportunity to read about the cement plant during writing class. In that article, this cement plant will carry more air and water pollution to Mississippi river. Then I also found that Missouri has a serious unemployment problems and it is the one of the reasons that Missouri has a cement plant. This environmental problem is related on unemployment problems and I am very interested in it.
First of all, I will explain about cement plant briefly. Holcim Inc., a Swiss based company, has a plan to build the one of the largest cement plan on Mississippi river in Ste. Genevieve County. It is 40 miles south to St. Louis. According to Sara Shipley “cement plant gets air permit”, this cement plant was permitted and the company will be do this on Mississippi river (Shipley, 2004). This cement plant is said that it will carry economic growth to Missouri but also they will carry serious environmental problems. There are many arguments and problems over this cement plant from many points of view. In this paper, I focus on the point of the company, the environmentalist and environmental group’s points of view.
So, what are the merits of this cement plant? First, I want to explain about the advantages of this plant. This cement plant will bring 200 full time jobs and 1000 construction jobs. Missouri has a serious unemployment problem and this cement plant is supposed to be a helpful to solve unemployment problems. Also, Missouri accepted the final construction that allowed a $600 million cement plant (Cement plant plan advances, 2004). They are going to be great impact to economic and business of Missouri. Missouri strongly feels the possibilities on it.
However, there are many factors that related to the environmental problems by this cement plant. To build a cement plant means leads the destroying the environment. Missouri state and the company have heated arguments over this cement plant about environmental problems. It is considered that there might be water and air pollution (Shipley, 2004; State issues draft clean-air permit to cement plan, 2004; Cement plant plan advances; Inskeep, 2004). There are many aspects and points of view that these environmental problems are whether serious or not. According to the Columbia Daily Tribune on “cement plant plan advances”, some environmentalists said that it would emit thousands of tons of pollution (Cement plant plan advances, 2004). There are three environmental problems that we should consider and solve.
First, it is water pollution. What is water pollution and what kind of solutions do we have by the cement plant? Nancy Tully, the Holcin Inc. Spokesperson said that this plant would be decided in Ste. Genevieve County because of a great limestone (Inskeep, 2004). Ste. Genevieve is built in rock, limestone. Cement is also contained a lot of limestone. Limestone plays an important role to treat and neutralize water. So, the company said that they think Ste. Genevieve County is value place where is the good quality of limestone. The company wants to use the role of the limestone in Ste. Genevieve to solve the environmental problem, especially, water pollution. According to the commissioner Albert Fults, Ste. Genevieve County, “A lot of lime that comes out of here goes actually to water treatment plants” (Inskeep, 2004, p1). Moreover, there is another support that the company chooses Ste. Genevieve to build the cement plant. It is estimated that barges is going to carry four millions tons of cement produced every year in the river. The place where the limestone will be built is an old limestone quarry. I wonder that the limestone works well or not. However, it is a kind of key to persuade the Missouri department and environmental groups over this cement plant.
Second, it is about the forests. I cannot see the connection between this cement plant and degradation of forests. However, according to the National public radio, Holcim Inc. is creating over 60 acres of wetlands to build the cement plant (Inskeep, 2004). Among them, 14 acres is going to be taken to make a harbor. It means many forests will be cut down. 2,200 acres of all 3,900 acres will be kept as conservation area. However, environmentalists do not satisfy this fact. They think the fear of dredging and widening of Mississippi is very serious. So, they made a long list that is considered to be bad problems over this cement plant and also they need the special solution on it. The question is if these forest problems happen, what influence to human beings and the earth? Degrading of forests damage many animal species and animals (Miller, 1994). That means it damages the species diversity, genetic diversity and ecosystem diversity.
Third, the biggest problem is air pollution. It is the easiest problem to understand the influence of them all. Environmentalist said that it would cause more than double the ozone pollution in Ste. Genevieve County (State issues draft clean-air permit to cement plant). That is why it takes five years to accept this controversial plant. Next, I will explain about Nitrogen Oxide. Nitrogen Oxide is one of the causes of air pollution. It is also known as greenhouse gases (Miller, 1994). It can determine the earth temperature and climates called greenhouse effects. The biggest problem of this is to degrade the ozone layers. However, why the air pollution and degradation of ozone are paid attention so much? Because ozone layers are important as the global sunscreen. In other wards, ozone layer protects our health from 99 percent of sun’s UV radiation which is reaching the earth surface. There are two views regarding the ozone layer. One is natural and other is man made. In this cement plant case, it is man made. If there is no ozone layer, the earth would be too cold to live for human beings. Nitrogen Oxide is also known as secondary pollutants. All of this produced by combination of fossil fuels. Above all things, environmentalists and environmental groups have heated arguments to solve air pollution. According to Leanne Tippet, who is a director of a clean-air program, it is not that harmful to St. Louis (State issues draft clean-air permit to cement plant, 2004). Carla Kelin, who is the director of the Ozark chapter of Sierra club, said “we’ve been concerned about the entire facility from the start” (Cement plant plan advances, 2004).
