State fines Kaiser for air pollution Mead smelter bypassed furnace controls 16 times last year

Karen Dorn Steele - Staff writer

SPOKANE _ Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Co. has been fined again for bypassing a new furnace's air pollution control systems at its Mead smelter and spewing soot and chemicals into the air.

This time, the Washington Department of Ecology fine is $9,600 for 16 bypasses last year. They occurred from April 11 to December 31.

Kaiser has already informed Ecology it won't appeal the fine, said Bob King of Ecology's industrial section in Olympia.

"They feel they did better in the last six months," King said.

The citation increases Kaiser's total air and water pollution fines at Mead and Trentwood to $169,200 since the company's union work force walked out on Sept. 30, 1998.

In the year before the strike, Kaiser's environmental fines totaled $24,200, state records show.

Kaiser officials, however, say the problems at Mead's $50 million carbon furnace predate the strike and lockout.

The furnace bakes anodes for making molten aluminum. It has had a series of problems, including more than 200 bypass incidents, since it fired up in 1997.

During a bypass, the pollutants are sent directly up the stack instead of being caught inside the facility.

In a news release last August announcing a $58,800 fine, Ecology said 49 of the plant's first 70 bypasses were avoidable. Kaiser said it was still working out bugs in its $3.7 million pollution control system.

The particulates emitted from the bake furnace are visual concerns and not a human health issue, Kaiser spokeswoman Susan Ashe said.

"We've had some difficulties in the past, but it has been consistently improving this year," Ashe said.

Regulators insist some of the bake furnace releases are potentially harmful.

Particles from combustion sources contain toxic chemicals and can cause health problems if inhaled deep into the lungs, according to Ecology and the American Lung Association.

Last May, when Kaiser was fined $37,000 for similar bypasses over 43 days, Ecology said they "caused excess emissions of fluoride, dust and soot."

Hydrogen fluoride is a chemical that can damage the eyes, lungs, liver and kidneys.

"From my perspective, it looks like they consider these bypasses an accepted cost of doing business. They got fined, but it really doesn't address the problem," said Larry Strom, vice president of Mead Local 329.

Ashe disagreed. She said the furnace has been operating much better in recent months.

Memo: "All in all, the upgraded carbon bake facility has reduced total emissions by 800 tons in 1999. We'll be reporting that in July" in federally mandated Toxic Release Inventory reports, Ashe said.