Mr. Matt Hale Director, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, Mail Code 5306P Washington, DC, 20460

March 31, 2009

Dear Mr. Hale:

We are the leadership team at CalStar Cement, in Newark, CA. We are writing to share some perspectives that we hope will be helpful as you consider and develop policy responses to the recent fly ash spill at TVA’s Kingston plant. While the mismanagement that led to that disaster was infuriating and the impact on the local envi ronment was severe, it is essential not to overreact with a policy response that could be even more harmful to the global environment.

CalStar is a Silicon Valley company focused on gr een building materials. With deep background
and credentials in the environmental movement , we are committed to developing new products that are energy efficient in their manufacture and help mitigate climate change when used in the place of traditional building ma terials. We are funded by Foundation Capital and EnerTech Capital, two of the most successful venture capital firms in the clean technology field.

After more than a year of intensive R&D, we will build our first factory this year to make bricks, concrete products and general use cement using fly ash from a We Energies Coal-Fired Power Plant in Wisconsin. Compared to conventional clay bricks, CalStar’s bricks require 80% less energy and emit 80% less CO 2 in their manufacture and incor porate up to 99% post-industrial by-products. Similarly, CalStar concrete produc ts use 80% less energy and emit 80% less CO 2 compared to conventional Portland cement conc rete. These breakthrough products are of great interest to architects, engineers and builders who are focused on green building.

With our company mission centered around environm ental stewardship and our initial focus on fly ash bricks, we have studied and learned a grea t deal about fly ash and its uses. Based on our scientific, technical, and marketing work, we believe three facts in particular merit your
attention:

CalStar Cement, Inc. 6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560 510.793.95001. Fly ash is widely acknowledged to be safe when incorporated into building materials and in other applications

2. Fly ash is currently the world’s most powerful tool for reducing the CO 2 footprint of cement, while also enhancing the quality and durability of concrete

3. Designating fly ash as a Hazardous Waste wo uld have a chilling effect on the use of fly ash in building materials, increasing our nation’s CO2 footprint, expanding landfill demand, and compromising the quality of our built environment.

We provide more detail on each of these points below.

1. Fly ash is widely acknowledged to be safe when used in cement and building
materials. Fly ash has been specified as a partial cement replacement and used in other building materials for over 50 years. Pion eered by Prof. PK Mehta of UC Berkeley among others, the addition of fly ash makes conc rete more durable and more reliable, and in many parts of the country less costly.

Many notable structures including the Free dom Tower and the de Young Museum have been built using concrete mixtures with up to 50% fly ash replacement for cement. CalTrans requires 25% fly ash blends in mo st of its mix designs. The U.S. Green Building Council encourages the use of fl y ash in its LEED rating system.

Numerous academic studies and publications by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, the El ectric Power Research Institute and others document the safety of fly ash when used in concrete and similar a pplications. Notably, leading environmental advocates also endorse the reuse of fly ash in concrete and other construction products. For example the Nati onal Resources Defense Council writes, “For some types of [coal combustion wastes], ther e are alternative uses as raw material for construction products such as concrete, plaster, and wallboard. When directed toward these ‘encapsulated uses’, the dangerous chemicals in the waste are not subject to erosion and leaching into the environment.” 1

CalStar’s R&D confirms these views. Our ra w materials and end products are subjected
to the strictest internal and external tes ting defined by USEPA, Ca lEPA, and others, and have been found safe in all dimensions at all stages of their life cycle.

2. Fly ash is currently the world’s most powerful tool for reducing the CO 2 footprint of cement, while also enhancing the quality and durability of concrete. Cement is one of the biggest single contri butors to greenhouse gas emissi ons in the world. Globally, cement manufacturing generates over 2.4 billion tons per year of CO 2 ; in the U.S., cement is responsible for over 100 million tons of CO 2 each year.

1 NRDC, “Dangerous Disposals: Keeping Coal Combustion Waste Out of Our Water Supply”, Natural

Resources Defense Council, 2007.

