DOE fines Kaiser $388,000

Potline upgrades at Mead smelter caused emission problems for 4 years

Karen Dorn Steele - Staff writer

Spokane _ Carol Kraege, head of Ecology's industrial section in Olympia.

In September 1998, the same month Kaiser workers went out on strike, the company notified Ecology it couldn't immediately comply with a new and stricter federal fluoride standard due to take effect a year later.

Kaiser asked for a postponement to October 2001.

Kaiser's extension request was an irony because Mead had been used as the benchmark to set the new federal standard for fluoride emissions from aluminum smelters. Ecology was puzzled why the company couldn't meet it, Kraege said.

"We asked, why should you get an extension when you are the plant upon which the standards are based? They said two projects in our potroom had negatively impacted fluoride emissions. That was the first we'd heard of this," Kraege said.

Ecology said Kaiser erred in not obtaining a notice of construction permit for the upgrades. Kaiser says it didn't need a permit.

Kaiser has since fixed the pollution problems, Kraege said.

"They did maintenance on their system and rebuilt their fans to get the suction power they needed. They are now way below where they need to be," she said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chose Mead as the model for the fluoride limit. EPA set its strict standard by testing Mead emissions during a narrow window -- from August 1993 to mid-1994 -- when six instead of eight potlines were running, Leber said.

It will cost Kaiser $4 million to $5.5 million to upgrade its plants at Mead and Trentwood to meet the EPA standards by October 2001, Leber said.

Ecology denied Kaiser's request for an extension, but EPA granted the delay for Kaiser's Mead and Tacoma smelters. EPA officials said there was no legal way under the Clean Air Act to deny Kaiser an extension.

The delay doesn't pose human health or environmental risks because smelter emissions are far below state and federal safety limits, Leber said.

Kaiser Mead had pollution problems in 1998, a year of labor tensions. Hydrogen fluoride emissions rose from 599,000 pounds in 1997 to 1.98 million pounds in 1998 _ a sharp upward trend from a decade ago. The emissions have fallen sevenfold since 1998.

In his June letter to Locke protesting the fine, attorney Ormsby stressed the importance of Kaiser jobs in Eastern Washington.

"We all hope that the labor dispute is soon ended; in the meantime, it seems counterproductive to take steps that may make it more difficult for Kaiser to operate in this region in the future," Ormsby said.