EPA extends review of Simplot cleanup plan

Boise-The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decided to extend public review of a proposed plan to amend a Record of Decision (ROD) for the J.R. Simplot Co.’s Don phosphate fertilizer plant an additional 30 days, until May 15. The plant is part of the 2,475-acre Eastern Michaud Flats Superfund site west of Pocatello, where FMC also operated an elemental phosphorus plant until it was shut down in December 2001. A 1998 ROD is being amended to add phosphorus as a major contaminant of concern and require additional pollution source controls. It identified a number of contaminants of concern found in groundwater discharging into the nearby Portneuf River, including arsenic, boron, chromium, mercury, nickel, radium, vanadium, and zinc. It could cost Simplot an estimated $50 million in cleanup costs to comply. EPA says the action to amend the ROD is needed because it has been found that springs fed by the groundwater discharge the largest amount of phosphorus to the Portneuf River than any other single known source. It estimates water flows through a 320-acre gypsum stack behind Simplot’s Don Plant at about 1,000 gallons a minute and later reaches the Portneuf via springs and an underflow, causing overgrowth of algae and dissolving oxygen levels for fish and other aquatic life. The proposed plan may be viewed at the EPA web site at http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/cleanup.nsf/sites/emichaud/.