The Idaho Board of Environmental Quality unanimously voted to endorse new rules that would toughen state controls for mercury emissions, requiring companies like Monsanto Corp., the state’s largest industrial source of mercury, to install controls if they exceed limits.
The 5-0 vote was hailed by environmentalist groups such as the Idaho Conservation League (ICL), who have been pushing the issue for more than a year and secured Monsanto’s support for tighter regulations, arguing mercury can accumulate in fish and poses health risks to pregnant women and babies.
The new rules are subject to legislative approval, but they go into effect unless the Idaho Senate and House vote them down. The legislature is expected to review the rules in March.
The board voted to pursue the new rules in August 2009, reversing its rejection of a similar petition five months earlier sought by environmentalists after Monsanto and the ICL agreed to back them.
At the time, the J.R. Simplot Co. opposed the rule change for fear it would add costs for existing facilities, which have only low or no mercury emissions. Plants that can emit more than 25 pounds of mercury will come under the new rules.
“Simplot company employees participated in the rulemaking, and we were glad to be of assistance,” Simplot spokesman David Cuoio told Green Markets. “It’s important to note that the new rule applies only to mercury sources that are not regulated by the EPA. Since the EPA already regulates Simplot phosphate operations, the new rule will not apply to those facilities.”
James Cagle, risk manager for Agrium U.S. Inc.’s Conda Phosphate Operations at Soda Springs, stated: “Agrium has worked closely with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) to develop a new standard that is based on sound science and benefits the environment. Idaho is taking the right approach, and we support the new emissions rules.”
Like Simplot and Agrium, Monsanto mines phosphate in Southeast Idaho’s Caribou County, but processes it near Soda Springs into elemental phosphorus, not fertilizer. Its P4 Production LLC plant in Caribou County is Idaho’s largest source of mercury.
In February 2009, Monsanto helped lead an effort to keep the IDEQ from regulating major mercury polluters, but it later decided to proactively work with the ICL and state regulators to resolve the issue. IDEQ board members then unanimously killed a rule that would have asked industries to voluntarily install best-available technology for removing mercury from smokestacks.
Monsanto officials said they wanted to reduce overall mercury pollution, but not target levels of mercury in lakes and fish near large polluters. The Idaho Association of Industry & Commerce, the state’s most powerful business lobby, previously has been neutral on the issue, but has since endorsed the new rules.
Previous regulations allowed a company to discharge as much as 100,000 pounds of mercury, and limit mercury inhalation by workers and plant neighbors. Monsanto’s discharges from its Soda Springs plant ranged from 600 to 700 pounds a year.
Monsanto spokesman Trent Clark said Monsanto was in the process of installing a $40 million upgrade to its emission controls in 2007 before the rules were proposed. Monsanto’s upgrades targeted sulfur dioxide, but have proven to work exceptionally well for mercury, he said. It has consented to continue reviewing its emissions and install new technology when feasible as it becomes available.
Idaho lakes from Canada to the Nevada border have mercury advisories. Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir continues to have high mercury levels; the long-suspected source is northern Nevada gold mines. At the ICL’s urging, Nevada implemented a mercury-monitoring program and required all mines that emitted mercury above a certain level to use maximum available technology for reducing mercury emissions.
In April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed cutting mercury emissions from gold ore processing and production facilities. EPA’s proposal would reduce annual mercury emissions to about 1,390 pounds a year – a 73 percent reduction from 2007 levels.