US Nitrogen Takes 8.7 Million River Gallons

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

US Nitrogen LLC pumped some 8.7 million gallons of water from the Nolichucky River last month, according to a report the Greene County chemical firm filed with Tennessee environmental officials this week.
According to the report the company drew water from the river every day of the month and on five days it drew just under 1 million gallons.
The monthly reports are required under the terms of a permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The company draws water from the river through a 12 mile long pipeline that stretches from the Midway manufacturing plant to the river.
While water was withdrawn in all 31 days in July, the report shows there were 21 days in which the company did not pump water back into the river. The largest amount was just under 600,000 gallons on July 18.
The July figures show a sharp drop from the amounts reported for June. In that month the ammonium nitrate manufacturer drew 18 million gallons from the Nolichucky and discharged 7.67 million gallons back into the river.
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US Nitrogen Cited for Multiple Violations

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Following a July on-site inspection, Tennessee environmental officials have cited US Nitrogen LLC, a Greene County chemical firm, for multiple violations of its permits.
The notice of violation was issued by Amanda Davis, the director the Division of Air Pollution in the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
In a three-page letter to Andrew Velo, US Nitrogen's plant manager, Davis detailed the violations
detected during a two day compliance inspection visit to the Midway plant in early July.
The notice is the second to be issued to US Nitrogen by TDEC in the past two months.
TDEC charged in late June that US Nitrogen erected an ammonia storage and loading operation capable of emitting 23.3 million tons of ammonia per year without first obtaining a required permit.
In the new notice, Davis said the violations related to a carbon dioxide liquefaction facility.
Although the facility is being utilized by Praxair, the permit was issued to US Nitrogen.
"At the time of the inspection, the permit was issued to US Nitrogen LLC and you were, therefore, responsible for complying with its terms and conditions," Davis wrote in the letter.
Davis reported that the records showed the company failed to comply with a permit provision limiting the production of carbon dioxide to 90,789 tons per year. In addition the records showed the company exceeded the permit limit for the production of greenhouse gases, the letter stated.
A third violation, Davis wrote that the company failed to file monthly data reports within the 30 day time limit.
She stated that a report that was due on March 22 wasn't filed until 20 days later.
The violation notice states that the company can submit information challenging the notice within 20 days of the notice.
US Nitrogen did make such a submission for the violation notice issued in late June, but TDEC ruled that the violation notice will stand. The agency has not yet indicated whether a fine or other penalty will be imposed for that violation.
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Judge Grants Motion in US Nitrogen Suit

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Chancery Court judge has approved a motion to compel US Nitrogen to disclose details of how they determined the right of way being used by the chemical firm for the installation of a 12-mile pipeline from Midway to the Nolichucky River.
In a four-page order issued Wednesday Davidson Chancery Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle granted the motion to compel sought by six landowners challenging the legality of the pipeline.
The landowners sought the motion after the chemical firm refused to answer a series of questions relating to how the right-of-way was determined.
The six landowners contend that there was no right-of-way and that the pipeline actually impinges on the property of two of the plaintiffs, Don Bible and Jack Renner.
The plaintiffs had submitted 16 questions to US Nitrogen but the company never answered them.
The controversial pipeline was installed after the Tennessee Department of Transportation granted the company a permit to utilize the right of way.
The other defendants in the case, TDOT and the Industrial Development Board of Greeneville and Greene County, have stated they don't have the information needed to answer the questions.
US Nitrogen had argued that the information sought by the landowners was irrelevant.
The pipeline is used to pump millions of gallons of water from the river for use in the manufacturing of ammonium nitrate. Some of the water is pumped back into the river.
Initially the landowners suit was dismissed, but an appeals court later re-instated the case.
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TDEC Lets USN Violation Notice Stand

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Despite a plea from a company official, Tennessee environmental officials have decided that a violation notice against US Nitrogen will stand but they have yet to determine if any fine will be imposed.
In a letter sent this week to US Nitrogen, Kevin McLain of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said the agency will not reverse a violation notice sent to the Midway company on June 29.
That notice stated that the ammonium nitrate manufacturer had never applied for a permit to store ammonia, despite the fact that a permit was required.
Andrew Velo, US Nitrogen's plant manager, had responded that the company had always been open about its intentions and never hid the fact that storage was needed. He also asked for a waiver from any fines.
"Upon review of your submitted information, the division has determined that the violation did warrant a notice of violation," McLain wrote, adding that the agency had yet to decide what, if any civil penalty will be imposed."
TDEC charged in late June that US Nitrogen erected an ammonia storage and loading operation capable of emitting 23.3 million tons of ammonia per year without first obtaining a required permit.
Just last week TDEC announced it would waive any penalty on a separate permit issue involving excess emissions from the nitric acid plant.
In yet another development this week Velo has submitted a revised annual compliance inspection report for 2017 in which he stated that the company's prior report overstated the actual volume of nitric acid produced.
According to the revised report the company produced 32,318 tons of nitric acid instead of the 33,292 tons originally reported.
The report states that the company was in compliance with all the requirements of the permit.
US Nitrogen also filed a monthly report this week on the volumes of water drawn and discharged from the Nolichucky River.
According to the report the company withdrew water from the river on each day of the month of July, but the total drawn totaled only 8.78 million gallons.
On five days during the month just under one million gallons were withdrawn for use in the company's manufacturing operations.
USN discharged 5.62 million gallons back into the river during the same 31 day period.
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Greeneville Home Cited in Elopement

