Washington-The Fertilizer Institute reports that it has become a sponsor of the Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response (TRANSCAER) program. TRANSCAER is a voluntary national outreach program that was founded by Union Pacific Railroad and Dow Chemical Co. in 1986. The program focuses on helping local communities become better prepared for and able respond to possible hazardous material transportation incidents. It also facilitates partnerships between communities and industry members, and encourages the development of community emergency response plans. In addition to TFI, other TRANSCAER sponsors include the American Chemistry Council, Association of American Railroads, CHEMTREC, The Chlorine Institute, the National Association of Chemical Distributors, National Tank Truck Carriers, and the Renewable Fuels Association. TFI member companies CF Industries Holdings Inc., PotashCorp, Terra Industries Inc., and J.R. Simplot Co. have been active participants with TRANSCAER by providing training assistance for local events.
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Simplot family to build park, ag museum
Boise-The family of the late J.R. Simplot, an Idaho agribusiness multi-billionaire who died a year ago May 25 at the age of 99, plans to invest $100 million to convert a nearly vacant four-block area in downtown Boise into a parkscape that will include an agriculture museum. Private funds from the Simplot Family Foundation will pay for the project on slightly more than seven acres. Called “Jack’s Urban Meeting Place,” the project has been in the works for 10 years, Simplot spokesman David Cuoio said. Simplot earned his estimated $3.5 billion in wealth by building an international empire on phosphate fertilizer, mining, frozen food production, and cattle operations. Construction is set to begin in spring 2010 and expected to take 2.5 years to complete. It will provide more than 1,000 jobs, Cuoio said. The Simplot family already owns most of the land, and warehouses will be removed. The project will go through the normal permitting and design review process. There has been talk over the years of linking the project to a new convention center and expansion of a science discovery center. A four-acre park will form the heart of Jack’s Urban Meeting Place. The building’s structure, shaped like a pointed oval, will form a perimeter around the park. Other planned features tentatively will include an amphitheater for live events, with dinner seating for more than 500 and theater-style seating for nearly 1,200; a sculpture garden with a display of antique tractors; a variety of outdoor and indoor venues for gatherings; and studio space for artists. It also may house the J.R. Simplot Co.’s world headquarters.
IDEQ seeks comment on Monsanto proposal
Boise-The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) has announced that it is seeking public comment on Monsanto’s proposal to renew its Tier I air quality operating permit for the company’s P4 Production LLC elemental phosphorus plant two miles north of Soda Springs in Caribou County. The deadline for submitting written comments addressing air quality concerns regarding the proposed permit is Monday, June 22. A public hearing may be held if requested in writing by June 8. According to an IDEQ draft operating permit, P4 Production, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Monsanto, is not in compliance with applicable requirements for its No. 7 furnace hearth replacement and No. 7 furnace transformer replacement because of a failure to obtain a permit to construct prior to construction or modification. The draft permit also states the Monsanto plant does not comply with applicable visible emission and particulate matter requirements regarding its No. 7 and No. 8 carbon monoxide flares. Phosphate ore, silica, and coke are fed into the plant’s three large electric furnaces to produce elemental phosphorus, a chemical used in a variety of products, including the Roundup herbicide, fire retardants, leavening agents, aviation fluids, and carbonated beverages. The Soda Springs plant is the only elemental phosphorus plant still operating in the United States after FMC closed its Pocatello complex in December 2001.
School children caught in spray drift
Caruthers, Calif.-County agriculture investigators say it’s likely there will be a violation and enforcement action taken over a vineyard drift incident southwest of here May 14 in which three children waiting for a school bus inhaled pesticide and fertilizer spray and were taken to a local hospital for a check-up. “We haven’t finished our investigation yet,” Fresno County Chief Agriculture Deputy Karen Fancone told Green Markets. “But at this point we suspect that Kryocide insecticide, Gibberellic acid plant growth regulator, and liquid sulfur were being applied. There was also a fertilizer in the mix, but we haven’t identified it yet.” The bus driver saw the spray rig working in the area and stopped to let it pass by before picking up the three children, Fresno County Fire Protection District spokesman Chris Christopherson told the local press. The bus driver checked the children for symptoms before continuing to Caruthers Elementary, where one child complained of a scratchy throat and the other two reported having trouble breathing. School officials called parents to the school, where the children showered, put on clean clothing their parents brought, and were taken to Community Regional Medical Center, but not admitted. Francone said there could be violations of the food and agriculture code or the California code of regulations as they pertain to pesticide use. The day before, in Madera County, sulfur dust being applied from a dusting machine for mildew control drifted across a road to where three children were waiting for a school bus. Agriculture Commissioner Robert Rolan said the dust apparently got on the children, who didn’t get on the bus but instead returned to their homes, showered, and changed clothing. “They were not complaining about any symptoms and didn’t see a doctor,” Rolan reported. He said the school bus driver stopped the bus, as he is trained to allow the drift to go by. “We investigate whenever anything like this happens. The clothing will be sent to the state lab to be analyzed and there probably will be a violation and enforcement action taken,” he added.
