“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.