However, to solve these air pollutions, Missouri department made efforts to be strict of the emissions of nitrogen oxide (Shipley, 2004). Holcim Inc. tried to solve this problem using upgraded technology, however, it is expensive but “selective catalytic reduction could remove 80 to 90 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions” (Shipley, 2004). They can save about 26,000 tons of pollutants and 8,000 tons which is from ozone. However, Missouri department think that it was not feasible and they decided to strict the limitation of the emission of nitrogen oxide.
This cement plant will carry both good and bad things. Instead of taking a lot of jobs, it also brings the environmental problems. This plant is rally large facility. It is the second largest Nitrogen Oxide source in the last 20 years. Also, St. Louis had terrible ozone problems throughout the region. So, St. Louis is considered that it is already over the limitation. They have heated arguments and quarrel for a long time to solve the ozone problems. According to the National Public Radio, the company is asked about why it is easier to get off. Ozone problems are in not only St. Louis but also Chicago and any other place. “The environmental Protection Agency told Missouri that if it doesn’t tighten restrictions on the Holcim plant, it shouldn’t issue a final permit before getting approval from the governor of the state that’s directly downwind—Illinois” (Inskeep, 2004, p3).
I feel that it should take much time to solve the environmental problems. That is because it is too late when something bad happens to the environment. This cement plant will bring many jobs that will save Missouri from the depression; however, we should not forget it may also bring serious environmental problems in the future. And I wonder that Holcim inc. thinks this cement plant will lead to serious environmental problems or not. If this company does not notice this affect on the environment, I think that these problems will never be solved clearly. It is natural that the company says that there is not much harmful. Because, they want to successfully build this cement plant in Ste. Genevieve. So, what is the most important thing is to know the fact and find the key not to pollute air as much as possible. Not only the environmental groups but also the company needs to make a list related to environmental problems that will occur. And the company and Missouri government need to decide what is the most important thing. In other words, they should make the order of priority to solve the environmental problems.
Finally, after I researched, I found that to solve these environmental problems over this cement plant is very difficult. That is because this cement plant is one of the largest one in the world. They can consider every situation that might occur. However, in my opinion, Missouri has a right to control the emission of nitrogen oxide. For the first time, I think that the up graded technology is helpful and useful to solve this problem. However, it is too expensive and I think that technology might be cause of environmental problems in the future. So, the best solution is to be strict about the permission of the emission of nitrogen dioxide and Missouri department has to have an great environmental groups who can support and solve the cement plant. Moreover, not only Missouri department but also citizens need to know this fact that is related on environmental problems. That is because, if something bad happen in the future, the biggest victim is people especially who live in St. Louis. There are not best solutions to solve environmental problems. However, there is a better solution that is to reduce the damage of the environmental problems.
Reference:
Cement plan plant advances. (2004, June 9). Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved Sept 2. 2004 from http://www.showmenews.com/2004/jun/20040609Busi008.asp
Inskeep, S. (2004, May 13). Environmental groups in Missouri attemping to block construction of cement plant from National Public Radio. Retrieved Sept. 25. 2004 from LexisNexis
Klaas Pangman, J. Guide to Environmental Issues. (1995, Apr. 25). Office of Solid Waste and Emergence Response.
Miller, G. (1994) Environment; Problems and solutions.
Train, R. (1974, Jan). Cement manufacturing. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Shipley, S. (2004. June 9). Cement plant gets air permit. St. Louis Post Dispatch. P-A01. Retrieved. Aug. 25, 2004 from LexisNexis
State issues draft clean-air permit to cement plant. (2004, Jan 25). Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved Aug-30, 2004 from http://www.shoemenews.com/2004/jan/20040125NEWS069.asp
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