PotashCorp’s PCS Phosphates-Aurora Division (PCS) has received a revised water quality certification from the state of North Carolina for the company’s planned mine expansion at the Aurora facility. The permit will be incorporated in the forthcoming U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision on a federal permit for the expansion. PCS said last week it expects the Army Corps to act by the end of April.

In the meantime, local officials have been lining up in support of the mine expansion. PCS employs over 1,000 in Beaufort County, and is the county’s largest employer. Local environmental groups continue to oppose the mine expansion, fearing its impact on wetlands and streams.

The new permit is the latest development in PCS’s ten-year permitting process to expand the facility. Last June, the company modified its earlier expansion plans to mine fewer acres and impact less wetlands (GM June 2, 2008, p. 1). The new plan would undertake an approximate 11,909 acre mine advance into the approximately 15,100 acre project area surrounding its current mining operation north of Aurora. The expansion would accommodate 37 years of mining at 5 million st/y, and would impact approximately 4,135 acres of wetlands. Previously, PCS has sought to advance into 13,931 acres, impacting 5,667 acres of wetlands. In the interim, however, the Army Corps had asked PCS for alternatives.

Last June, PCS said it still had four years of mining at its existing Aurora operations.

PCS says that for each acre of wetlands disturbed, 1.8-2 acres would be restored or preserved by the company, which is similar to the company’s current permit. However, the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation, a local environmental group that has actively eyed the project, maintains it will be the largest destruction of wetlands in the state’s history. Pamlico also fears that PCS will mitigate wetlands elsewhere while the Aurora wetlands are needed for local flood control, and that high levels of cadmium, arsenic, and chromium will be in the soils used to reclaim mined lands and will leach into groundwater.

The organic food industry apparently hasn’t seen the last of fertilizer spiking or other such irregularities. According to the Organic Materials Review Institute, the industry’s certification arm, other companies besides California Liquid Fertilizer are being investigated, and the findings are expected to be released soon. California Liquid was recently identified as having spiked its organic fertilizer for years with synthetic fertilizer, reportedly ammonium sulfate (GM Jan. 5, p. 10).

“We are looking at other companies right now,” OMRI spokesman Miguel Guerrero told Green Markets. “We can’t identify them exactly right now. We are moving ahead to remove other products from our list that have been shown to be in noncompliance. We expect to be releasing this in the next week or two.” Saying there aren’t many of them, Guerrero described those under investigation as competitors of California Liquid in making and selling liquid fertilizer in California.

“While we believe the organic industry is strong and healthy and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the private certification business, unfortunately, violations do occur from time to time. There is a huge incentive for companies to cheat, so we are always on the lookout. Once we determine that there is a problem with a product, we revoke our certification (de-list) immediately, fulfilling our duty to protect consumers and organic farmers,” Guerrero explained. “In addition to possible de-listing and prohibition decisions against companies that are found to spike their products with prohibited synthetic ingredients, we are prepared to pursue companies that misrepresent their products to us and violate our certification agreement.”

The California Dept. of Food and Agriculture, which validates and licenses fertilizer products and leaves certifying to the industry, also indicated in its response to questions submitted by Green Markets that there may be other violators. Mike Jarvis, who is a public relations assistant to the department secretary, confided that there were companies withdrawing their application on learning they had to reveal contents of their product. “Which tells us that they weren’t doing it right,” Jarvis commented.

CDFA’s written response to Green Markets stated that one firm has withdrawn its application at this point, and that the department is continuing to evaluate claims, guarantees, and derivation statements on organic fertilizer labels sold in the state for accuracy. “Investigators will continue to sample fertilizers for organic food production and check for the presence of synthetic substances,” the statement added.

Asked about reports that the distributor of another organic liquid fertilizer representing about 5 percent of the market pulled its product in November 2007 in the middle of another state investigation, and that rumors in the industry point to another major disclosure as soon as this month, CDFA responded, “As a policy, we do not discuss investigations that may be in progress.”

Asked about holding organic food suppliers responsible for using non-organic fertilizer, CDFA stated, “The monitoring of the organic food production is conducted by National Organic Program Accredited Certifying Agencies. CDFA carries out investigations of complaints and can hold organic food suppliers responsible for use of any farm inputs that are not allowed as defined by the National Organic Program.”

Green Markets posed the following questions and received the subsequent responses from CDFA.

GM: Why did CDFA let California Liquid Fertilizer off the hook with not even a small fine? Does the fact the company has been absorbed into Converted Organics have anything to do with it?

“CDFA does not certify fertilizers for organic food production. There are third-party organizations that follow guidelines put forth by the National Organic Program who certify organic fertilizers (e.g., OMRI, WSDA). CDFA is working with the Fertilizer Inspection Advisory Board to determine gaps and enhance how the program monitors fertilizers used in the production of organic foods. For the fertilizer inspection program, in early 2008, CDFA expanded staff and moved to change enforcement policies.”