"Oregon regulators say they will not support an exemption from federal pollution rules for a cement plant in Eastern Oregon that is one of the largest sources of mercury emissions in the nation.

Last month, a state Department of Environmental Quality official told The Oregonian newspaper the agency would seek a possible exemption for the cement plant near the rural community of Durkee in Baker County.

But in comments filed late Thursday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is finalizing the new mercury rules, DEQ Director Dick Pedersen stepped back from that pledge. "

The Associated Press had the story September 5, 2009. [2]