2 groups appeal beryllium permit

The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality announced last month it would grant a five-year air-quality permit for the South Side plant.

Brush Ceramic Products, part of Cleveland-based Brush Wellman Engineered Materials Inc., is the nation's largest producer of beryllium oxide products. Its local plant is at 6100 S. Tucson Blvd., near East Valencia Road.

Beryllium, a naturally occurring metal used in industrial applications, can be toxic when particles are inhaled.

Thirty-five Tucson workers at the plant have contracted incurable chronic beryllium disease, which slowly suffocates its victims. At least two have died.

Trace amounts of beryllium also have been found in surface dust at Sunnyside High School, a half-mile west of the plant.

In addition to the requirements of the permit, the company entered into a voluntary agreement to expand and upgrade monitoring at school and neighborhood sites.

But critics say the community monitoring should have been required as part of the permit. As it stands, the county will not be able to take action if beryllium is found outside the plant.

"That's just unconscionable. This is really dangerous stuff," said Rob Kulakofksy, president of the Center for Environmental Connections, one of two groups that appealed the permit.

The other group was the Environmental Justice Action Group.

The county must hold a hearing on the appeal within 30 days. No date has yet been set.

Kulakofsky said the county should have the ability to shut the plant down if community monitoring detects beryllium.

But Ursula Kramer, director of the county Department of Environmental Quality, said it wouldn't make a difference if the community monitoring were part of the permit.

The county is constrained by federal requirements, and there are no federal standards for beryllium in the environment, just for the amount of emissions measured at the smokestack, she said.

Kramer said there are advantages to the voluntary arrangement. The county will run the monitoring program and use an independent laboratory. If it were in the permit, the company would run the monitoring.

Kramer said the community monitoring program will help the county figure out if the beryllium found at Sunnyside is naturally occurring or coming from the plant, and will provide an extensive record of any rise or fall in levels.

"Beryllium is naturally occurring so we wouldn't expect to never find it," Kramer said. "We're looking for information that will help us track what might be coming from the plant."

Kulakofsky also criticized the permit for giving the company 72 hours to report violations, not requiring filters on all vents and requiring testing of smokestack emissions just once a year. The company has tested four times a year for the last two years, but that testing was voluntary.

"We need to make sure the permit is strict, as it should be, and protective of public health, which it is not," he said.

Kramer said the permit is "light years" ahead of the previous permit. The permit focuses not just on smokestack emissions but on eliminating other sources of emissions, such as vents, doors and ducts.

It guarantees county inspectors access to records and information about plant operations.

Kramer said the company has 72 hours to file a formal report but must provide notice within 24 hours.

The reason for not requiring filters is that the filters could clog and break if a large amount of beryllium powder were spilled, Kramer said. The permit instead requires that the vents be shut down immediately in case of a spill.

Kramer said the county could not force the company to test four times a year, but it also doesn't see the need to. Tests over the last two years have not found beryllium at detectable levels.

Company representatives could not be reached. In the past, they said the plant is already in compliance with many of the new requirements.