By Walter F. Roche Jr.
US Nitrogen LLC has submitted a plan to state regulators to reduce the excess runoff of nitrogen products in the stormwater at its Midway manufacturing facility, but full implementation won't come for another year.
In a letter to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation US Nitrogen's plant manager, Dylan Charles, wrote that the company believes the excess of nitrogen/nitrates and nitrites originates in a rail loading area.
A recent annual report from the company showed the nitrogen products in stormwater runoff in one area exceeded the benchmark level of .62 milligrams per liter by 20 milligrams or 30 percent.
Charles said that the company reviewed its operations in the rail loading area and don't believe that a change in procedures would solve the problem. Instead, he wrote, the company is planning to divert the water now running through a ditch and redirect it "into an underfow basin."
The timetable calls for design plans by Dec. 24 of this year and implementation by Oct. 25 of next year.
He said under the plan the company would discontinue using an existing outfall and redirect the runoff to a retention pond which will be re-lined to hold the stormwater.
"The stormwater will be further managed for re-use or discharge as effluent," the letter states.
Charles said the ditch now carrying the stormwater with excess nitrogen was installed in early 2019 to collect stormwater from the rail unloading area.
The excess nitrogen runoff was noted in earlier annual reports and in early 2020 the company said it would implement a plan to eliminate the excess.
The recent stormwater runoff report also reported magnesium levels exceeding the benchmark by more than 100 times, but US Nitrogen has attributed that to sources pre-existing the company's manufacturing process.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com
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