Air pollution by local industry on decrease

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Greene County industries required to report emissions of toxic chemicals are reducing those emissions, according to company records compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency and the Missouri Department of Natural Re-sources.|ret||ret||tab|

For instance, in 1993 there were 1.9 million pounds of chemical releases to the environment, with 29 companies reporting.|ret||ret||tab|

In 1998, the most recent period for which records are available, the volume dropped to 1.1 million pounds, with 25 companies reporting.|ret||ret||tab|

But if the compliance figures are correct, private industry actually cut emissions by much more than the 1998 total would seem to indicate.|ret||ret||tab|

1998 was the first year that electric power generating plants were required to report emissions, so of the total 1.1 million pounds reported, 600,000 pounds came from City Utilities' two power plants. |ret||ret||tab|

Excluding the CU chemical releases, local industry actually reduced emissions from 1.9 million pounds to 500,000 pounds in five years.|ret||ret||tab|

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Keeping track|ret||ret||tab|

The emissions records are compiled and published in the government's annual Toxic Release Inventory report. The TRI report covers chemical releases to air, land and water. Nearly all the releases in Greene County go into the air.|ret||ret||tab|

The smaller number of companies reporting between 1993 and 1998 may be attributed to a number of causes, from business failure to reductions in emissions that caused companies to fall below the reporting threshold. |ret||ret||tab|

For example, Solid State Circuits, which reported in 1993, had closed by 1998, and a few smaller polluters that appeared on the 1993 report did not appear in some of the subsequent reports|ret||ret||tab|

Local manufacturing operations showing sizable emission reductions over the years include Litton, 3M and Clariant LSM (formerly Syntex Agri-business). The utility plants have done significant air clean-up, too, according to Dave Fraley, CU's director of environmental compliance.|ret||ret||tab|

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3M clears the air|ret||ret||tab|

In 1993, 3M topped the list in the Toxic Release Inventory, reporting slightly more than 700,000 pounds of air emissions. Five years later, its emissions had dropped to 107,000 pounds.|ret||ret||tab|

More than half of the 1993 emissions were from toluene, a solvent widely used by many manufacturers that is also classified as a volatile organic compound, a component of ozone pollution. The 1998 toluene release amounted to less than half the company's total.|ret||ret||tab|

"We planned to reduce our emissions by 90 percent over a 10-year period starting in the late 1980s, and we were able to do that," said Eddy Franks, environmental health and safety manager for the local 3M plant.|ret||ret||tab|

The company spent $6 million to accomplish it, he said, first with a biofilter a chemical composting process. The biofilter was replaced with a thermal oxidizer, a system that incinerates pollutants, because the composting process was only 80 percent efficient and caused unpleasant odor problems, Franks said.|ret||ret||tab|

But the oxidizer costs more to run than the biofilter, using about $60,000 a month in natural gas to burn compounds that aren't flammable enough to burn up on their own, he said.|ret||ret||tab|

The whole investment in air cleanup for the plant has been "money well spent," Franks said. "We've kept ahead of EPA limits and are a couple of steps ahead of the regulators."|ret||ret||tab|

But more importantly, he said, "we live here" and the company wants to have a healthful environment for its employees, as well as the rest of the community.|ret||ret||tab|

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Clariant cleans up|ret||ret||tab|

In 1993, the Syntex (Clariant) plant was second in emissions in the Toxic Release Inventory, sending a reported 570,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, most of it as methane compounds that also are solvents. Through the aggressive use of recycling technology and thermal oxidation, the Swiss-owned Clariant LSM reduced emissions to 53,900 pounds in 1998, said Steve Hancock, the plant's director of emission health and safety. |ret||ret||tab|

"We got serious about reducing emissions in the early 1990s," he said. "We have reduced them about 96 percent, and we spent about $10 million to do it. We were able to eliminate one solvent, methanol, and did recovery to get source reductions" on other chemicals.|ret||ret||tab|

The final step of control technology was in 1993 when the company spent $5 million on a thermal oxidizer to destroy some emissions, Hancock said.|ret||ret||tab|

The company began its cleanup program after it sensed that federal regulatory pressure was building. Limits on chemical emissions for pharmaceutical makers such as Clariant are being proposed for consideration next year, he said.|ret||ret||tab|

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Litton aces report|ret||ret||tab|

The Litton company plant in Springfield no longer shows up in the local top 10 in the Toxic Release Inventory. Since 1989, it has been able to lower its chemical emissions from 310,000 pounds to only 5,500 pounds in 1998.|ret||ret||tab|

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Utility emissions|ret||ret||tab|

Taking over the top two local Toxic Release Inventory spots, with the inclusion of power plants in 1998, were the James River Power Station and the Southwest Power Station operated by City Utilities. But even they cut back emissions markedly before becoming a part of the TRI report, said CU's Dave Fraley.|ret||ret||tab|

Power plant pollution is mostly acid gases hydrochloric and sulfuric sent into the air and the major category pollutant sulfur dioxide, Fraley said. |ret||ret||tab|

The James River plant released 436,000 pounds of chemicals in 1998, and the Southwest Power Station emitted a little more than 194,000 pounds, the TRI report showed.|ret||ret||tab|

Before the plants began burning largely low-sulfur coal, CU spent about $20 million on scrubbers and other technology to remove 80 percent of the pollutants in order to be in compliance with air emission standards for sulfur dioxide, Fraley said. |ret||ret||tab|

CU has also cut nitrogen oxide pollution by 40 percent, he added.|ret||ret||tab|

Today, the heavy use of low-sulfur coal keeps the utility in compliance almost without the aid of cleanup technology, Fraley said.|ret||ret||tab|

A representative of the coal industry said at a recent conference in Springfield that experiments aimed at developing coal-fired power plants that are virtually pollution free are making progress.|ret||ret||tab|

Companies required to comply with Toxic Release Inventory reporting are those that employ 10 or more people full-time, are in a designated reporting industry, and manufacture or process more than 25,000 pounds, or otherwise use more than 10,000 pounds of the listed toxic chemical during a calendar year.|ret||ret||tab|

In 1998, the most recent year for which data is available, the reporting system listed 576 individual chemicals and 28 chemical categories.|ret||ret||tab|

The Toxic Release Inventory was created by the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986. The purpose is to give local communities "information about routine releases of certain toxic chemicals to the air, land and water so that they can be informed and take action where necessary," according to the state's 1998 TRI report.[[In-content Ad]]