IFC finances fertilizer plant in China
Washington-IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is financing the construction of a 450,000 mt/y fertilizer plant in China’s Sichuan Province, helping the region recover from a devastating earthquake last year by addressing a fertilizer shortage in one of the country’s most important agricultural centers. IFC has signed a $20 million loan and a $10 million equity investment with Koyo Ecological Agrotech Group Ltd. in support of its ammonia and urea plant in Dazhou City. Last year’s earthquake in Sichuan caused an estimated $6 billion dollars in damage to agriculture. More than 30 million people in rural communities were severely affected, losing most of their assets. The earthquake also disrupted the supply of fertilizer in the region, a critical need to restore crop production. Twenty percent of Sichuan’s GDP comes from agriculture, significantly more than the national average.
Two die in Louisville anhydrous release
Louisville-Louisville Fire Department officials say as of late last week the cause had not been determined and the investigation is continuing into the release of an undetermined amount of anhydrous ammonia at American Cold Storage the afternoon of May 13 that claimed the lives of two maintenance workers. Spokesman Sgt. Salvador Melendez said fire personnel remained on the scene into early last week making sure everything was safe for the investigators and cleanup crews. Melendez confirmed that it was a major incident for the department, which was joined by multiple agencies at the industrial center site, where the building already had been evacuated by more than a dozen employees. He said the two victims apparently were the only ones left and were in an area that was reported at one point to be so thick in vapor that it was difficult to see. A Cold Storage supervisor told the press that the men “weren’t working on the ammonia itself, so we don’t know what happened.” Melendez wasn’t sure how much was released, but he said the company reported that the system contained 8,000 pounds of ammonia. Firefighters in hazmat gear located one man on the ground almost immediately, but had to retrieve the other from a scissor lift using another lift. Both men had to undergo decontamination before being transported to a local hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
SC allows lawsuit over 2002 Minot derailment
Washington-The U.S. Supreme Court on May 18 said it will not block the final lawsuits filed by residents of Minot, N.D., against Canadian Pacific Railway over the January 2002 train derailment that released a cloud of anhydrous ammonia from a ruptured tank car, killing one resident and sending others to the hospital for eye and lung problems. In 2006, a U.S. district judge ruled that federal law protected Canadian Pacific from claims stemming from the derailment, but a St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the claims could be pursued after Congress changed the law that same year. Since the accident, several lawsuits against the railroad were decided in a Minnesota court (GM Feb. 20, 2006), and a class-action suit against the railroad (GM May 16, 2005) was also settled. Most individual lawsuits against the railroad have been settled out of court, but several are still to be decided.
