The New Year Will Usher in the Impact of The EPA’s Assault on Ammunition

Written on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 by Candice Lanier

At the end of the month, the final primary lead smelter in the United States will close down for good. This lead smelter, located in Herculaneum, Missouri, is owned and operated by the Doe Run Company and has existed in the same location since 1892.

It is currently the only smelter in the United States which can produce lead bullion from raw lead ore. Following production in Herculaneum, the lead bullion is sold to lead product producers, including ammunition manufactures, for use in conventional ammunition components. This would include projectiles, projectile cores, and primers.
So, why is the Herculaneum plant closing? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:
“About 145 employees of the Doe Run lead smelter [in Herculaneum, Missouri] learned they will lose their jobs at the end of December because of the plant’s closure, the Doe Run Co. said Wednesday. An additional 73 contractor jobs also will be eliminated.
The job cuts were expected. The plant, which has operated for more than a century and is the lone remaining lead smelter in the United States, announced in 2010 that it will cease operations at the end of this year.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the company ‘made a business decision’ to shut down the smelter instead of installing pollution control technologies needed to reduce sulfur dioxide and lead emissions as required by the Clean Air Act.”
In a document published on its website, the EPA explains that in order for Doe Run to continue its operations, the company would have to agree to pay “$65 million to correct violations of several environmental laws at 10 of its lead mining, milling and smelting facilities in southeast Missouri. The settlement also requires the company to pay a $7 million civil penalty.”
However, Doe Run issued a press release stating the fine and the required upgrades to its facilities were “too financially risky.”
How will this impact the United States?

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