Mercury pollution remains in Alabama - chlorine production by Occidental

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Jan 28, 2006

Mercury pollution still threat in some parts of Alabama

The Associated Press

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060128/APN/601280696

The environmental group Oceana, which advocates mercury-free chlorine

production, says the Occidental Chemical Corp. plant in Muscle Shoals is

Alabama's largest source of mercury pollution.

A company spokeswoman said Friday the plant six months ago installed

equipment to lower its mercury emissions.

The Occidental plant, which uses a mercury cell process once employed at

several facilities near Mobile, emits slightly more mercury per year than

one of Alabama Power Co.'s largest coal-fired power plants, in central

Alabama, according to federal air pollution databases.

Besides air emissions, the Occidental plant also generates hundreds of

pounds of mercury wastes in solid and liquid forms, the Mobile Register

reported in a story Thursday.

Occidental spokeswoman Jan Sieving of Los Angeles said Friday the Muscle

Shoals plant has installed a " world-class measurement system to measure

mercury in its cell room. "

She said it's the only plant in the United States using this type of tool.

" It allows the plant to monitor mercury emissions on a continuous basis, "

she told The Associated Press. " It's only been in place about six months.

Early indications are cell room mercury emissions are about 50 percent

less than has historically been reported based on the EPA estimation

method. "

Alabama Power's Barry Steam Plant north of Mobile was the fourth largest

emitter of mercury in the state, according to the Oceana report, and five

Alabama Power facilities made the top 10. The R. Lowman coal-fired

power plant near , operated by the Alabama Electric Coop Inc., was

the 10th largest producer of mercury emissions.

Mercury is such a potent pollutant that tiny amounts, less than an ounce

for instance, can contaminate even large lakes to such a degree that fish

are considered unsafe to eat.

The Occidental plant in Muscle Shoals, which received a pollution

prevention award from state regulators in 2002, is one of the last nine

plants in the nation still manufacturing chlorine using the mercury cell

method - a mercury-dependent technology from the 1800s.

There were once five mercury cell plants in Alabama, including Olin's

plant in McIntosh and another Occidental Chemical plant in north Mobile

County.

Today, only the Muscle Shoals factory continues to use the production

technique in Alabama.

Some old mercury cell plant sites in Alabama are contaminated with mercury

to such a degree that they have been listed as Superfund sites by the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency.

Occidential Chemical is based in Dallas, Texas.

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