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North American Stainless (NAS) was founded in 1990 and is fulfilling its promise to be the finest stainless steel producing mill in the Western Hemisphere. Located in Carroll County, this steel mill has approximately 1150 employees. They are the only single site facility in the US where both flat and long products are manufactured. The company is committed to environmentally responsible operations. According to their environmental policy, the company will work to continuously improve environmental performance. The employees are given training and resources necessary to achieve this commitment. North American Stainless completed seven voluntary projects. They have committed to sponsor and participate in the Carroll County River Sweep. This project resulted in approximately 7 tons of trash being picked up over a 10-mile stretch of the Ohio River. NAS constructed a multifunction pond based on the use of natural forces for the reduction of total suspended solids and oil and grease. Data have shown dramatic reduction in both of these parameters. In addition, a drop gate that allows this area to act as an emergency spill containment area. NAS sponsors Raptors Inc. as a lifetime member to provide rehabilitation services for injured birds and provides use of undeveloped company property for the release of those birds. NAS voluntary installed new technology for their steel pickling operations. The reaction between the acid and the steel produces large amounts of Oxides of Nitrogen or NOx. The technology installed is similar to what many power plants but on a much smaller scale use to control emissions. This technology is established as new Best Available Control Technology (BACT). BACT is the standard that all new similar pickling operations must meet. The reductions documented to date average an additional 65 % reduction in the emissions of NOx over the older technology. NAS eliminated a point source discharge and helped fund the expansion of the local sanitary into a regional system that eliminated point sources not only for the company but for many other users as well. NAS undertook a waste minimization project to recover nickel, chrome, and iron from the metal bearing waste streams. This was the result of many bench scale trials that were performed in-house. The concept was to develop a matrix that could be charged (re-melted) into our Electric Arc Furnace and achieve a reduction of the waste metal oxides to recoverable metallic form. Although this project is still under trial, to date over 1,000 metric tons of by-product have successfully been re-melted back into stainless steel. NAS also implemented the proposed EAF area source rule and has served as a model for the Stainless Industry. In early 2005, US EPA announced that they were going to develop an EAF Area Source Rule that would address mercury in the scrap steel stream. NAS developed special scrap purchasing requirements that would eliminate the use of auto shred (a major source of mercury switches, plastics, foams and other material that would form volatile organic compounds). The contract language was shared with US EPA as a potential guideline for meeting this new standard. Many items were used in developing the current draft language. Currently NAS has placed provisions to meet the anticipated EAF Area Source Rule two full years ahead of publication of the final rule. "There are many benefits to achieving a Leadership status in the KY EXCEL Program. Among the most notable ones are use of the KY EXCEL logo for marketing, round table meetings with top regulatory member to discuss questions or concerns, allowing meaningful input on regulatory incentives, and most importantly is an accelerated permitting process that allow NAS to continue to keep pace with the changing market conditions by obtaining or modifying permits to accommodate changes in operations or new operations." stated Stephen Shaver, Corp.