Friday, December 29, 2017

Faulty Data Submitted by US Nitrogen


By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Prompted by concerns from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Tennessee regulators have determined that US Nitrogen under reported the amount of nitric acid produced at its Midway plant in reports filed with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
According to a letter issued today by a TDEC official from the Division of Air Pollution Control, the ammonium nitrate manufacturer submitted reports showing an unexplained dip in acid production on April 27.
After learning that a measuring device had been "inadvertently reset" and the totals listed for the day covered only a 12 hour period and not the full day of production, the state requested revised data..
"The original data on nitric acid production represented only the production for the 12 hour period after the acid production totalizer was reset," Jeryl Stewart wrote in the letter to US Nitrogen.
According to the letter US Nitrogen when first asked about the apparent discrepancy, they revised the estimate to 298 tons for that day.
In his letter Stewart said the revised estimate had a "low bias" and the actual production was 376 tons.
Stewart said the data was originally accepted by the state on June 15 based on assurances from US Nitrogen.
Subsequently, however, EPA officials expressed concern about the low reported acid production rate for that date of only 187 tons.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

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