JUDGE RULES TIRE-BURNING REQUIRES EIR : ENVIRONMENTALISTS FIGHT MOJAVE PLANT'S FUEL PLAN.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer A state appellate court A court having jurisdiction to review decisions of a trial-level or other lower court. An unsuccessful party in a lawsuit must file an appeal with an appellate court in order to have the decision reviewed. sided with environmentalists seeking to force a Mojave cement plant to complete an environmental impact report before burning tires as a supplemental fuel. The Appellate Court for the 5th District upheld a Bakersfield Superior Court judge's ruling that Kern County officials erred in granting a tire-burning permit to the California Portland Cement portland cement Binding agent of present-day concrete. It is a finely ground powder made by burning and grinding a limestone mixed with clay or shale. Its inventor, Joseph Aspdin (1799–1855), patented the process in 1824, naming the material for its resemblance to the Co. plant nine miles Nine Miles is a reggae "band" started by Yoshiaki Manabe (真鍋吉明) of The Pillows. The name Nine Miles comes from the name of the town in which Bob Marley grew up in Jamaica.
The company and Kern County Air Pollution Control District had appealed the December 1995 ruling by Judge Roger Randall. ``We're delighted,'' said Stormy Williams, a member of Southern Kern Residents Against Pollution - one of the environmental groups seeking the EIR EIR n. popular acronym for environmental impact report, required by many states as part of the application to a county or city for approval of a land development or project. (See: environmental impact report) . ``We didn't feel Kern County included the public enough in the decision to burn tires.'' Calls to the company were not returned. The attorney representing Kern County could not be reached for comment. The legal battle centers on a June 1994 decision by the Kern County APCD APCD Associate Peace Corps Director APCD Air Pollution Control District APCD Associação Paulista de Cirurgiões Dentistas (São Paulo, Brazil) APCD Air Pollution Control Device APCD Assistant Peace Corps Director to allow the company to use old tires as up to 3.6 percent of its fuel supply. The plant now runs on coal. A lawsuit was filed on behalf of SKRAP, Tehachapi Residents Against Pollution, Desert Citizens Against Pollution and Citizens for a Better Environment. The lawsuit charged the permit violated the California Environmental Quality Act The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a California law (California Public Resources Code section 21000 et seq.) passed in 1970, shortly after the Federal Government passed the National Environmental Policy Act. because no environmental impact was prepared. The citizens groups believe tire-burning operations pose a health threat through increased emissions of toxic chemicals such as dioxin dioxin Aromatic compound, any of a group of contaminants produced in making herbicides (e.g., Agent Orange), disinfectants, and other agents. Their basic chemical structure consists of two benzene rings connected by a pair of oxygen atoms; when substituents on the rings are and heavy metals heavy metals, n.pl metallic compounds, such as aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and nickel. Exposure to these metals has been linked to immune, kidney, and neurotic disorders. such as lead. Cement industry officials said air emissions by plants that burn tires are comparable to what the plants had produced in the past. There are at least 17 cement kilns in the United States that use tires as fuel, officials said. Cement plants consider tires an ideal fuel source in part because a scrap tire has 15,000 British thermal units British thermal unit, abbr. Btu, unit for measuring heat quantity in the customary system of English units of measurement, equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water at its maximum density [which occurs at a temperature of 39. per pound compared to 12,000 British thermal units for each pound of coal. County officials had argued that determining whether a project requires an environmental impact report depends on whether the decision to approve it is a discretionary one or an administrative one. A discretionary decision requires a judgment on a project's effects. An administrative decision needs only a determination whether the proposed operation meets existing regulations. For example, a zoning change to allow a business in a residential area is a discretionary decision. Issuance of a building permit to construct a store in a business zone is an administrative decision. County officials had argued that the tire-burning project did not require an environmental impact report because it complies with Air Pollution Control District regulations. Randall ruled that the project required both administrative and discretionary actions and is subject to the California Environmental Quality Act. |
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