The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has approved our plan to modernize the existing Lafarge Ravena plant. This is a critical and exciting step that will allow us to upgrade our operation, protect and create jobs, and further improve the overall environmental performance of the facility.

The DEC accepted Lafarge’s Final Environmental Impact Statement on July 9 and issued the permits on July 19.

We would like to thank the public, advocates, and community and business leaders for their widespread support throughout this effort.

Renovating the Ravena plant will make it the most advanced cement facility in New York State, and keep us competitive in the future. For three years we have worked weith the DEC and the community to make this
project the best that it can be.

In 2008, we submitted a proposal to replace our existing wet process cement kilns with a cleaner, more efficient, single dry process cement kiln, to the DEC.

The new process will reduce specific air emissions and add continuous monitoring systems, ensuring compliance with stringent emission limits. The dry kiln technology will also reduce fuel use and produce less solid waste, while using less water, and allowing zero wastewater discharges. Our new facility will be, simply put, even more efficient.

The modernization project is anticipated to protect the 180 existing union and non-union jobs at the Ravena plant, while creating nearly 800 additional temporary jobs during construction.

The new facility is scheduled for completion in 2014, following the formal approval of the project by the Lafarge North America Board of Directors.

The permit documents can be viewed here.

Hard copies of the documents are also available at the Coeyman’s, Stuyvesant, Chatham, Kinderhook, Schodack, and New Baltimore town halls and the Kinderhook Memorial, North Chatham Free, RCS Community, Chatham Public, and Valatie Free libraries.

We promised to make the posters featured at our Information Fairs (held in Albany, Columbia, and Rensselaer counties this fall) available.

We’ve created a page where you can now access all 13 of the posters, complete with captions.

Many of the visitors who attended our Information Fairs found them to be very helpful. Hopefully you will too.

A few people attending last week’s DEC public information meeting requested copies of the presentation we made about our proposed Ravena Plant Modernization Project.

We thought it might be helpful to post that presentation here for easy viewing and downloading.

Also, the DEC agreed to let us post their presentation from the meeting.

You can continue to access both of these presentations using the DEC’s public information meeting link found in the navigation bar on the left side of this page.
The DEC’s presentation came in two parts. One on the regulatory process and the other on the air permit. We combined them here for easier access.

If you have any questions about Lafarge Ravena’s presentation, please contact us at lafargeravenafacts@lafarge-na.com.

The modernization project hit a big milestone.

The DEC publicly released the Notice of Completion Application for Lafarge’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). This is a key step in the approval process for our proposed modernization project.

Once modernized, our new plant will be equipped with state-of-the-art air pollution control technology that will improve air quality and continuous monitoring systems to ensure compliance with stringent emission limits. The new dry kiln technology we propose to install will also reduce fuel use, produce less solid waste, use less water from the Hudson River, and allow for zero wastewater discharges, making the new facility even more efficient.

The DEC also announced dates for the public information session for our proposed plant modernization project (December 8, 2010), and public comment hearing (January 21, 2011).

Our website is currently hosting the modernization project DEIS and draft permits for viewing and download by the public.

Check them out by clicking here.

Ever wonder how cement is made? Maybe you’ve heard about our exciting plans to modernize our Ravena cement plant?

Well here’s a video that takes you on a tour of the cement-making process at a different Lafarge cement plant using newer dry-kiln technology. It’s the same technology we’re proposing for the Ravena plant in our modernization project. Click here for more information on that — now, to the video…