March 10, 2022: Proposals to impose tighter regulations on the US lead battery industry could see firms facing “significant” extra costs — with no tangible environmental benefits, industry leaders told Batteries International on March 7.
The warning came after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule that would impose new air emissions controls for lead acid battery manufacturers, including more stringent lead emission limits.
Battery Council International executive vice president, Roger Miksad, said the industry body was “seriously concerned about several elements of the rule, which appear likely to impose significant compliance costs on this industry, but without achieving any meaningful reduction in broader community air quality.
“The lead battery manufacturing industry already has some of the most well-controlled processes of any industry, accounting for less than 1% of lead emissions nationwide,” Miksad told Batteries International.
Stringent limits
Miksad revealed that BCI is conducting an in-depth analysis of the proposed rule — and working with its members to “fully understand its potential impacts”.
He said BCI expected to provide a formal response to the EPA before the agency’s April 25 deadline for comments.
Highlights of the proposed rule, published in the US Federal Register on February 23, are more stringent lead emission limits for grid casting, paste mixing, and lead reclamation operations under both the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants — for new and existing sources — and fresh New Source Performance Standards for lead acid battery facilities that started construction, reconstruction or modification after February 23.
The EPA acknowledged that only one of the country’s 40 lead battery plants had violated the lead National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
Performance testing
However, the proposed updated standards include a tougher 0.1 milligrams (mg) per dry standard cubic meter (mg/dscm) for paste mixing operations at large facilities — defined as facilities with the capacity to process an amount equal to or greater than 150 tons of lead in one day.
A more stringent 0.04 mg/dscm limitation for lead from grid casting operations (down from 0.4 mg/dscm) and a more stringent 0.45 mg/dscm limitation for lead from lead reclamation facilities (down from 4.5 mg/dscm).
In addition, the EPA is calling for performance testing once every five years to demonstrate compliance.
Tests would include work practices to minimize emissions of fugitive lead dust, plus more frequent inspections of fabric filters, bag leak detection systems for facilities “above a certain size and clarification of activities that are considered to be lead reclamation activities”.
