Friday, November 25, 2016

US Nitrogen/Yara Get 2 More Permit Extensions


By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Tennessee environmental officials have granted two more permit extensions for the US Nitrogen/Yara North America project on a 500 acre site in Midway, Tenn.
In notices dated Nov. 18 and posted on the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation web site, the permits for a calcium nitrate production facility and a related calcium feedstock operation were extended from Dec. 31, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2018.
The permits were issued to Yara but the Yara facility is an adjunct to US Nitrogen's ammonium nitrate plant located on the same site.
Similar permit extensions were recently granted to US Nitrogen. The US Nitrogen extensions however, were for 12 months, not 24.
The extensions, according to US Nitrogen's applications, were made necessary by delays in the scheduled startup of the $200 million chemical production complex.
As with the US Nitrogen, the Yara permits set production limits to enable the company to avoid stricter environmental limits for major pollution sources.
"Failure to abide by these limits will not only subject the permittee to enforcement action by the state of Tennessee but may also result in the imposition of federal enforcement action by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency," the permit for the calcium nitrate plant states.
The permit caps the annual amount of greenhouse gases at 16,044 tons over any 12 month period.
It also mandates the use of a scrubber to reduce nitrous oxide emissions, which must be kept under 100 tons over any 12 month period
In related action TDEC has informed two Mosheim residents that they investigated complaints of ozone emissions on Sept. 19 and concluded that US Nitrogen was not the source of the odor. TDEC officials blamed the odors on a nearby wastewater treatment facility.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

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