Highland, Ill.-A state police air operations team patrolled from the sky while a methamphetamine response squad chased down and arrested a fleeing suspect who jumped into a nearby lake after trying to tap anhydrous ammonia tanks at a farm supply store here. The whole drama was photographed from the plane and made available on the Internet. Zone 6 Meth Response Commander Joe Beliveau told Green Markets that these teams have been conducting surveillance on a number of anhydrous ammonia locations as part of the meth team’s ongoing efforts to proactively combat the manufacture of meth and drug content thefts. “It’s not uncommon for air operations to be working like this with a meth team or other narcotics units,” Beliveau commented. In this case they were keeping watch at R&T Ammonia in Highland when a pickup truck was observed dropping off an individual near R&T early in the evening. Beliveau said the individual walked approximately a quarter of a mile to R&T, where he attempted to open the valves on several tanks. When he found out that he’d been spotted he ran from the site and jumped into a nearby lake, where police pulled him out and arrested him. Now housed in the Madison County Jail on an $80,000 bond, the suspect faces charges of attempting to possess anhydrous ammonia for producing meth and unlawful tampering with ammonia equipment.

Annapolis, Md.-Residents, businesses, and others caught in the record wintry onslaught in the east are being warned never to use fertilizer to melt snow because it can add unnecessary nitrogen and phosphorus to waterways. This message was directed particularly at Maryland, where Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance put out this advisory: “We have seen recent news reports advising residents to use fertilizer as an option to melt snow. Fertilizer should never be used as it will add unnecessary nutrients and risk damage to the Chesapeake Bay. We all have to do our part to help the Bay. Farmers don’t apply nutrients on frozen ground; neither should urban and suburban residents.” Hance noted that the University of Maryland Extension offers a fact sheet to help residents decide which type of product may be most appropriate for their needs. The fact sheet also identifies methods to melt snow without de-icing products, ways to avoid damage to plants, and whether products are corrosive. There are also new, more environmentally friendly products on the market to consider, such as sugar beet molasses, known as Ice Bite, which the State Highway Administration plans to test on state roads this winter. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation also weighed in on the issue by strongly discouraging using lawn fertilizer or deicers containing urea to melt ice, particularly near or on hard surfaces, because of the increase in runoff potential. The foundation emphasized that fertilizer and urea contain nitrogen and most fertilizers also contain phosphorus, both chief pollutants of the Chesapeake and the local creeks and rivers that feed the Bay.

Sioux City-Terra Nitrogen Co. L.P. reported net income of $22.9 million ($1.22 per L.P. unit) on sales of $98.1 million for the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, 2009, compared to the year-ago $104.4 million ($3.55 per unit) and $225.2 million, respectively. The company said lower prices were partially offset by an 11 percent increase in UAN sales volumes. Ammonia volumes were off 25 percent due to the late harvest. Full-year net income was $144.3 million ($5.40 per unit) on sales of $507.7 million, versus 2008’s $422.4 million ($14.90 per unit) and $903 million. For the year, ammonia volumes were up slightly, while UAN sales were off 11 percent.

(Price is average selling price. Gas cost is mmBtu.)

Ottawa-A judge has ruled that Toronto 18 member Shareef Abdelhaleem was not induced or persuaded by a government agent to carry out his role in the foiled anti-Afghanistan war plot to explode massive fertilizer bombs at Canadian landmarks. According to the Ottawa Prosecution Service, Abdelhaleem was to be sentenced Feb. 19 to a possible maximum life in prison, but he has 30 days to decide whether to appeal this decision. His lawyers had argued his conviction should be stayed because he had been lured into a plot by a former friend working as an undercover agent as part of a police sting. The judge, however, found that he was not induced or persuaded by the government agent to commit the crimes for which he was found guilty on Jan. 21, and that he took up the cause with “full knowledge” of what he was involved in. “The evidence contains many instances where he advanced the bomb plot,” the judge concluded. Abdelhaleem, the seventh person to be arrested in the plot, has been in custody since his arrest on June 2, 2006. In another Toronto 18 case, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada on Feb. 16 filed notice of appeal of the sentencing of Saad Gaya, 22, who was sentenced to 12 years in January, but would only have to serve 4½ years after taking into account pretrial custody. The Crown had been seeking 17 to 18 years.

Cranbury, N.J.-Specialty phosphate maker Innophos Holdings Inc. reported a 91 percent drop in net income for the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, 2009, to $5.1 million ($.23 per diluted share) on sales of $147.2 million, compared to the year-ago $59 million ($2.71 per diluted share) and $216.4 million. Fourth-quarter operating income was $18.8 million, versus the year-ago $72.6 million. Innophos CEO Randy Gress said he is confident that the recent phase of price declines is near an end, and that volume trends going into 2010 are very encouraging. Full-year net income was off 67 percent, to $68.1 million ($3.10 per share) on sales of $666.7 million, versus 2008’s $207.2 million ($9.54 per share) and $934.7 million. Operating income was $134 million, versus 2008’s $298.8 million. Gress told analysts that he was pleased with what the company accomplished in 2009. “Across the company, I think we did an outstanding job of handling a tough market situation to deliver solid results. Despite being disadvantaged by the high phosphate rock cost in Mexico and against the backdrop of a global economic downturn together with downward phosphate pricing pressure through the year, we still produced the second highest sales, operating income and net income that this company has ever seen.” Innophos said its Mexican subsidiary will continue to purchase phosphate rock from Morocco’s OCP through September 2010. Innophos expects those prices to be lower than those of 2009, but still adverse to market. After September, the company expects to source rock elsewhere. It is currently in arbitration over 2008-2009 rock pricing with OCP. Hearings on OCP’s counterclaims are expected in July.