Environmental Respect Award winners announced
Willoughby, Ohio-Five farm supply retail businesses and one vegetation management and forestry applicator have been selected as Environmental Respect Award regional winners in the U.S. for 2009. The winners, announced on May 19, include Crop Production Services, Clay, Ky.; Northeast Rural Services, Vinita, Okla.; The McGregor Company, Nezperce, Idaho; Wabash Valley Service, Browns, Ill.; Crop Production Services, Albertson, N.C.; and Premier Ag LLC, Dalhart, Texas. The annual awards are sponsored by DuPont® Crop Protection, CropLife® magazine, and Farm Chemicals International® magazine, and are the agricultural industry’s highest recognition for environmental stewardship among U.S. agricultural retailers. The winners were selected by a panel of industry experts and won the award based on excellence in site design, in-plant storage and handling procedures, proper application, and leadership in safety and stewardship among customers and employees. Each regional winner will receive a personalized crystal sculpture during a special ceremony in Washington, D.C., in July, where the national winner will be named. Winners also receive a press campaign and a public relations kit. In addition to the regional winners who were also winners for their respective states, the following retailers also received Environmental Respect Award for their state: Western Farm Service, Vernalis, Calif.; Centennial Ag Supply, Greeley, Colo.; ProSource One, Boynton Beach, Fla.; Crop Production Services, Rushville, Ind.; Tyree Ag Inc., Kinsley, Kan.; Crop Production Services, Ubly, Mich.; Bird Island Soil Service, Bird Island, Minn.; Central Valley Ag Cooperative, Monroe, Neb.; Dakota Agronomy Partners, Minot, N.D.; Crop Production Services, Findlay, Ohio; Simplot Grower Solutions, Umatilla, Ore.; Eastern Farmers Coop, Worthing, S.D.; Crop Production Services, Bells, Tenn.; Crop Production Services, Ivor, Va.; and United Cooperative, Pickett, Wisc.
EPA sampling finds PFCs in wells, ponds
Atlanta, Ga.-Decatur Utilities at Decatur, Ala., isn’t expected to be producing biosolids for use as fertilizer anytime, soon even though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency believes it has singled out the sources of perfluorinated compounds detected last November in samples from the utility’s Dry Creek Plant. “We have identified three principal industries that have released the chemicals in wastewater discharges,” Gail Mitchell, deputy director of the water protection division at EPA’s Region 4, told Green Markets. She named the companies as 3M, Daikin Industries, and Toray, and said that two of them are PFC chemical manufacturers and the other is a user, and all have wastewater discharges that went to the treatment plant in the area. PFCs, which can degrade into perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), have been found to cause serious health problems, including cancer. Mitchell also disclosed the results of EPA testing of public water systems that detected no PFCs above the provisional health advisory levels. But of six private wells used for drinking water in agriculture areas where the suspected biosolids were spread, two had concentrations above the advisory level. “We’ve worked with a group of businesses and industries in the areas to provide those two residences alternative water and they are now connected to the public water system,” the EPA official disclosed. The 12 wells not used for drinking but primarily for livestock watering had concentrations from non-detect up to 0.15 parts per billion. About 30 samples were collected from livestock water ponds, with concentrations anywhere from non-detect up to 11.00 ppb., which is considered relatively high. “We are waiting for results from the soil samples and will hold a public meeting on June 2,” Mitchell explained. “But right now we know of no one who is drinking water with contents above the health advisory level. Meanwhile, we expect to have results from the soil tests by the end of May.” The sampling and testing is spread over the counties of Lawrence, Morgan, and Limestone in north central Alabama, involving 5,000 acres and approximately 40 farms with various parcels that received the biosolids. At the same time, Decatur Utilities continues to produce biosolids as part of its wastewater treatment plant operations, Mitchell reported, but sends it all to a local landfill for disposal. Mitchell said Decatur is working with the Alabama Dept. of Environmental Management and local industries to reduce or eliminate PFCs from discharges that go to its treatment plant. She believes the utility has no plans to resume land application of biosolids.
Maryland mandates low phos for lawns
Annapolis, Md.-The Maryland Department of Agriculture expects few, if any, problems implementing HB609, which was signed into law earlier this month by Gov. Martin O’Malley to limit phosphorus fertilizer used on lawns starting in 2011. “We expect that the fertilizer bill will be seamless for the industry because many are already starting to put similar products on the market to meet the demand of some of the more sophisticated consumers,” reported Mary Ellen Setting, assistant secretary for plant industries. “It doesn’t go into effect until April 1, 2011, so industry has time to adapt its products. The law is limited to lawn fertilizer for do-it-yourselfers, not commercial applicators.” Setting noted that Maryland is leading the Chesapeake Bay states in implementing this program, which was agreed upon by the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council in 2006. For that reason, the law has been designated the Chesapeake Bay Phosphorus Reduction Act of 2009. It prohibits after the effective date the sale or distribution by a retail establishment any fertilizer that does not meet the low phosphorus requirements, defined as containing not more than 5 percent of available phosphoric acid. Licensed landscape contractors are not regulated under this law. Starting on the effective date, fertilizer manufacturers whose products are sold in Maryland must report to the department the pounds of phosphorus in their lawn care products sold at retail locations at the end of each year.