ALCOA, which operates Australia’s largest aluminum recycling plant at Yennora is not planning to increase hydrogen chloride emissions only its emissions limit.

It is presently limited to releasing an average of 50 mg per cm of the gas each hour from its rotary furnace a limit imposed by the Land and Environment Court in 2006 but the company has asked Holroyd Council to double that limit.

It said that because emissions from the furnace are unpredictable, it needs the higher limit to avoid breaching the 50 mg per cm average which the Office of Environment and Heritage records show it did twice in 2010.

A company spokeswoman said that when averaged over one hour, rather than over the 4 hour cycle, there will occasionally be spikes above 50 mg per cubic meter depending on the contaminants in the scrap aluminum and where in the melting cycle the one hour sample is taken.

The request to change the emission limit averaged over one hour to 100 mg per cubic meter is to ensure compliance across the four-hour melting cycle it is not a request to increase emissions. The increase has been approved by the office and is in line with state regulations.

Emissions are expected to stay at the reported 2009 to 2010 level of 14,000 kilogram per year. Former Holroyd mayor and mathematician Mr John Brodie is not convinced that the present limit is insufficient.

He said that it can already accommodate spikes in emissions an argument councillor Ross Grove described as fearmongering at the last council meeting. Council will decide on the matter after a report is returned in the coming weeks, although Cr John Perry is content to let the Land and Environment Court decide.

He added that Alcoa bypassed council to get approval in the first place and they should go back to the court and get their ruling on it.

(Sourced from parramatta-advertiser.whereilive.com.au)