Detroit-Synagro Technology officials weren’t available to comment on reports that the Houston-based company has tried and failed to obtain another contract with Detroit, where officials are still questioning Synagro’s “integrity and judgment” over the contract cancelled early last year in the midst of a bribery scandal. The Detroit press reported that Synagro attempted to prequalify last fall to bid on another sludge disposal contract, but was turned down by Pamela Turner, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department director. Turner sent a letter to Synagro referring to city ordinances that require contractors to demonstrate a “satisfactory record of integrity, judgment, and performance.” In addition, Councilman Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., who was serving as interim mayor at the time the contract was terminated, was quoted as saying that “there still remains a taint over the company, considering all that has transpired. I don’t understand why they would want to entertain coming back in view of the scandal.” Neither Turner nor Cockrel were available to provide more details about the contract Synagro was seeking. But the bribery scandal has continued to unfold in the courts since last summer, when a Synagro vice president who is no longer with the company admitted to bribing public officials in exchange for approval of the $1.2 billion contract. Just last week, on Feb. 17, a mistrial was declared in the public corruption trial of a political consultant allegedly involved in the bribery. The mistrial was apparently declared because one of the jurors refused to participate in the deliberations and the jury could not reach a verdict on whether Sam Riddle was guilty of obtaining cash for his boss, Councilwoman Monica Conyers. Conyers already has pleaded guilty and resigned her council seat. Before and during the Riddle proceedings Synagro maintained that no one in the company knew anything about the bribes other than James Rosendall, Jr., the former Synagro vice president, who cooperated with the FBI and later pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy. “We have cooperated fully with federal authorities,” Joseph Page, Synagro vice president and general counsel, told Green Markets. “No other employees are a target of the investigation.” Still, evidence presented at the trial of Riddle made a few observers wonder. According to press reports, in wiretapped calls recorded before he began working with the FBI, Rosendall talks “more than once about higher-ups at Synagro signing off on payments.”

Lebanon, Penn.-John Deere Golf and LebanonTurf on Feb. 17 announced an agreement to expand distribution of LebanonTurf’s line of methylene urea products under the Country Club brand. “Country Club has been a preferred choice among superintendents for decades based on its performance and results,” said Gregg Breningmeyer, group director of sales and marketing for John Deere Golf. “We’re pleased to offer these proven agronomic solutions to our customers.” Country Club is LebanonTurf’s premier homogeneous methylene urea fertilizer line that combines traditional high-WIN products with the company’s patented Composite Technology granulation process. The full line of Country Club fertilizer products – available in both greens and fairway grades – will be available on John Deere Golf Stores on Wheels, from John Deere Golf sales representatives, and in John Deere Landscapes stores.

Florham Park, N.J., and Wilmington, Del.-BASF Plant Science and DuPont recently announced that they have reached an agreement on a patent infringement dispute. In June 2009, BASF and DuPont filed suit against each other in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware regarding intellectual property rights relating to biotechnology traits, including traits that provide tolerance to ALS herbicides. The parties have reached an agreement to cross-license patents and dismiss their claims and counterclaims against each other in both of the cases pending in Delaware. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Halfway, Ore.-Biochar Products, a small start-up company focusing on pyrolysis to turn forest wastes into soil conditioners and fuels, is in the early stages of developing a 10-dry-ton-per-day prototype plant near here with hopes of putting the concept to use in small communities located near forested landscapes. Eric Twombly, the company’s president, is a former U.S. Forest Service employee who envisions a market for owners of private timberland and federal land managers who might otherwise burn or dispose of waste from forest thinning projects. “One of these plants in my estimation might pencil out to 10 or 15 jobs, and we could easily have three or four in this area around Halfway, Baker City, Trout Creek, and other places in Baker and Union counties,” Twombly told the local press during a recent tour of the plant for timber owners and others from northeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. Biochar is simply charcoal that is created using a pyrolysis process, heating biomass in a low oxygen environment. Biochar is spread on agricultural fields and incorporated into the top layer of soil to increase crop yields by preventing fertilizer runoff and leeching. It also aids in moisture retention. Twombly started investigating alternatives to burning waste from forest health projects in slash piles and found a prototype machine that can turn wood and agricultural wastes such as chicken manure into fertilizer and fuel. He resigned from the Forest Service to set up the prototype plant under an agency grant.