In the basements of office and apartment buildings, and in pulp and paper plants, chemical refineries, and other factories across the United States, tens of thousands of commercial and industrial boilers burn natural gas, wood, or coal to produce steam for heating or to pressurize machinery. In the process, they emit mercury, lead, cadmium, hydrogen chloride, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, dioxin and furans, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a regulation this spring to reduce those pollutants by 50 percent. You have until Monday, August 23 to weigh in.

I have one in my basement. A little boiler that burns natural gas and heats water for the radiators that warm my house all winter. My boiler is tiny, and while it probably could use to be updated to a more efficient model, it burns a very small amount of fuel compared to the thousands of industrial and commercial boilers across the country that do similar jobs, most of which are much older than my little 10-year-old furnace.

Pollution from Commercial and Industrial Boilers

Workers and communities are exposed to toxic air pollution from boilers used to heat and power factories, campuses, and industrial facilities around the country. Because commercial and industrial boilers are enormous investments for the companies that run them, they are replaced very infrequently. The average boiler in the United States is 40 years old, which means so is its pollution control technology.

Mercury and lead can adversely affect developing brains – including effects on IQ, learning, and memory. Cadmium, dioxin, furans, formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid are known to cause cancer or other adverse health effects in adults and children.

Enter Environmental Protection Agency and the Boiler MACT Rule

This spring, the EPA proposed changes to the pollution control technology rules that, if implemented, would dramatically reduce the hazardous chemicals boilers emit.

BACT, MACT*, ack!. . . There are a lot of acronyms but the basic message is: EPA reviewed the available technology and is convinced that operators of these boilers could be doing better to prevent pollution, so EPA is going to require them to do so.

The agency estimates that their rule would save Americans $41 billion in health-related benefits without resulting in overall job losses. But industry and their friends in Congress are not happy. More than a hundred members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed a letter asking EPA to weaken its proposed standards.

Tell EPA to Stand Strong and Clean Up Hazardous Pollution from Boilers

Head over to the Sierra Club’s action site and send an official comment to EPA supporting the proposed regulation. The official comment period ends Monday August 23, so don’t delay.

*Maximum Available Control Technology (MACT). Best Available Control Technology (BACT). Yes, to the average reader, those would sound similar, but in the rather complex world of U.S. clean air regulations, they are not. MACT is stronger.