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Northampton County committee reads resolution urging DEP to deny rollback of pollution controls at Stalkertown plant
Summary
A Northampton County committee read a resolution opposing Boozy UNIM’s request to loosen NOx and VOC controls at its Stalkertown cement facility, citing local asthma and ozone data; committee members announced plans to circulate a joint letter to the Pennsylvania DEP and to vote on the resolution at tonight’s council meeting.
Miss Keegan read a county resolution on Aug. 20 opposing a request by Boozy UNIM to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emission controls at the company’s cement facility in Stalkertown, Northampton County.
The resolution, read aloud at the Energy, Environment and Land Use Committee meeting, calls the request “not merely a technical permitting matter, but a matter of public health, environmental protection, and the quality of life of county residents,” and "strongly opposes the Booy Unic's request to reduce nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compound emission controls at its stalkertown facility," as the reading put it. It directs the clerk to transmit a certified copy to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the governor, and the county’s legislative delegation and takes effect upon adoption.
The document cites local public-health data: a child asthma hospitalization rate of 50.3 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents under age 18 for 2019–2021, characterization of the Lehigh Valley’s air quality in the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2025 report, and county-level NOx and VOC emission estimates used to frame the change as a cumulative pollution concern. The resolution also notes Northampton County’s investment in the Lehigh Valley Breathes monitoring effort and the deployment of air monitors across the region.
Committee members said they planned a parallel advocacy step: circulating a joint letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection urging denial of the permit revision and encouraging other council members to sign on. The committee did not take a vote at the Aug. 20 meeting; the reader said the resolution was on that evening’s full-council agenda for a vote.
Next steps: committee members said they would email council members seeking signatures on a joint letter to DEP and expected the full council to consider the resolution at its scheduled meeting tonight.
