Document 7RwX0d3Z427LQJarDxR3KnExe

American Bottoms Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility 1 AMERICAN SOTTOMS ROAD SAUGET. ILLINOIS 62201 October 26, 1988 Mr. Donald R. Schregardus Chief, Compliance Section U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Region V 230 South Dearborn Street Chicago, Illinois 60604 Dear Mr. Schregardus: For your information I am enclosing copies of several newspaper articles relating to the U.S. EPA sampling program in Sauget, Illinois. Also included are a transcript of several television news reports which aired on Tuesday evening. Between Greenpeace and the U.S. television celebrity. EPA I' am becoming a . Sincerely GRS:Id Enclosures be: Baker Kissel Smith George^R. Schillinger General Manager DSW 136250 CiTf of East St. Louis COMMONFIELDS OF CAHOKIA PUBLIC WATER DISTRICT Village of cahokia Metro East Sanitary District STLCOPCB4036218 POST-'-DISPATCH OCTOBER 25, 1988 EPA To Investigate River By Safir Ahmed 1 Of the Post-Diipatch Staff The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin today a major In vestigation of pollutants that are be ing discharged into the Mississippi River by eight of the largest chemical plants and two sewage-treatment plants in the Sauget area. About 30 environmental engineers and scientists will take hundreds of samples of the discharges over the next five days in an attempt to deter mine whether the industries are com- NEW REGULATIONS to raise homeowners' bills............ Page 6A plying with federal clean-water laws, officials said. "We are deeply concerned about the pollutants being discharged into the Mississippi/' Anne Weinert, an environmental engineer with the agency's Region V office in Chicago, said at a press conference Monday in Collinsville. The samples will be taken from the discharges from the following eight companies: Monsanto Co., Midwest Rubber and Chemical Co., Cerro Cop per Products, Clayton Chemical Co., Trade Waste Incineration, Big River Zinc (formerly AMAX Zinc Co.), Eth yl Petroleum Additives Inc. and Pfizer Pigments Inc. The first seven plants are in Sauget; Pfizer is in East St. Louis. In addition, discharges from the American Bottoms sewage-treatment plant and the Sauget Physical Chemi cal Plant will be tested. The samples will be tested for ni trates, nitrites, ammonia, heavy met als, arsenic, mercury, polychlorinat ed biphenyls, oil and grease. Analysis of the samples taken will take several weeks or perhaps months, Weinert said. She said the agency had planned the investigation for months, partly because of ongoing concern over the quality of the water in the Mississippi River. The investigation was not prompted by the recent study by Greenpeace, the international envi- Pollutants ronmental group, Weinert said. "While we are aware of the Green peace study, this action has been planned for quite some time," Wein ert said. Earlier this month, Greenpeace re leased a report.that said that IB,000 excess deaths -- the highest death rate along the Mississippi River -- occurred in St Louis between 1968 and 1983. Weinert said the companies had been told about the investigation and had been "very cooperative." Asked whether the warning about the investigation might prompt the companies to lower the level of pol lutants in the discharges, Weinert said: "I hope not. I have no reason to believe they will try to shut down their operations or change their discharge." Max McCombs, superintendent of environmental affairs at Monsanto's W.G. Krummrich plant in Sauget, skid the environmental agency bad sent the company a letter this week in- See POLLUTANTS, Page 6 D Ui sc uj O' aj jji Pollutants From page one forming the company that it would be sampling discharges from the plant all week. McCombs said that the company could shut down parts of its opera tions to improve the quality of its dis charges but that it would not do so. "Our operations are in compliance with discharge standards," McCombs said. "We have nothing to hide. We are going to cooperate to make sure the data are representative of our operations.'' The Krummrich plant makes chemicals for making rubber and also makes swimming pool chemi cals, including phosphorous com pounds, benzene and chlorine. Weinert said the investigation, which is being done in conjunction with the EPA's National Enforcement Investigation Center in Denver, is fo cused only on the discharges from the Sauget area and does not extend to any other discharges along the Mississippi River. She emphasized that the environ mental agency has been concerned about the water in the Mississippi River for some time and pointed out that in May, the agency sued the American Bottoms sewage-treatment plant in SaugeL . The suit Is pending in federal court in Alton. In It, the agency alleges that the plant discharged pollutants that were the most toxic "ever measured In Region V," which consists of Indi ana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Harry Schweich, president of Cerro Copper Products Co., said he was un aware that the sampling done by the agency was anything other than "rou tine." He said that the company had submitted plans to the agency tor a pre-treatment program to clean up its effluent before it reaches Sauget's sewer plants but that it had received no response. Dave Adams, plant manager for Ethyl Petroleum Additives Inc., said the environmental agency probably would require the company to make costly changes in its manufacturing processes to clean up its discharges. Weinert said the last time the agen cy conducted any investigation of this scope was in 1982, when it tested the discharges from Sauget's sewage plant and found that "lots and lots of organic chemicals" were being dis charged into the river. Christine Bertelson of the Post-Dis patch staff contributed information for this story. STLCOPCB4036219 BELLEVILLE NEWS-DEMOCRAT OCTOBER 25, 1988 EPA to test water at 10 area plants By YVETTE CRAIG Weinert said the investigative News-Democrat team will be sampling for total SAUGET - The U.'S. suspended solids, biochemical, Environmental Protection Agency is oxygen, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, conducting a metals, arsenic, mercury, oil or weeklong grease, PCPs, acid compounds and investigation that organic compounds. will test water "We are deeply concerned about samples from 10 the conventional pollutant and toxic metro-east waste discharges