USN Pumped 236 Million Gallons From Nolichucky

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Greene County chemical company pumped some 236 million gallons of free water from the Nolichucky River during its first two years of operation, according to reports filed with the state of Tennessee.
The data, submitted on a monthly basis by US Nitrogen, shows the volume has varied from a high of 38.7 million gallons in December of 2017 to zero. There were six months over the little over two year period when no water was pumped from the river to the Midway company.
That amount of water (236 million gallons)is roughly equal to all the water used by all customers of Santa Barbara, Calif. in a day.
The monthly reports, which are required under US Nitrogen's permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, also disclose the amount of water the company pumps back into the river. That total was a little over 110.5 million gallons from March of 2016 through April of this year.
US Nitrogen, a subsidiary of Ohio based Austin Powder, uses the river water in the production of ammonium nitrate, which is then used by the parent firm in the production of explosives.
The Tennessee company began filing the reports in January of 2016, but did not report drawing any water from the river until March of that year.
The most recent report covered the month of April of this year. It showed the company pumped some 7.79 million gallons from the river and discharged 3.58 million gallons back into the Nolichucky during the month. On 11 days during the month the company pumped no water back into the river.
The highest single day amount pumped to the plant was a little over 1 million on April 23. The highest discharge was a little over 500,000 gallons on April 4. The company pumped water from the Nolichucky on 26 days of the month.
Data from all the monthly reports shows the largest amount pumped back into the river came in October of 2017 when the company discharged 9.1 million to the river.
There were only two months, January and February of 2016, when the company reported no river discharge.
The monthly reports show that US Nitrogen pumped more than 1 million gallons from the river on 29 separate days. The highest single day total was 1.84280 million gallons on Oct. 15, 2016
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