Atlanta — While Mississippi Phosphates Corp. has spent an estimated $2.5 million in corrective actions at its Pascagoula, Miss., phosphate complex, relating to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order issue in 2009 (GM Oct. 5, 2009), EPA says there are more things to do. EPA’s Atlanta office on Feb. 16 issued an order on consent that requires expedited corrective measures be taken at the facility to ensure the protection of public health and the environment. EPA believes that an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health and the environment exists at the facility due to corrosive water discovered by the facility outside the West Stack perimeter dike in January 2011 and September 2011. However, Miss Phos says the water was found to be seeping slowly from a phosphogypsum stack closed in 2005, and that the dike itself is safe and stable. Miss Phos said it immediately neutralized the liquid and then created a berm from agricultural lime to keep the bayou safe during heavy rains. The company plans to permanently fix the problem by installing remediation wells. The order directs that Miss Phos continue to perform corrective actions that were included in the previous 2009 order, which was issued due to EPA’s discovery of uncontrolled leaks and spills of sulfuric acid and untreated discharges from sulfuric acid plants to the adjacent bayou, and uncontrolled spills and leaks of phosphoric acid to unlined ditches at the facility in August 2009. Some of the work still required includes the submission of a revised plan to repair and replace degraded containment around sulfuric acid plants (SAPs); the continued implementation of the groundwater investigative and remediation work plan for the SAPs, DAP plant, and construction area southwest of SAPs; daily visual assessment of seepage from west stack perimeter dike; and the submission of a west gypsum stack system improvement plan.
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