Environmental Progress - Winter 1996

Legal Counsel Side-Bars

St. Clair County Firm to Complete $3.1 Million Pollution Prevention Project

In a consent order entered Aug. 15, 1996, in the St. Clair County Circuit Court, Monsanto Company, Inc. has admitted violations of the Environmental Protection Act, and agreed to complete a $3.2 million pollution prevention project. The firm must also pay a $30,875 penalty arising from four incidents between 1990 and 1995, all involving chemical releases into the atmosphere.

Under the consent order, Monsanto will complete a project calling for:

• Replacement of a 2.5 million gallon benzene storage tank with a 650,000 gallon fixed room storage tank, and installation of a thermal oxidizer to control emissions from the new tank;
• Monitoring of the benzene transfer system to feed benzene directly from the new storage tank into the process (thereby eliminating the emissions and potential for releases from two 40,000 gallon day tanks);
• Installation of secondary containment and leak detection equipment for the new storage tanks consisting of concrete dike walls and floor sand, an innovative false bottom tank design.

The project, already begun, has reduced hydrochloric acid waste generation by 1,780,000 pounds a year, and benzene emissions by 6,800 pounds a year. It has eliminated the accumulation of contaminated rainwater in the existing floating roof tank and other department wastewater, reducing the treated water effluent discharged to the plant sewer by 50,000,000 gallons per year.

The court order stems from four separate violations by Monsanto between 1990 and 1995, all involving release of chemicals into the atmosphere. In one incident, the release of solid phosphorous pentasulfide resulted in a fire and phosphorous pentaoxide and hydrogen sulfide fumes were emitted.

Abbott Labs Pays $400,000 Penalty for Discharge Violations

Abbott Laboratories has paid $400,000 in penalties for violations stemming from a March 1993 Illinois EPA enforcement referral. The violations included numerous discharges of various contaminants, including tetrahydrofluran, heptane, acetonitrile and many unknown contaminants.

These discharges entered storm sewers and were discharged into Lake Michigan. A discharge which occurred in July 1992 covered the body of a Lake Michigan swimmer with acetonitrile, a hazardous substance, and he was forced to shave off all body hair to rid himself of the sticky white substance.

Under a Consent Order agreement entered in May 1996, Abbott has agreed to perform a hazard and operability study and implement the recommendations of that study in an attempt to prevent further discharges.

Other technical studies will be conducted pursuant to the Consent Order.

In addition, Abbott has agreed to make a payment to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' Conservation Foundation to assist in the acquisition of wetland acreage, including a 10 acre tract in Lake County, for the preservation of wetland areas.