Council: Cement purchase changes will reduce emissions

Thursday, May 24, 2007
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
dlevinthal@dallasnews.com

It may not instantly scrub Dallas' notoriously smoggy skies of
pollutants, but a change is the city's cement purchasing procedures is
a key step in reducing industrial emissions both locally, and perhaps
nationwide, city leaders say.

The City Council late Wednesday voted to direct construction
contractors to include the price of "dry kiln"-processed cement in
their bid packages to the city. Cement produced in dry kilns generally
produces less total pollution compared to traditional "wet kilns."

"This is a giant step forward for us to tackle our [nitrous oxide]
problem. It's going to be the beginning of a national trend," Dallas
Mayor Laura Miller said. "We can start buying from clean plants and
make it an incentive for businesses to operate and build clean plants
that we'll buy from."

City staff will spend the next several weeks crafting rules for cement
purchasing, said Mark Duebner, Dallas' director of business
development and procurement.

Mr. Duebner expects that the city puts between 150 and 200
construction bids per year that would be affected by the change. It
may take a year or more for longer-term purchasing contracts to come
up for re-bidding under the new rules, he added.

The city will review the new rules in nine months to determine if any
need adjusting, such as a provision to allow contractors to submit
presumably cheaper, secondary bids to the city that may include the
price of wet kiln cement built into them.

Eventually, Dallas should begin supporting aggregate purchasing of
cement, or even energy that rewards plants that produce relatively low
emissions, Ms. Miller said.

The mayor added that she'll urge cities involved in the Texas Cities
for Clean Air Coalition, which have fought for the past year to
prevent TXU Corp. from building new, traditional-style coal-fired
power plants, to adopt similar cement-purchasing practices.

"We'll start to reach out to other cities soon to see if they're
interested in joining us," Mr. Deubner said.

Cement companies in nearby Midlothian could most be affected by the
rule change, particularly the Texas Industries, which uses one dry
kiln among its five. The Ash Gove Cement Company does not use dry
kilns at all, although company officials say their wet kilns feature
emission-reducing technology.

The council should give cement companies more say in the process,
which could significantly affect the Ash Grove Cement Company in
particular, company President Charles Wiedenhoft told the council.

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dallasblog.com
CITY CEMENT GETS CLEAN AND GREEN
by Austin Kilgore Wed, May 23, 2007, 05:46 PM

New buildings built by the city of Dallas will now be built of green
cement.

The Dallas City Council passed a first of its kind resolution changing
its bidding process to require construction bids to include the cost
of "dry processed" cement.

Cement produced in so-called dry kilns uses less energy and pollute less.

Base bids will now include dry cement, and a bidder can include an
alternate bid using cement produced from any source.

In addition, preference will be given to bids that include cement
produced in the cleanest process available.

State law allows preference when a standard is established giving the
council five percent leeway to grant bids that meet the standard.

Three cement companies in Midlothian are affected by the resolution.
One company, Wholecim, has two dry kilns. Texas Industries, the
largest company, has five kilns, one of which is dry.

The smallest plant, Ash Grove Cement Company, is the only Midlothian
facility that does not have a dry kiln. One of its three wet kilns
does have pollution reducing equipment installed.

Ash Grove President Charles Wiedenhoft objected to the resolution,
claiming it put his company at an unfair disadvantage, and the cement
industry did not have enough input on the regulations.

"Ash Grove is a good neighbor and a good operator," he said. "The
cement plants want to help, but must be included in the process."

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia made several unsuccessful attempts to
encourage the council to send the issue to the Environmental and
Transportation Committee for further revenue.

The resolution includes a review of its impact after 9 months.

Mayor Laura Miller said she hoped the Clean Air Cities Coalition she
helped form would consider adopting similar resolutions. The coalition
consists of various public entities including cities and school districts.

Miller, along with Councilmembers Pauline Medrano, Linda Koop, Leo
Chaney and Ron Natinsky and Mitchell Rasansky and Steve Salizar all
voted in favor of the measure.