Ecocem’s California plan meets environmental opposition

Irish manufacturer Ecocem's plans for a €45 million cement plant in California have run foul of locals who claim the project could have a major impact on the environment.

Ecocem is seeking permission for a $50 million (€45 million) grinding plant in Vallejo, close to San Francisco, in the group's first venture in the US.

However, locals are objecting to the plan, saying that the factory will lead to 300 truck journeys a day through a residential neighbourhood and will boost diesel and dust emissions in the area.

One activist, Peter Brooks, pointed out that 300 18-wheel trucks will pass through the neighbourhood, 24 hours a day, every day. "That's every six to 10 minutes, there will be no way that people can tolerate that," he said.

Residents also argue that the development means that a 40,000-tonne cargo ship will be parked in the city’s bay for six days a week unloading the slag that the plant will use as raw material.

Impact report

Opponents say that the City of Vallejo – the planning authority – published Ecocem’s environmental impact report on a holiday weekend, when few people would notice it.

It allowed 60 days to review a highly technical 700-page document, prompting fears that planners were attempting to fast-track the project.

Ecocem has pledged to employ people from the area. However, Mr Brooks said that the 25 jobs that the plant will create are not enough to offset its environmental impact.

Flour mill site

The “green cement” manufacturer’s US subsidiary,

Orcem Americas

, wants to build the plant on the site of an old flour mill in the city’s harbour.

The facility will grind furnace slag from iron smelting that is then used as a component in cement. The process cuts greenhouse gas emissions from normal cement manufacture by 90 per cent.

Ecocem’s chief executive, Donal O’Riain, said on Thursday that the company has been working on the Vallejo project for two years and he rejected claims that there were attempts to slip the environmental report under the radar.

He said that California requires the public be given 45 days to comment on a report of this nature. “At our own initiative we extended that by a further 15 days,” he said.

Orcem Americas president Steve Bryan predicted the bulk of the trucks would travel through the city between 3am and 3pm and said that the company would pledge to minimise any disruption to nearby neighbourhoods.