2011 in Review: Exide meets the public, details future plant upgrades

Editor's note: The Dec. 30 edition of the Frisco Enterprise contains the top 10 stories of 2011. These stories represent the most notorious moments in the city, state and the nation.

Exide officials shared information about technology upgrades and answered questions from the public at an April meeting at the Embassy Suites in Frisco.

Joe Dowd, vice president and general manager of Exide's North American recycling division, said with the new technology upgrades, the plant is on pace to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's new National Ambient Air Quality Standards by November 2012.

"By November 2012, we will meet the new standard," Dowd said. "That is a very difficult new standard to meet but we expect to achieve it."

In 2008, the EPA reduced the amount of lead emissions allowed from 1.5 micrograms per cubic liter of air to 0.5 micrograms per cubic liter of air. The ten-fold reduction caused Exide, which was in compliance before the change, to become non-compliant and resulted in a 1.3-square-mile nonattainment area to be created around the plant.

In an effort to reduce lead emissions, Dowd said Exide is undergoing a $15 million, multi-step upgrade at its Frisco battery recycling plant. The first step, which involves changing out the existing filter bags in the plant's bag houses with new Teflon models, should be finished this month. Dowd described the bag houses as working similarly to the bags on vacuum cleaners. Air from the plant is filtered through the bags to remove lead particles.

Other upgrades planned at the facility include repairing any seals or holes in the roof and walls of the plant, replacing the equipment that feeds the furnace with a model that will help reduce emissions and installing a misting system in the furnace area. Plant Manager Don Barrar said the misting system increases the humidity, which results in less lead particles being suspended in the air. HEPA filters are also being installed in the bag houses where feasible.

Another major upgrade involves fully enclosing the furnace and battery breaking areas inside buildings, which will then be put under negative pressure. Dowd said all air from these enclosures will be filtered through bag houses, preventing lead from reaching the atmosphere.

"When our work is done, we are going to be capturing 98 percent of fugitive emissions," Dowd said. "Approximately 90 percent of the total emissions will be reduced from the 2008 levels."

After the presentation, Dowd, Barrar and Dr. Kirby Tyndall, a toxicologist, answered questions from the public.

Some attendees asked questions as simple as wondering how Exide gets an agricultural exemption on some of its property, while others made emotional pleas, begging Exide to leave Frisco for the health and safety of the city's children.

One of those who asked Exide to leave was Mike Acquisto, who said his granddaughter was born with a deformed leg, something he said may have had to do with lead emissions. He asked why Exide would want to be in a city where they were not wanted and asked them why they didn't build a new plant elsewhere, rather than spending money to upgrade the Frisco facility.

Dowd said he saw no need to build a new facility, since the upgrades made over the years, as well as the upgrades currently being completed, will allow the Frisco facility to be "world-class."

Joy West, one of the founders of the group Get the Lead Out of Frisco, asked Dowd why emissions were not being reduced to a lower level. Dowd said that reducing emissions further is not possible with current technology. He did say that Exide is always willing to look at new technology and will do what it takes to keep emissions as low as they can.

Two of the most emotional speakers were Shiby Mathew and Janie Iscaro. Mathew, a mother of two who said she lives near the intersection of Teel and Main streets, said all four members of her family have elevated blood-lead levels. She said she knew nothing of Exide when she moved to Frisco. She said she blames the plant for her family's test results.

Iscaro spoke about several cases of rare cancers, including the rare bone cancer Ewing's sarcoma, that have been observed in Frisco. A study released last week by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) didn't assign blame for the cancers, but said the number of rare cancers in Frisco is high.

"Although there is little evidence of elevated cancer in previous years using population estimates from the 2005 American Community Survey, the three desmoplastic small round cell tumor cases from 2006-2010 appear high for this area," the study said. "The Texas Cancer Registry reports that there are approximately three to eight cases of DSRCT per year in Texas. However, because of the complexity of diagnosing DSRCT, many cases are likely misdiagnosed or reported generically as a sarcoma. This study is unable to determine if this is a chance event or if there is a commonality between the cases. Not all recent cases of Ewing's sarcoma in Frisco have been confirmed but there is some evidence that the final number may be greater than expected."

Iscaro said she personally knows three people in Frisco who have been diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, and recently heard of another girl who died from the disease. She said all four patients attended school near the Exide plant.

"I am here to speak for these girls because they cannot be here themselves," Iscaro said. "I am not sure of the cause of the cancer, but it is not a coincidence that the four girls all had Ewing's sarcoma. I am not going to stop speaking out and attending meetings until Exide is gone from Frisco."

Tyndall said Ewing's sarcoma is rare, but there has been no link of lead emissions and the disease. This was backed up by the DSHS report, which said, "studies of children with Ewing tumors have not found links to radiation, chemicals or any other environmental exposures."

Even if there is no proof that lead caused the rare cancers, the majority of the speakers at the meeting asked Exide to relocate from Frisco. Val Maso, a co-founder of Get the Lead Out of Frisco, summed up the thoughts of the group during her comments to Dowd.

"We care about our children and we care about our families," Maso said. "No amount of lead emission is acceptable to me as a mother ... The only thing that is going to make us happy is for you to be gone. I don't get why you don't think it is in your best interests to move out of town ... Lead is a neurotoxin and we don't want poison in our dirt and in our air."

The preceding story was written by Bill Conrad and appeared on April 15.

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