Missouri Charcoal-Makers Agree to Clean Their Kilns

For decades, Missouri’s charcoal industry has produced 80% of the nation’s barbecue fuel in a crude process as old as the log cabin, cooking up the blackened wood in giant kilns that billow forth columns of black, acrid smoke.

Now, Missouri charcoal makers have finally been tugged into the 20th century--agreeing, in a deal reached with state and federal regulators, to end one of the most visible examples of open-country air pollution.

Under the broad outlines of the accord reached last month by Missouri Department of Natural Resources officials and representatives of three of the state’s largest charcoal makers, most of the state’s 374 kilns will install anti-pollution devices over the next seven years.

The majority of the state’s charcoal kilns are based in the Ozark Mountains. On days when the ovens are operating, a dark pall often drapes the rolling landscape, leaving behind a residue of gritty soot. “The smoke will sit on the ground for miles,” said David Hawkins, a farmer in rural Caulfield, a south Missouri town.

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The charcoal industry had been able to ignore Missouri air quality rules for years under an exemption granted by influential allies in the state General Assembly. But the growing clout of anti-pollution forces in the Legislature and a toughened stance by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency served as the “handwriting on the wall” that charcoal firms would have to control emissions from their kilns, said David Shorr, Missouri natural resources director.

“It took five years of discussions to get to this point,” said Shorr. “But we wanted them to comply voluntarily and not have to be dragged into it.”

Not all of the state’s charcoal makers use the open-air burning “Missouri-style” kilns blamed for much of the air pollution in the Ozarks. But after fending off regulators’ criticism for years, kiln operators finally agreed to install pollution-fighting “afterburners” because, industry officials say, of the public’s worsening perception of their industry. And at least 64 kilns that are simply to old to modify will be closed down as part of the deal.

“It was partly government pressure,” acknowledged Eric Peters, a spokesman for the Missouri Forest Products Assn. “But it’s also because this industry wants to be seen as cooperative and proactive.”

The settlement still requires more work: Legislators must weigh in with a bill--rejected earlier this year by Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan--that would set stricter air quality standards for charcoal kilns and provide tax relief for firms buying pollution-control equipment. And the agreement also will need to be vetted by the EPA to ensure it adheres to federal air guidelines.

But Shorr said he expects the governor will back the agreement when legislation is resubmitted. And despite ongoing concerns about how charcoal firms will comply with federal pollution reporting requirements, EPA environmental scientist Josh Tapp said the agency is pleased with the accord.

“We think this is a very significant step in reducing emissions in the Ozarks,” Tapp said.

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Last fall, the EPA ended years of stalemate with the charcoal industry by warning one large producer, West Plains Charcoal, that emissions from its kilns in the town of Moody vastly exceeded federal air quality standards.

Wayne Leidwanger, the EPA’s air planning chief in the agency’s Kansas City office, said measurements taken from the Moody kilns were “some of the highest we’ve ever seen in the country”--surpassing even air particle pollution readings taken on bad air days in Los Angeles.

Although Tapp said that regulators had not yet decided whether to stand down from their toughened monitoring of Ozarks air pollution, all parties indicated this week that when the deal goes into effect, any cases against kiln owners will likely be ended.

“Our expectation,” Peters said, “is that any pending regulatory enforcement would be considered moot.”

While negotiations are continuing, both regulators and industry officials say they hope to have all details worked out by the end of September. “It’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure,” Tapp said. “This is the big step we wanted to see.”