US Nitrogen: Violation Notice Misdirected

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Greene County chemical firm is charging that Tennessee environmental officials erred when they sent the company a violation notice last month and the notice should have gone to another company operating on the same Midway site.
In a letter to Michelle Owenby of the Tennessee Department of Environment and conservation, Andrew Velo of US Nitrogen LLC said the permit in question had been transferred in June to Praxair, Inc.
Amanda Davis, a TDEC official had stated in an Aug. 24 letter to Velo that the permit had been violated because US Nitrogen failed to report the amount of liquefied carbon dioxide it had transferred to Praxair, a company on the same site as US Nitrogen.
Stating that US Nitrogen believed the violation notice was "directed to the wrong party," Velo wrote that US Nitrogen had transferred the permit in question to Praxair effective June. 11.
Attached to his letter was a June 29 letter to TDEC informing it of the permit transfer. He also enclosed a copy of a letter from Praxair to TDEC on July 17 acknowledging the transfer.
"Therefore," Velo concluded, "Praxair is the appropriate recipient of the Aug. 24 violation letter."
Velo had already sent a letter to TDEC on Sept. 10 stating that the information regarding the amount of carbon dioxide piped to Praxair was already available to TDEC.
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