Pocatello, Idaho-Demolition of FMC’s elemental phosphorus plant – next to the J.R. Simplot Co.’s phosphate fertilizer complex west of here – is nearly completed. Both constructed in the late 1940s, the plants are located on the Eastern Michaud Flats EPA Superfund site. At its peak, FMC’s four massive electric furnaces converted two million tons a year of raw material into elemental phosphorus, a chemical used in a wide variety of products. The FMC plant shut down in December 2001, throwing more than 400 employees out of work and dealing a blow to Pocatello’s economy. Most of the FMC property sits on the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ Fort Hall Reservation. The Simplot plant is not on reservation land. A 520 megawatt coal gasification plant is planned for a large section of FMC’s remaining non-reservation land, and an ethanol plant has also been suggested. An estimated $50 million in infrastructure, including rail lines, natural gas pipeline, and electrical substation, remain on the property. Sue Skinner, an Environmental Protection Agency specialist who oversees the Superfund site, said there will be at least 30 years of regulatory supervision of the FMC site, where all hazardous on-site ponds have been capped. FMC plans to slope out slag piles, put topsoil on them, and revegetate them. A supplemental remedial investigation will be undertaken after demolition is finished, Skinner said. Rob Hartman, FMC remediation project director, said the dismantling will likely be virtually complete in four months.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain