Giving credit where credit is due...
On May 2, 2005, at 2:17 PM, Justin Eibensteiner wrote:
Regarding the burner's plume...
The basic point of contention is that the studies are theoretical and not empirical. <snip>
Since none of this work has been done, the public has no way of gauging their exposure based on on any real data.
Absolutely right. The only study was modeling done before HERC opened. While I'm not aware of a detailed critique of that modeling, there is no study of actual emission dispersal, so I concede Justin's point and will be more circumspect about future claims of where stuff ends up.
If you check with Minneapolis Environmental Management you'll find that the incerator pollution controls fail from time to time (to the point of getting fined significantly), meaning anyone in the vicinity may be getting more bad air then they bargained for on the wrong day.
I checked. The last HERC failure was in 1999 - a scrubber failure that lasted less than a day, causing a hydrogen chloride violation. The plant was fined $22,000. Since then - more than six years - no violations or failures. I think the odds are with the fans here.
Another bonus for the incinerator is due to the fact they are considered a waste treatment facility they do not have to disclose their emissions to the Toxic Release Inventory--creating even less public transparency.
The plant does report emissions, which are publicly available, as noted earlier. I don't think there's anything furtive here.
Fundamentally, I think the burner argument is a red herring in this debate. It's easy to fixate on a high-profile point source that probably pumps out less harmful junk than the tailpipes of the cars fans drive to the game - and certainly than a coal-fired plant, of which there are several in the Twin Cities.
David Brauer Kingfield
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