Helena’s facility in Mesquite.
Today in Mesquite, the Environmental Improvement Board will host a public hearing to discuss the existing air quality permit for our company’s warehouse in Mesquite. The hearing is the next step in a process that began two years ago to cancel the permit.
We are taking this course because our warehouse in Mesquite has never produced emissions at a level that require one. Throughout this process, several questions have come up in the community, and below is information about the most frequent ones.
Why doesn’t Helena need an air permit?
A review of the regulation’s requirements has the answer. According to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), a company needs to operate under an air permit if it has the potential to release 10 pounds per hour or 25 tons per year of total suspended particulate (TSP), or “dust.” Environmental experts from Albuquerque have performed scientific calculations that show that Helena has never released and does not have the potential to release this amount of dust.
In fact, with conservative estimates from NMED experts and based on actual readings and air monitoring and modeling, Helena’s emission rates are 27 percent below air permit requirements. Some news stories have suggested that Helena is relying on the Center for Toxicology and Health (CTEH) studies to come to this conclusion – this is not true.
Will Helena still be regulated by NMED?
Even if Helena operates without an air quality permit, Helena will still be regulated. Helena is asking NMED to convert its Air Quality Permit into a Notice of Intent (NOI).
Despite Secretary Ron Curry’s statements implying that Helena cannot terminate its permit, the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) website has a FAQs page that specifically says that NMED allows companies to convert from operating under an air quality permit to operating under an NOI. We believe this is the framework that applies to our warehouse.
NMED is not treating Helena fairly
Throughout this process, NMED has not treated Helena fairly. NMED is required under regulation to make a decision on a NOI application within 30 days. NMED took 18 months to deny Helena’s application.
NMED has admitted that all the calculations that it performed before denying Helena’s permit showed that Helena was below the thresholds needed to operate with an air quality permit. NMED asked Helena to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to pave its roads to reduce dust, but now NMED will not give Helena credit for paving its roads. NMED told Helena to use certain calculations, and is now telling Helena it cannot use those calculations without any logical reason.
Earlier this year, a judge in Santa Fe found that NMED was wrongfully withholding documents from us. During this process, NMED has struggled to find reasons to deny our request. We are not asking to be exempt from regulation. We only are asking that we are regulated fairly and based on factual information about the nature of our operations.
The air quality in Mesquite is good according to NMED studies
It is also important to understand that Helena’s air quality is good, according to standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Through its monitoring, NMED has found that the only possible air pollutant of concern at Helena’s warehouse is windblown dust.
Using EPA air quality standards, NMED studied the amount of dust in the air in Mesquite from June 2005 through June 2009. NMED placed air monitors at two locations in Mesquite: the Mesquite Water District and the Mesquite Elementary School. According to NMED’s air monitors, Mesquite’s air quality is considered “Good” according to EPA standards. NMED’s air monitors also show that Mesquite’s air quality was “Good” according to EPA standards on the days that NMED alleged that Helena had violated its air quality permit conditions.
The permit is creating confusion
Helena’s permit was obtained in 2005, following some improvements to the equipment at our warehouse. Helena agreed to operate under a permit in an effort to work with environmental officials and reassure the local community that our company operates safely.
In hindsight, it appears that agreeing to operate under a permit had the opposite effect. NMED’s intense oversight and mischaracterization of our facility only served to create confusion among our neighbors and cloud our performance.
One clear case of confusion is the set of alleged violations from 2007. In April 2007, NMED inspected Helena’s warehouse and submitted alleged violations, highlighting the need to improve the warehouse’s recordkeeping activities. In no case, however, did NMED allege that Helena violated the emission limits in its air permit. To this day, there have not been any allegations that Helena is releasing dust into the neighborhood in violation of its air permit or any New Mexico laws or regulations.
NMED admitted that at least one of its allegations—that Helena could not operate with its doors open—was baseless. After litigating the issue for over a year, NMED voluntarily dismissed the allegation, admitting that NMED’s records showed that NMED’s permit allowed Helena to operate with the doors open.
The public discussion of these allegations also created unnecessary concern among the community because the context of these allegations has been misrepresented and misinterpreted.
We are asking to be regulated fairly
For us, this public hearing is an important step because it allows a transparent, public discussion of this topic. We know the community has been closely following this issue, and this forum offers the opportunity to understand the reasons why be believe an air permit is not required.
It is important to remember what our warehouse does and does not do. We do not manufacture chemicals or fertilizer. We bag and blend fertilizer for area farmers, our state parks, and our school districts. This matters to us because undue regulations put undue pressures on our ability to continue doing what we do best: getting our products to area farmers when they need them.
This process also allows us to continue informing the public about the activities that occur at our warehouse. Once people get to see what we do and how we do it, the reality of our operations comes in direct contrast with many of the mischaracterizations of Helena that have been circulated.
Rodrigue is the vice president for Helena’s Southern Business Unit.