CalStar Cement, Inc. 6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560 510.793.9500The simplest and most efficient way to reduce Portland cement’s CO 2 footprint is to use less cement by substituting fly ash. On average across the U.S. today, fly ash is used to replace about 15% of the Portland cement in concrete. Since 1990, over 200 million tons of fly ash have been used in this manner. In obviating the use of ordinary cement that would have generated almost a ton of CO 2 per ton of cement produc ed, this application of fly ash has prevented approximately 200 million tons of CO 2 from being released into the atmosphere during this period

.
We estimate that an additional 200 million tons of CO 2 emissions can be avoided in the U.S. over the coming decade by continuing to expand the acceptance and adoption of fly ash in concrete, bricks and other building materials. Looking beyond the U.S., a recent McKinsey study 2 cites the use of fly ash and other mineral substitutes in cement and concrete as a key component of global climat e change policy, repr esenting the potential
for almost 500 million tons of annual CO 2 reduction potential at a negative cost, i.e. requiring no carbon tax or subsidy.

Federal stimulus plans to invest in infrastructure and buildings will require large volumes of concrete. Fly ash is a signi ficant component of virtually all high-performance concrete mixtures today, adding strength, durability, and other beneficial properties. Using highfly ash mixes will be essential to meeting the parallel goals of making high-quality, enduring infrastructure investments wh ile at the same time minimizing CO 2 emissions related to these projects.

3. Designating fly ash as a Hazardous Waste wo uld have a chilling effect on the use of fly ash in building materials, increasing our nation’s CO 2 footprint, expanding landfill demand, and compromising th e quality of our built environment. We understand that one recent propos al under consideration would have the disposal of all coal combustion wastes regulated under S ubtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. While impossible to quantify, our own experience supported by discussions with many others in the green build ing community leads us to expect that any such designation of fly ash as a hazardous waste would have a strongly detrimental and ultimately irreversible effect on its beneficial use in building materials.

Incorporating fly ash as defined today as an “industrial by-product deemed safe by the EPA” in materials for housing, commercial bui ldings, public facilities, and infrastructure is easily understood by a culture attuned to recycling, and has been accepted broadly. Incorporating a material “designated by the EPA as Hazardous Waste” in such projects would be entirely different. Fly ash use in concrete and other building materials would fall dramatically, a very substantial CO 2 mitigation opportunity would be largely lost, new fly ash landfills would need to be created and would fill up quickly, and the quality

2 McKinsey & Co., Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy , Version 2 of the Global Greenhouse
Gas Cost Abatement Curve.

CalStar Cement, Inc. 6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560 510.793.9500of our concrete infrastructure would suffe r. What would happen to the many green buildings that have incorpor ated significant volumes of fly ash if it were suddenly
deemed “hazardous” is a matter for speculation.

With that said, practicing proper disposal prac tices is essential for the 55% of material
not recovered for beneficial use. Where bene ficial uses cannot be found or expanded, we fully support policies that w ill protect public safety by eliminating surface impoundments and ensuring that landfills for these materi als are lined appropriately. We believe many
solutions are available to achieve this outcome without resorting to unwarranted regulation under RCRA Subtitle C.

* * * *

Increased beneficial use of fly ash represents a rare and valuable opportunity to address many important national priorities at once: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reusing industrial byproducts, creating new green-collar jobs, and repa iring our national infrastructure with high quality materials.

To realize this opportunity fully, public policy must continue to enable and support the appropriate and beneficial use of fly ash and other coal combustion by-products. At the same time, public safety needs to be protected with appropriate laws regarding fly ash management and disposal. With careful consideration and a balanced, science-driven approach, we are confident that you and your team will be able to develop a solution to achieve both of these policy objectives without compromise.

We are always available to pr ovide additional clarif ication and information to support you and your staff as you draft this very important policy.

Sincerely,

Thomas M. Pounds Chief Operating Officer

Marc Porat, PhD Founder, Chairman and CEO

CalStar Cement, Inc. 6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560 510.793.9500