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Greeneville, Tenn. nursing home has been hit with an admissions freeze and $6,000 in fines after a patient with a history of wandering walked out of the facility and fell down a 15 foot embankment suffering cuts and abrasions.
The patient's elopement occurred despite the fact that an alarm sounded as he walked out the door of the Loughlin Care Center on July 3.
State surveyors reported that a receptionist heard the alarm, peeked out the door but did nothing else.
"I peeked through the window and didn't see anything so I reset the alarm," the receptionist told state inspectors. "No one told me to go outside and look around," she added.
A landscape worker subsequently went into the home and reported that a patient had fallen and was injured.
The state report on the incident concludes that the 90-bed facility placed the patient "in an environment detrimental to health, safety and welfare."
Meaghan K. Smith, a spokeswoman for Ballad Health, which owns the facility, said the incident was self reported to state triggering an automatic investigation
She said the facility had filed a corrective action plan that was accepted by federal officials but she acknowledged that the plan had yet to win state approval.
State Health Commissioner Dr. John Dreyzehner ordered a freeze on any new admissions to the home, imposed the $6,000 in fines and appointed a special monitor to oversee actions at the facility.
Nursing home records show the patient was wearing an alarm device known as a "Wanderguard" which triggered the alarm when he followed a landscape worker out the front door.
The state surveyors also noted that five other patients at the facility with a wandering history had improperly installed Wanderguards. The alarms were attached to their wheelchairs not to their legs.
As for the patient who was injured, surveyors noted that he actually fell three times during the incident.
The unnamed patient was treated for cuts and bruises at a local emergency room, the report states.
The facility failed to ensure that a resident was free from an avoidable accident with injuries, the report concludes.
The Ballad spokeswoman said,"The nursing home has taken steps to update security procedures that we believe will improve the safety of residents and mitigate the opportunity for any similar event to occur in the future."
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No TDEC Action on US Nitrogen

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Tennessee environmental officials have informed a Greene County chemical firm that it will take no action despite excess emissions from the nitric acid plant at the Midway facility earlier this year.
In a letter sent late last week by Bryan Parker of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to US Nitrogen's plant manager, Andrew Velo, the state agency said the excess emission of nitrogen oxide on Feb. 23 was of short duration and "the malfunction was resolved in a timely manner."
"Therefore," Parker wrote in the two-page letter, "no further action will be taken."
He added that TDEC considers that US Nitrogen has fulfilled reporting requirements" of its permit.
The letter was in apparent response to a quarterly report filed by US Nitrogen recently.
The Midway manufacturer of ammonium nitrate was also recently notified that it failed to seek a permit for the construction of an ammonia storage facility.
US Nitrogen has asked that any financial penalties resulting from the violation be waived. TDEC has yet to respond to that request.
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US Nitrogen Treatment Plant Detailed

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

US Nitrogen, the Greene County chemical company, says it projects a water treatment plant on its Midway site will generate as much as 44 dry tons of sludge per year and it would prefer to dispose of that waste on nearby agricultural land.
The new details on the water treatment facility were included in a plan filed this week with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. State officials had set a July 31 deadline for a revised plan in a notice of violation issued in February.
The US Nitrogen filing contains previously undisclosed information on the treatment plant including five holding or storage ponds located across the railroad tracks from the chemical manufacturing facility. According to the filing the treatment plant is actually owned by the Industrial Development Board of Greeneville and Greene County, but operated by US Nitrogen under an agreement between the two parties.
The treatment plant is used to remove impurities from the millions of gallons of water the company pumps free of charge from the Nolichucky River. The purified non-potable water is then used as boiler feed water in the manufacturing process for ammonium nitrate and for cooling towers required in the manufacturing process, the filing states.
The cooling tower water, the company reported,is "recirculated through the evaporative cooling towers and treated with various chemicals."
The 15,000 square foot treatment plant is located on West Seven Springs Lane approximately two miles from the intersection of U.S. Highway 11E and I-81. The plant "conveys and discharges to the river the effluent generated by the IDB WTP (treatment plant)and process related uses of water at US Nitrogen."
The company plan, submitted by US Nitrogen plant manager Andrew Velo, states, "The IDB WTP (treatment plant) process uses multiple processes and chemical additives to produce non-potable water from water withdrawn from the river."
Those processes also produce the sludge which is then pumped into two settling ponds, each capable of holding 315,000 gallons. On site there are also two effluent storage ponds with a capacity of 1.5 gallons apiece and a raw water pond, with a 7.5 million gallon capacity, the company reported.
"As needed," the plan states,"US Nitrogen will remove the sludge from the settling ponds. Based on initial dredging, the filing continues, "the quantity of sludge removed per each event is 61 wet tons or 11 dry tons."
The company told TDEC it expected each of the settling ponds to be dredged once per year, each producing 4,000 cubic feet or 11 dry tons.
"This process will help to identify any additional pre-treatment standards that must be met for the disposal of beneficial use of the sludge.
The plan offers two sludge disposal options. One would be "beneficial" placement on nearby agricultural properties while the other would be disposal in a landfill.
"To the extent practical, US Nitrogen will seek to beneficially use sludge rather than dispose of it as waste," the plan states.
In fact the company already has submitted a permit application for the "beneficial use" disposal method to TDEC' Division of Solid Waste Management.
The plan calls for samples of the sludge to be tested and "sampling activities will be conducted to ensure that sample data are representative."
"In the event beneficial use is not available, US Nitrogen will dispose of de-watered sludge at a permitted solid waste landfill in accordance with applicable regulations," the plan states, adding that the sludge would be stored temporarily on plastic sheeting.