This news story originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

DEP slow to tighten limits on mercury in water

PPG plant escapes tougher permit terms

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

NATRIUM — Just north of New Martinsville along W.Va. 2, a two-story, wooden gazebo stands at the “PPG Wildlife Management Area.”

There are picnic tables, a walking path and a small pond formed by Ohio River backwater. Signs alert visitors to look for cardinals, gray squirrels, skunks and other animals.

“Our purpose is to enhance the habitat for the natural wildlife in areas surrounding the plant in a manner that will allow observation and enjoyment for all,” the welcome notice says.

Next to the wildlife management area is a sprawling PPG Industries chemical plant, West Virginia’s largest source of the toxic metal mercury.

Every year, PPG’s Natrium plant pumps more than 1,200 pounds of mercury into the air. The Marshall County plant also leads the state in mercury discharged into state waterways.

And over the past 15 years, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection repeatedly has backed off proposals to tighten PPG’s mercury emissions into the Ohio River.

Just last month, the Manchin administration did so again.

Lisa McClung, director of the DEP’s Division of Water and Waste Management, renewed the PPG permit with a new limit on mercury discharges.

But at the same time, McClung gave PPG two years to comply. Until then, the company must follow only a 4-year-old limit that a statewide environmental group says allows illegal amounts of mercury pollution.

Matt Sweeney, a permit writer at the DEP, said the agency could not force PPG to immediately comply with a tougher new mercury limit.

“In permit writing, you are not able to give somebody a limit right off the bat,” Sweeney said. “You would put them in direct violation of the permit. You have to give them time to take additional corrective measures.”

Sweeney said such compliance schedules are “a one-time deal” from the DEP.

“You get the grace period once,” he said.

DEP records indicate that the agency has, on more than one occasion, proposed tougher mercury limits, only to drop the idea when challenged by PPG.

In 1988, for example, the DEP told PPG to conduct a study of its mercury emissions. Only after agency officials reviewed such a study would the DEP consider “new and reasonable mercury limits,” state records show.

The DEP backed off tougher permit limits in 1994, and again in 2001, according to a review of agency documents.

At various times over those years, the DEP told PPG to study its mercury emissions. The agency hinted that it might toughen the limits after giving the company more time to come up with pollution control plans.

Last week, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition appealed the DEP’s approval of the latest version of PPG’s water pollution permit. Among other things, the appeal alleges that McClung illegally has given PPG yet another extension of time to comply with state water-quality limits for mercury.

Joe Lovett, a lawyer and director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, is representing the Rivers Coalition in its appeal to the state Environmental Quality Board.

“Through weak permits and lax oversight in the past, WVDEP has helped enable the continued use of mercury at the plant, placing the health of our citizens and especially the health of our children in peril,” wrote Margaret Janes, senior policy analyst with the Appalachian Center, in a June permit comment letter filed with the DEP.

In the appeal, Lovett and the Rivers Coalition also allege that the DEP permit violates the Clean Water Act’s “anti-backsliding provisions,” meant to keep pollution from getting worse.

They also say the permit limits are not as stringent as required by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission’s rules for discharges to the Ohio River.

In its response to public comments, the DEP said its permit limits for PPG “for mercury are protective of the water-quality standards in the receiving stream, which are protective of the designated uses of the receiving stream.”

The PPG plant, along the Ohio River in southern Marshall County, makes chlorine by pumping saltwater through vats of pure mercury.

The Natrium plant is one of only nine chlor-alkali facilities across the country that still use this 111-year-old process.

Earlier this month, Pittsburgh-based PPG announced that it was replacing the mercury-based system with a cleaner technology at a similar plant in Louisiana. The move eliminates Louisiana’s largest single source of mercury air emissions.

So far, PPG officials say they have no plans to consider a similar upgrade for the 650-employee Natrium plant.

The PPG plant in West Virginia ranks as the state’s top source of mercury air pollution. It generates far more mercury air emissions than any of West Virginia’s coal-fired power plants, according to reports PPG filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The PPG plant also is the state’s largest generator of mercury water pollution.

In 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available, PPG officials reported 16 pounds of mercury discharged into the Ohio River. That’s a tiny amount — perhaps equal to the liquid mercury in 16 household thermometers, according to the EPA. But, mercury builds up as it climbs the food chain, concentrating into amounts thousands of times greater than what is in water.

Depending on the dose, human health effects from exposure to mercury can include subtle loss of sensory and cognitive ability, tremors, inability to walk, and death.

In Victorian England, mercury was used to cure the fabric on the outside of hats, to prevent warping and staining. Through years of exposure to these vapors, milliners developed progressively severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms included uncontrollable muscle tremors and spasms in their limbs, or “hatter’s shakes.” Hatters also developed distorted vision, confused speech and eventually full-blown hallucinations and psychosis — the inspiration behind Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter.

Today, of particular concern is the fact that mercury becomes more concentrated as it passes from a mother to her fetus. Children are at risk of having to struggle to keep up in school or needing remedial classes or special education.

West Virginia residents are cautioned to limit the locally caught fish they eat to avoid mercury poisoning. When they issued this warning in December 2004, state officials cited a two-year study that found high levels of mercury in 78 percent of the fish samples tested.

Under state and federal water-quality rules, pollution discharge permits must be renewed every five years. When this happens, the DEP reviews permit language and can strengthen pollution limits.

Draft permit renewals also are subject to public comment periods and can be challenged before the EQB and in court — either by citizens who oppose permits as too weak or companies that believe they are excessively stringent.

In 1994, the PPG permit underwent such a review.

Originally, the DEP set the proposed mercury permit limits at a monthly average of 0.012 pounds per day and a daily maximum of 0.056 pounds per day.

PPG appealed to the state EQB and, in September 1995, the DEP settled the case. Agency officials agreed to a monthly average of 0.49 pounds per day and a maximum daily of 0.95 pounds per day, according to board records.

In 2001, then-DEP water chief Allyn Turner tried again to tighten PPG’s mercury permit limit. Turner issued a draft permit that would limit PPG’s mercury discharge to a monthly average of 0.042 pounds per day and a maximum of 0.094 pounds per day.

PPG complained to DEP officials, and then appealed the permit again to the environmental board.

In December 2001, the DEP settled the appeal. The agency agreed to a monthly average of 0.25 pounds per day and a maximum daily of 0.5 pounds per day.

Last month, the DEP finalized its latest effort to toughen PPG’s mercury limits. But the agency gave the company even more time to comply.

In a letter to the agency, the Rivers Coalition said, “Unfortunately, we now know that West Virginians and their children live everyday with a heightened risk or mercury-related illnesses and disabilities, leaving the state with a mercury legacy that will dim our future for years to come.

“For decades, the PPG Natrium plant has needlessly polluted our air and our waterways with dangerous levels of mercury,” the group said. “Ultimately, West Virginia and other states will pay the high costs of this pollution through contaminated fish, health risks for our children and diminished economic opportunities.”

To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348-1702.