By Stephen Smoot
“We’re stepping into a void. No one knows. They’re kind of guessing.”
Kyle Apple from Greer Lime recently shared this observation during a meeting with Jim Linsenmeyer from the West Virginia Department of Economic Development. Part of the larger network of Greer companies that include other stone products, media outlets, and even tourist attractions, Greer Lime employs 70 at its production facility in Riverton.
Its kiln also uses coal mined from Kanawha County as its fuel
Apple explained that the United States Environmental Protection Agency had recently targeted the lime industry. Last January, the EPA “added four new classes of pollutants they hadn’t regulated before,” he said.
The problem, as he explained it, lies in the fact that “they don’t have a lot of data,” but pushed the new rules anyway.
Pressure from the federal government comes at a time when the American lime industry has encountered increasing challenges. “The demand for lime is increasing. We’re all basically sold out,: Apple said.
The substance comes from rock containing concentrations of calcium carbonate. In West Virginia, vast swaths of limestone underlies many of the mountains and valleys along the Virginia border. Distilleries prize the special qualities of the water contained in its caverns while a number of industries find the finished product vital.
At Riverton, Greer Lime mines calcium carbonate from under the ground. It then crushes the stone to manageable size. It is useful to many economic sectors in this state, but other industries require that it be cooked in a kiln at 2,500 degrees F until it is transformed to calcium oxide.
Lime has a broad variety of uses. The steel industry, for example, adds lime to molten metal during the production process. Lime forces impurities to the surface and contributes to a better quality steel. Asphalt that includes lime stands more resistant to wear and tear and the effects of weathering.
In agriculture, judicious use of lime helps to improve the quality of the soil. First, it removes some acidity and encourages better growth. This leads to the most efficient soil use of nitrogen, phosphates, and potassium. Efficient use of these substances helps to improve environmental impact, according to some researchers.
The environmental realm has seen the fastest expansion in the use of lime. Lime absorbs sulfur dioxide from smokestacks, leaving the escaping vapors less laden with pollutants. It also removes impurities from drinking water and reduces the impact of sewage and sludge.
While most of the lime exits West Virginia and brings back out of state dollars, the operation does sell to the new Clorox plant in Berkeley County.
Apple reports that US Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley More Capito, as well as Representatives Alex Mooney and Carol Miller, have worked on the industry’s behalf, saying of the state’s federal delegation, “they get it.”
Regulations on industry are not necessarily bad, but ought to be based on sound research instead of guesswork or the idea that “something must be done.” While jobs are at stake, so is the health of an industry fundamental to agriculture, manufacturing, and efforts to reduce pollution in air and streams while keeping consumers of drinking water safe.