in the area. And, we will do treatment plants. whatever we feel is necessary to The American protect the water that falls into the Bottoms Regional Mississippi River," Weinert said. Wastewater George R. Schilinger, manager of Treatment American Bottoms, said he doesn't Facility is the ... . first of io waste Anne Weinert expect the investigation will turn up any surprises. In fact, he believes water discharge plants east of the investigators will find only Mississippi to be investigated, information the company has already beginning today, through Sunday. given in their monthly reports to the Regional engineers and state and federal EPA offices. representatives from the EPA's "This is quite routine. It's been their National Enforcement Investigation practice in the past to have surprise Center will be conducting an intensive visits," Schilinger said. "The plant on-sight sampling investigation, has been running very well in the past ov> according to Anne Weinert, one of the three to six months and I expect it will environmental engineers conducting continue to run well." the investigation. The companies are subject to fines "We've b^en planning this for quite of |25,000 a day if wastes exceed the sometime," Weinert said. "We compliance standards of the Clean U> O' N AT decided it was necessary to do a Water Act of 1972, said Daniel comprehensive weeklong sampling O'Riordan, spokesman for the U.S., Investigation to get an overall picture N) of the various facilities." See EPA/4B! EPA-- Continued from IB EPA office in Chicago. The results will not return for several months, Weinert said. The U.S. EPA filed suit May 13 in federal court against American Bottoms for repeatedly discharging pollutants into the Mississippi River in excess of permitted amounts. The case is pending, Weinert said. In September, American Bottoms was granted a limited one-year pollution compliance variance concerning the color of water discharged. The company was denied a variance from state water quality standards for dissolved organic solids, various metals and water acidity. An explosion at the treatment center in December 1987 crippled the plant's $14 million carbon treatment system. An estimated $500,000 damage was done to the plant. The American Bottoms plant treats 15 million to 20 million gallons of water daily. The company provides secondary sewage treatment for communities that include Cahokia and East St. Louis. Other waste water treatment plants being investigated this week include: Midwest Rubber Reclaiming Co., 3101 Mississippi Ave.,Sauget. Pfizer Pigments Inc., 200 Lynch Ave., East St. Louis. Monsanto Company, 500 Monsanto Ave., Sauget. Cerro Copper Products, Mississippi Ave., Sauget. Clayton Chemical Co., 1 Mobile Ave., Sauget. Trade Waste Incineration, 7 Mobile Ave., Sauget. Ethyl Petroleum Additives Inc., Monsanto Ave., Sauget. Big River Zinc, Monsanto Ave., Sauget. STLCOPCB4036220 Channel 5 Report " Environmental Protection Agency Visit" Reporting: Jeff Fowler The pollution investigation targets chemical companies and treatment plants in the Sauget Area. This is. what has concerned environmentalists. Strange looking discharges pouring out of pipes into the Mississippi River. The Environmental Protection Agency has set up a command post to sort through hundreds of water samples, but they already know that there is a problem. Ann Weinert: We actually came down in March and dida sampling, and found alot of pollutants aren't necessarily limited in the permit, but are toxic pollutants that we don't want to see in the Mississippi. We have found them in the effluent from the treatment plant. Fowler: Already today teams of technicians have been collecting samples of water to see if they contain oil, grease, or dangerous chemicals. One test site is the American Bottoms Treatment Plant, which handles industrial waste from several companies. Manager, George Schillinger says his plant is not the problem. Schillinger: We know, and we have tested the river itself and within two hundred feet of our outfall, there is no e-vidence< of toxicity. Fowler: Earlier this month Greenpeace issued a report showing the death rate along the Mississippi, and especially in St. Louis, was higher than the national average. The Environmental Protection Agency denies that's what prompted their investigation. Weinert: It's coincidental. Fowler: Gathering the samples will take only a week. Finding out what the chemicals are and where they are comming from may take months or more. DSw 136253 STLCOPCB4036221 Channel 2 Report "Environmental Protection Agency Visit" Reporting: Lisa Brown This is the most extensive investigation of area industries in six years according to the Environmental Protection Agency. They say they are concerned about the many pounds of hazardous materials which flow from the industries through the treatment plant into the Mississippi River. Ann Weinert: While we do permit facilities to discharge certain amounts of pollutants, we certainly want to limit the . amount going into the river, because of the pollutants that are going out there are toxic. They can cause cancer, they can cause problems with the aquadic community in the river. Thirty environmental engineers are taking samples from the discharge of companies such as: Monsanto, Clayton Chemical, Trade Waste Incinerator, Big River Zinc, Ethyl Petroleum and Midwest Rubber. A company ran by Horace Drake. Drake: As a consultant we take samples and run constant analysis for pretreatments. We don't think we have a problem. ' Brown: All other companies we have talked with only Ethyl Petroleum may have to implement some changes. The Environmental Protection Agency says they may npt be alone. They may ask companies to further treat their waste before sending it to American Bottoms. - The Environmental Protection Agency filed suit against the facility in March for discharge violations" among others. Plant Manager, George Schillinger says, "since then the tide has changed." Schillinger: Every month we have an opportunity to violate our state issued permit.approximately 800 ways. In the past three months we have had a total of two violations. Brown: The Environmenatl Protection Agency obviously wants to verify the improvement, so they will take samples of American Bottoms and the other nine plants through Sunday. The actual testing process will take three months. " DSW 1.3625** STLCOPCB4036222