Western Excelsior to present particulate-reduction plan

Special board meeting scheduled for May 18

Western Excelsior is expected to present its plan to reduce airborne particulate matter on Monday, May 18 at 7 p.m. at the Mancos Town Hall, 117 N. Main St.

Kyle Hanson, local business unit manager for Western Excelsior, will present the Fugitive Particulate Mater Control Plan, which has been submitted to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Department of Public Health.

The special Mancos Town Board meeting was called in response to the Concerned Residents of Riverside making presentations to the board and asking for answers to the debris in the air.

Mancos Town Administrator Andrea Phillips asked Hanson to give the presentation on behalf of Western Excelsior.

Chip Tuthill, chairman of the Concerned Residents of Riverside, will also give a presentation, and Phillips said representatives from the Department of Public Health and from Montezuma County have been invited.

In addition, the public is allowed to comment at the meeting.

Tuthill said he had some problems with the report.

"There is a couple of parts to this that need to be addressed," he said.

"We want monitoring," Tuthill said. "Those particulate matters are a health hazard."

Tuthill said he and his neighbors have been complaining about particulate matter from the manufacturing plant since 2011. The neighbors formed the group Concerned Residents of Riverside last year.

"Everyone was going independently to the board, and we weren't accomplishing anything," Tuthill said.