Contact: Christi Dixon
314-469-3500
cdixon@standingpr.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DOE RUN ACHIEVES AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARD
FOR FIRST EIGHT MONTHS OF 2009
Company Shares First Eight Months of Data under Revised Reporting Requirements
ST. LOUIS (Sept. 21, 2009) – The Doe Run Company announced today that, during the first eight months of the year, all of the ambient air monitors near the company’s Herculaneum, Mo., smelter, successfully met the current National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for lead of 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air (ug/m3), which is currently applicable to the area. These results were tabulated based on the new reporting procedure (which became effective in January 2009), requiring the data be measured in a rolling three-month average and reported monthly. The previous procedure averaged data over each calendar quarter.
“We’ve established a companywide environmental task management system that helped us make a smooth transition to new reporting,” explained Aaron Miller, environmental management coordinator for Doe Run. “The Herculaneum team has also done a fantastic job of maintaining internal processes that are designed to improve our environmental performance.”
Doe Run has been in attainment with the NAAQS standard for all of 2009, due in part to the completion of 60-plus engineering and administrative control measures outlined in the 2007 State Implementation Plan (SIP).
Recent changes to the NAAQS for lead
In October 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted a new NAAQS for lead, lowering the acceptable level of lead in ambient air to 0.15 ug/m3 and designating that measurements be reported as a rolling three-month average. The previous standard was 1.5 ug/m3 averaged over a calendar quarter.
The timetable for attainment of the new NAAQS varies based on two categories of sites: Sites “with existing monitors in place and sufficient data” must demonstrate attainment with the new standard by January 2016. Sites “without existing monitoring networks or insufficient data” must demonstrate attainment with the new standard for the first time by January 2017. The Herculaneum site falls into the first category.
According to data collected by Doe Run and reported quarterly, the company’s rolling three- month average of its air monitors in Herculaneum ranged from 0.07 to 1.21 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air. The eight air monitors are identified as: High School; Bluff, Sherman, Church Street, City Hall, North Cross, South Cross and Mott Street.
-more-
Doe Run Achieves NAAQS for Lead, page 2
About The Doe Run Company
Based in St. Louis, The Doe Run Company is a privately held natural resources company and the largest integrated lead producer in the Western Hemisphere. Dedicated to environmentally responsible mineral and metal production, Doe Run operates one of the world’s largest, single-site lead recycling facilities, located in Boss, Mo. The Doe Run Company and its subsidiaries deliver products and services necessary to provide power, protection and convenience. Doe Run has operations in Missouri, Washington and Arizona. For more information, visit www.doerun.com.
# # #