By Ben Reuter
A chemical plant in Natrium, West
Virginia has been under the eye of the EPA for years
due to mercury contamination of the area around the plant. The plant was built
in 1943 for the production of chemicals used for a wide range of
purposes.
The plant sits on the banks of the Ohio River upstream of Maryland,
which took legal action in 2009 to greatly reduce the amount of pollution. The
chemicals produced at this facility are part of the chlor-alkali method of
creating chemicals such as chlorine and sodium hydroxide. These are some of the
most fundamental chemicals used in many different types of manufacturing to
produce thousands of common household products.
The plant first had problems with
its pollution while under the control of PPG. At the time, PPG owned this
facility and four others that were running on outdated technology that used
massive amounts of mercury which ended up being a byproduct at the end of the
production line. The outdated technology contaminated ground water and soil
with massive amounts of mercury and other pollutants. Much of the life within
the river near the plant is now deemed hazardous because of large amounts of
mercury. Fishermen are told that all fish taken out of the Ohio
River in the region are likely to be contaminated and are warned
not to consume the meat.
Currently, the plant is under tight
supervision of the EPA and Maryland
has threatened major fines if pollution isn’t cut, which is pressing plant
owners to put in new, cleaner technology that does not use mercury as well as
safer and more reliable waste management systems to remove hazardous waste from
entering the already contaminated river.
The plant was recently sold by PPG in its PPG Industries’ sale of its $2.5 billion commodity
chemicals business to Georgia
Gulf. The combination of
the former PPG unit and Georgia
Gulf has been renamed
Axiall Corp, but the problems with groundwater contamination are still
prevalent.
In
1983, Paul J. Kienholz, PPG Industries' chlor-alkali business manager, said
"With the tremendous strides made lately, it is becoming difficult to
imagine the construction of any new plants utilizing technologies other than
the new membrane cell designs…We will be able to take good advantage of
membrane cells in their present state of development.” More than 20 years later, PPG
continues to use outdated mercury-cell technology. It is time for a major
change to happen now.
For more
information:
No comments:
Post a Comment