On October 10th, 2001, the city of Omaha held a town hall meeting on Omaha Steel Castings (OSC), which was attended by representatives of the Kansas City Environmental Protection Agency, Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, Douglas County Health Department, OSC, the City and concerned citizens. At this session officials declared that OSC is not a major source of hazardous air pollutants (HAPS). However, subsequent follow-up reveals that OSC is a major source after all.

According to the Kansas City EPA office, OSC is one of two steel foundries in the US that is a major source of HAPs. To quality as a major source, a factory must have the potential to emit at least 10 tons of one HAP or 25 tons of a combination of HAPs per year. OSC's recent air permit application estimated their combined HAPs emissions potential at 43 tons, down from 132 tons in 1996. Estimates were based on types and amounts of materials used in the manufacturing process.

Currently, we are circulating a petition to ask authorities to do increased monitoring of OSC's emissions since nobody knows for sure just what HAPs are being released or in what quantity. The petition also requests air modeling to determine which geographic areas of the city are most heavily impacted by the HAPs. HAPs could be benzene, toluene and lead to name a few.

If you want to express your concern regarding the OSC HAPs issue, please sign the petition you find in this publication. Fold it in half and staple it, affix a 34 cent stamp and return it to Frances Swanson by March 1st, 2002. If you are interested in also doing more, please call Carole Larson at (402) 558-4663 or Dorothy Lanphier at (402) 554-1108.

This article originally appeared in the February, 2002, issue of the Misouri Valley Sierran (vol. 29, no. ?, p. 1)