"Federal judges [Tuesday] rejected challenges from both industry and environmental groups to U.S. EPA's air standards for lead smelters."
"A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld EPA's January 2012 National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for secondary lead smelting.
There are 15 lead-smelting facilities across the country that primarily melt scrap material like batteries and recycle elemental lead and lead compounds. The process facilitates emissions of the potent neurotoxin, as well as other hazardous pollutants like cadmium and arsenic.
The standards were quickly challenged by the Association of Battery Recyclers as being too stringent, erroneously regulating elemental lead instead of lead compounds and inappropriately requiring continuous monitoring."
Jeremy P. Jacobs reports for Greenwire May 28, 2013.
