Sierra Club Opposes Permit Scheme

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A representative of the Sierra Club has challenged a move to issue separate permits for three manufacturing firms that occupy the same site in eastern Tennessee.
In a written statement sent to the state Department of Environment and Conservation, Scott Banberry of the Tennessee chapter of the Sierra Club, said he has multiple issues with the pending proposal to "de-aggregate" the permits for US Nitrogen, Yara North America and Praxair LLC.
The state agency held separate public hearings earlier this week on the three permit applications.
Banberry, who also attended one of the sessions, wrote that the combined facilities in Greene County have the potential to release "large quantities of Greenhouse gases and should be subject to limits and monitoring requirements."
"We do not believe that this permit should be broken into separate state conditional major permits," Banberry wrote.
Under the original application TDEC issued a single permit for all three companies.
Stating that the Midway operations were "obviously interconnected," Banberry said the plant should be considered a single source and be subject to permitting requirements on "Greenhouse gases as well as nitrogen oxides and other pollutants."
Banbury cited a recent study by Cornell University that showed methane emissions from ammonia fertilizer plants may be up to 100 times higher than estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"Promises by the applicants that they will stay below Title V limits should be based on regular real world sampling and not paper calculations based on self reporting," Banberry continued.
He said that that TDEC should require ambient air quality monitoring and regular monthly or quarterly emissions sampling of all pollutants to assure that limits are not being exceeded.
Banbury said he concurs with the concerns expressed by Howard Gebhart, an environmental consultant, who submitted detailed objections to the permit proposals and urged TDEC to place additional monitoring and reporting requirements on the three companies.
Gebhart who was retained by local environmental activist Park Overall, said the permits as proposed violate state regulations and could result in the tripling of some emissions. Citing the multiple complaints from local residents, he said that monitoring in the local community was necessary to determine the plant's impact on local citizens.
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