TDEC Approves USN Sludge Plan

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Tennessee environmental officials have approved a plan for US Nitrogen to apply up to 10 tons of sludge per year to property the chemical company owns in Greene County.
In documents made public today but dated May 20, an official of the solid waste division of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation approved a modified sludge application plan first submitted by the company in August of last year and amended in January of this year.
The sludge is produced when water from the Nolichucky River is processed at US Nitrogen's water treatment plant. The treated water is then used in the production of ammonium nitrate and other products and for use in cooling tower.
In the May 20 letter George M. Thornsbury, a TDEC official, told Kim Ryans of US Nitrogen that his division reviewed the proposal and determined it "constitutes a beneficial use of solid waste when used in the manner proposed."
The letter states that the approval applies only to the application of the sludge to 8.56 acres areas identified only as "A, B and C".
Under the approval the company must conduct an annual analysis of the sludge and an analysis for the presence of metals every five years.
US Nitrogen had previously disclosed that it hoped to find an agricultural use for the sludge otherwise it would be sent to a landfill.
In a filing in August of last year, a US Nitrogen official estimated that the water treatment plant would generate as much as 44 dry tons of sludge per year. The information was disclosed in a company response to a TDEC violation notice.
The 15,000 square foot treatment plant is actually located on land owned by the Industrial Development Board of Greeneville and Greene County. The site is 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," according to the company filing.
The company plan, submitted by then 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WTP (treatment plant) process uses multiple processes and chemical additives to produce non-potable water from water withdrawn from the river."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."
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