For you, Park Overall... A piece from todays Knoxville News Sentinel: Environmentalists worry about effects of ammonia in Nolichucky River (Hugh G. Willett) GREENEVILLE — The Nolichucky River rises in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and flows into Tennessee, passing through Unicoi, Washington, Greene, Cocke and Hamblen counties before joining the French Broad River. A historic and scenic waterway, it has been called one of the most beautiful rivers in the country. The river is also home to an abundance of wildlife including the endangered oyster mussel, a small freshwater mollusk. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a five-mile stretch of the river is one of the last “critical habitats” for at least three other types of endangered mollusks. East Tennessee environmentalists are virulently opposed to a plan, proposed earlier this year, that would involve taking water from the Nolichucky to be used by an industrial chemical plant in Greene County before returning the treated water to the river. US Nitrogen, a subsidiary of Austin Powder Company, plans to produce ammonium nitrate, an ingredient used in industrial explosives, at the plant in Midway. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has granted air and water permits that would allow the discharge of the treated water into the river. Representatives of US Nitrogen and local industrial development agencies have assured residents that the water discharged into the river — which will contain specified levels of ammonia up to that allowed by the permit — will not be a danger to the environment. That assertion has been challenged by the environmentalists. Sierra Club attorney Brian Paddock said he is concerned about the amount of ammonia that might be discharged into the river and the effects of the pollution over time. He expressed his concerns in a letter to TDEC. “The 5 percent de minimus definition fails to consider toxicity or the bio-accumulative effect of a pollutant proposed to be released,” he said. The definition also fails to consider the varying sensitivity of aquatic species to a pollutant using a “one number fits all” standard and disregarding whether the species that caused the river to be classified as Exceptional Tennessee Waters, or other species present, are vulnerable to either lethal or sub lethal effects, Paddock said. “This blind and inflexible approach also threatens violations of the Endangered Species Act and unlawful takings when applied to waters that are critical habitat for listed species,” he said. The cumulative effect of the discharge on communities downriver, which already have to deal with the effect of nitrogen from fertilizers and other sources, is another consideration. The Witt Utility District drinking water supply intake is downstream. These utilities may not be able to treat the water sufficiently to remove the extra ammonia, he said. Another important consideration is the volume of water in the river and at the discharge point. Estimates of water flow that were submitted along with the application for discharge do not take into account the fact that, historically, the flow of the river has varied enough that at times it’s possible to walk across the bed of the river. Standards used by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Fish and Wildlife Service suggest that the lowest flow levels would be more protective. “There is a real problem of accurate measurement of the flow and volume of the river at the proposed intake and discharge point,” he said. According to Tom Ferguson, president of the Greene County Partnership, an economic development agency that worked to recruit US Nitrogen, the company has provided assurances that the most up to date processes and equipment are being used at the plant. Ferguson said he understands why people would be concerned based on pollution that has occurred in the past, but he points out that federal and state environmental regulations have become extremely strict. The project has been vetted by TDEC, the EPA and “so many engineers it’s hard to count them all,” he said. “Everyone is convinced it’s not going to have a negative effect on the environment,” he said. Greene County Commissioner Hilton Seay said he believes all the proper precautions have been followed in the permitting of the plant. “I have faith in our regulatory agencies,” he said. US Nitrogen vice president Jim Boldt said his company spent millions of dollars on research and engineering to make the plant safe, efficient and within the TDEC guidelines. “The folks at TDEC set a challenging threshold,” he said. The amount of ammonia allowed to be discharged is extremely low, he said. Within yards of the discharge point the ammonia becomes so diluted that it is almost undetectable. Farmers along the river contribute orders of magnitude more chemical discharge through the runoff of fertilizers, he said. Alex Martin, founder of the “Save The Nolichucky” Facebook page, was raised two miles from the river. He is adamant that any amount of ammonia discharged into the river is too much. “Pollution may be bought and sold like a commodity in many parts of this country, but Greene County residents are not going to stand for it,” he said. State Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, calls the Nolichucky “one of the most beautiful rivers in the entire country.” He said he is very concerned about the discharge of industrial waste water into the river. “It makes me nervous,” he said. Faison said he supports the location of the plant and the economic benefits it could bring to the area, but not at the expense of the environment. “We saw what happened with Eastman Chemical,” said, referring to a spill from an Eastman plant in West Virginia that was discovered earlier this year to have polluted the Elk River. Martin said he doesn’t feel due process has been followed. No notice was provided to three of the four counties — Hamblen, Cocke and Jefferson — whose public utilities and residents may be affected by the proposal, he said. “They should have held public hearings in every county affected by the decision to dump pollution in the river,” he said. Martin said he isn’t confident that US Nitrogen cares as much about the environment as those who have lived in the area all their lives. He said the pipeline plan leaves the process of intake, cleaning and discharge of the water hidden from the public. “We have to trust this company to monitor itself,” he said. Boldt said he believes the process will be very transparent. The company’s engineers will be measuring water quality daily. All the TDEC records and inspections will be public record. “It’s a very open book process,” he said. A number of the features of the plant’s design and the way it will be operated support long term sustainability including the way the cooling water will be recycled and shared with other companies operating on the site, Boldt said. One of the biggest sources of air emissions from the plant might have been carbon dioxide. By partnering with a carbon dioxide producer on the site, the carbon dioxide that would have gone into the air will be recycled and put to productive use in such areas as the food and beverage industry, he said. Following the denial by TDOT of a permit for right of way to build a pipeline from the site in Midway to the Nolichucky, Sierra Club’s Paddock sent a letter to TDEC asking that the permit for taking water from the river and discharging it to the river, be reconsidered. According to TDEC spokesperson Kelly Brockman, permits issued by TDEC do not grant property rights or right to access property — public or private. Each of the permits issued by the Division of Water Resources in association with the US Nitrogen project includes language to this effect. The issue of right of way access may require modification of these permits; however, it does not invalidate the permits. Modifications to the route of the pipeline or the location of points of discharge or withdrawal are types of changes that may necessitate permit modifications for the permits issued by the Division of Water Resources. Some permit modifications require public notice, but others do not, Brockman said.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 14:17:08 +0000
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