Boise-The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has granted Monsanto a new Tier I air quality operating permit for the company’s P4 Production LLC elemental phosphorus plant north of Soda Springs, Idaho. IDEQ notified Plant Manager Bruce Pallante of its immediately effective decision in a July 14 letter. P4 Production is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Monsanto, which applied for a permit renewal on June 29 to replace a permit issued in December 2002. Monsanto’s Soda Springs plant is the only elemental phosphorus plant still operating in North America after FMC closed its Pocatello, Idaho, plant in December 2001. The P4 Production plant encompasses 800 acres. Phosphate ore, silica, and coke are fed into its three large electric furnaces to manufacture elemental phosphorus used in a variety of products, including the Roundup herbicide. The permit applies to all sources of emissions at the plant, including the three furnaces, kiln and cooler, material handling and drying, nodule crushing and screening, and A/U boiler. It pertains to fugitive emissions, odorous gases, liquids or solids, visible and excessive emissions, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, fluorides, opacity, fuel-burning equipment, sulfur, open burning, and asbestos. About 700 are employed at Monsanto’s mining and processing operations in Southeast Idaho.
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