SANTEE -- An air-quality monitor began collecting data Thursday in the Boyer community of Holly Hill to determine what type of pollutants, if any, residents may be exposed to on a daily basis.

Boyer residents have been concerned for some time about the amount of emissions generated by industries operating within a three-mile radius of their community -- Holcim, Giant and Blue Circle cement plants and Georgia-Pacific Fiber Board. Some residents believe the emissions are making them sick and resulting in serious illnesses.

About 40 people attended a meeting of the Holcim-Holly Hill Plant Citizens' Advisory Committee Monday at Clark's Restaurant in Santee.

Scott A. Reynolds, director of air-quality analysis, Bureau of Environmental Services, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, told the committee the air monitor had been set up in the Boyer community in the center of a fire lane just off Barksdale Street and Balboa Lane. He said the monitor will be operated as a normal part of the S.C. Air Monitoring Network to ensure that South Carolinians live in areas where all air-quality standards are met.

Reynolds said there are a total of 97 monitors statewide at 64 different sites. The monitors are typically placed in areas where there are the highest concentrations of emissions and the highest population density, he said.

The Boyer community air monitor is a Total Suspended Particulate model. Reynolds said the inspectors will look at filters in the monitor for the first 2 to 3 months to see what the mix of particles collected looks like. The maximum emissions will be added, and the calculated concentrations will be studied. Reynolds said samples will be taken from the TSP model every six days, and a total of 63 to 65 samples will be taken annually which will also include weekend data.

Reynolds said quality assurance workers are in place to check monitors as needed, validating data and conducting audits as daily reports are submitted to the network.

The National Ambient Air Quality Standard criteria pollutants to be examined are: sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate and lead.

The Boyer site TSP model began collected data Oct. 17, and data will continue to be collected, studied, interpreted and released to interested parties, Reynolds said. Annual summaries will be posted on the S.C. DHEC Web site as well as in the annual report.

Holcim's new plant superintendent, Jeff Ouhl, in an interview this week told this reporter that the company will spend about $240 million for renovations and updates to the Holly Hill plant. The work on the plant began in April 2001 and is expected to be completed by April 2003.

The number of employees, according to Ouhl, will remain the same once the plant is completed. The contractor is Tidewater Skanska of Norfolk, Va. There are about 800 construction workers involved in the completion of the project.

The new chairperson of Holcim's Citizens' Advisory Committee is Neal Dye, and Ruth Williams is the vice chairperson.

The next committee meeting will be at 6 p.m. Nov. 4 at Clark's Restaurant in Santee.

T&D Correspondent Gloria M. James can be reached by phone at 803-496-5747.

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