Ministry of Environment is proposing exacting regulation for copper foundries
04-Jul-2012 Ministry of Environment – News
Cap limits included in project draft published in Official Ledger consider 95% capture rate of SO2 and As
María Ignacia Benítez, Minister of Environment, considered the publication of the draft of regulation limiting foundries emissions as a political goodwill demonstration.
The State officer emphasized that copper foundries are main sources of SO2 and As emissions, however, heitherto, no regulations exist to rule these emissions. “This Ministry of Environment has had political goodwill to undertake the mega emissions sources situation which is certainly proven with publication of the regulations to rule thermoelectric plant emissions and now these regulations on the foundries emissions”.
According to the State officer’ s opinion, purpose of these regulations is “protecting health of people and environment throughout the country”, because its application will reduce particulate material emissions as well SO2, As, and Hg emissions. The most important effect of these regulations is the 53% reduction of SO2 emissions and more than 37% of As emissions.
It must be noticed that in 2010 SO2 emissions in this industrial area reached almost 400 thousand tons, which if added to most of As emissions in the country “have impact not only over adjacent surroundings of these operations but also over regional scope and even beyond regional limits”, the Minister Benítez explained, and then added that “elaborating a regulation to be applied over foundries has been a priority for Ministry of Environment”.
As an example, Caletones Foundry emitted 128,000 tons of SO2 in 2010 equivalent to the complete thermoelectric power park in our country.
For this reason the regulation requirement will set annual emissions limits for SO2 and As for existing foundries. These limits consider a capture rate of 95% for SO2 and As with a 5-year deadline from publication date for full compliance.
Besides, new regulations impose limits to acid plant stack at 800 ppm SO2 for existing sources to be verified by continuous measuring. Compliance with regulations will be verified per schedule and will not allow exceeding 5% of hours per year. Consequently, all foundries must implement double contact acid plants which have proven to be much more efficient to remove SO2 from gases coming out from foundry.
Finally, regulations exact the implementation of operational measures to monitor particle material, SO2, and As emissions.
Ministry Benítez pointed out that citizenship participation in issues like this is important as she added that “with publication of project draft the 60-day public consultation process has been started. After this process is completed final project will be elaborated which we expect to submit to Council of Ministers for Sustainability by the end of this year. We are imprinting these regulations with urgency status”.
