Flotte’s Notes on Mobile Bay & Alabama Environment

· “In the early 1960s, a time of great industrial prosperity, our city's one true skyscraper went up alongside the Mobile River. Pouring the foundation for the 34-story First National Bank Building proved tricky: Mobile lacks the granite bedrock of Manhattan, so expensive pilings had to be stuck down deep in soft Delta mud. But times were fat. Industrialists had extracted great wealth from the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Now Mobile's elite could gather in the Bienville Club, the glittering bank building's top-floor tenant, and dine on well-marbled steaks. For the first time, they could peer down at the devil's bargain they had made. A corridor of heavy industry had been carved out of the Delta wilderness. Chemical manufacturers polluted the Mobile River unabashedly, dumping toxic metals and pesticides into riverbank landfills and hoping the pollution would disappear in the muck or float away with flood currents. It didn't. Downriver, Mobile's shipyards were busy as ever, pouring oil, grease, paint and other wastes into the water off Pinto Island. Vessels moored nearby at the Alabama State Docks found the Mobile River an ideal sewage ditch. The lower Delta had to absorb millions of gallons of bilge water well into the 1970s. Meanwhile, the State Docks was sketching out plans for its new McDuffie Island Coal Terminal, an open-air giant that would deliver Alabama coal to the world. Finished in 1975, the terminal covered most of the island and fouled the waters of neighboring Garrows Bend, which now have some of the most highly acidic pH levels in Mobile Bay. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, working at the behest of the State Docks and city leaders to make Mobile a deep-water port, scoured out the channel bottom and pumped spoil onto all available marshlands along the river. The consequences were dramatic. Coal runoff and shipyard wastes had created sporadic dead zones in the river between Pinto Pass and Garrows Bend. The Corps' dredge spoil made silent mounds out of once-vibrant wetlands. And chemical wastes spread through the swamp. In 1970, 51,000 acres of the Delta were closed to commercial fishing because of mercury contamination.” – Daniel Cusick, PR 1/12/99

· Throughout the 1970s, there was little overt opposition to the area's heavy reliance on chemical and paper industries.

· 1983 The first major environmental mobilization occurred after Chemical Waste Management announced plans to store three million gallons of toxic waste in north Mobile for incineration on ships in the Gulf of Mexico. Notwithstanding a costly public relations campaign to win support for the incineration plan, over 4,000 residents turned out at federal EPA public hearings to protest, eventually forcing the company to withdraw (Bailey and Faupel 1989).

· 1992 Plans to fuel a cement kiln in Theodore with hazardous waste were halted after years of local opposition

· In Alabama, as in much of the Deep South, lax environmental regulation and generous tax waivers have attracted industries fleeing stricter laws and tax policies elsewhere (Cobb 1982).

· The president of the Medical Society of Mobile County, Regina Benjamin, M.D., wrote a letter in 1997 to the president of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce stating "We feel that it is not in the best interest of the citizens of Mobile County that the Chamber of Commerce continue to pursue the growth and development of heavy industry and specifically chemical and petrochemical companies. The further degradation of the environmental health and ecosystem of the county would not be served by the continued promotion of such industries. We would, therefore, urge the Chamber of Commerce to focus its economic development on non- polluting business and industries."

tri.gif - 5821 Bytes Mobile County Toxic Releases

· Mobile County ranked eighth in the nation for total toxic releases to the air in the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for the year 2000.

· Environmental Defense maintains a TRI inventory (currently updated to 2002) at www.scorecard.org. Planet Hazard maps toxic emission sites

Carcinogens

· According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, residents of zip codes adjacent to chemical plants in north Mobile County experienced cancer mortality rates four times higher than state averages. The state lacked a tumor registry until 1998. – Moberg 2002

o Alabama's cancer rate is 380.2 per 100,000 people. In Mobile County, the rate is 427.7 per 100,000 people.

Airborne Emissions

· According to the 2001 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Mobile County ranked first in the nation in the release of air pollutants linked to birth defects (developmental toxicants).

· In 1999, the federal EPA announced that high ozone levels threatened Mobile with "non-attainment" status under Clean Air Act provisions, which would lead to federal restrictions on new industrial development. With this impending threat, the mayor of Mobile and the Chamber of Commerce reluctantly endorsed Mobile Bay Watch's call for a comprehensive air-quality study, which was initiated in 2001.

o In the 1990s, there were multiple days each year when the EPA issued health advisories warning people not to spend too much time outside, lest they risk excessive exposure to lung-damaging ozone. But since that time, federal regulations have been ratcheting down nitrogen oxide emissions from the major national sources, primarily power plants and cars. For reasons not entirely clear to scientists, Mobile hasn't experienced a recent recurrence of frequent high-ozone episodes.

o Several years ago, Mobile appeared to be on track to be singled out by the EPA for consistent violations of the federal ozone standard. But Mobile was never held up as a violator in large measure because implementation of EPA's revised ozone standard was delayed for years by challenges from industry groups. In recent years, Mobile's ground-level ozone concentrations have not been as consistently high as in the past. Many scientists attribute that to changes in weather patterns. Along the Gulf Coast, ozone concentrations are often highest in late spring and early fall, when abundant sunlight, large stagnant air masses and dry conditions combine to produce excellent conditions for ozone development. In 2004 and 2005, ozone concentrations recorded by most of the Mobile Bay area's monitors remained safely below federal standards. In 2006, perhaps fueled by the same weather patterns that encouraged a warm, dry spring that year, ozone concentrations at monitors in Fairhope, Chickasaw and near Theodore violated the national standard five times. – PR 5/1/07

· The Acordis Cellulosic Fibers rayon mill at Axis, which for more than a decade was the biggest producer of toxic air emissions in Alabama, closed in 2001.

· Alabama Power Co.'s Barry Steam Plant is by far the largest single polluter in southwest Alabama. Barry has five massive coal-fired power units.

o It produces more than 50 percent of Mobile County's ozone-causing emissions, most of its "greenhouse" gas emissions, and nearly all of its acid rain-causing emissions. Those major pollutants aren't included on the toxics inventory.

o The Barry Plant is the largest single source of mercury emissions in the county.

o Barry Steam Plant remains the largest source of nitrogen oxides in southwest Alabama. But the latest emission numbers supplied by Alabama Power indicate that the plant has cut its nitrogen oxide emissions in half since the mid-1990s. Alabama Power officials anticipate that by 2009 they will achieve a reduction of 60 to 70 percent from 1990 levels.

o In 2000, the first of two natural gas, combined cycle plants began operations at Barry. Combined cycle plants generate electricity by fueling a turbine with natural gas, while millions of gallons of water are used in its cooling process. This steam is captured to turn a second turbine, which generates additional power - thus a combined cycle. Combined cycle plants have very few emissions. Mobile Bay Watch favors Southern Company's move to natural gas plants, rather than the coal-burning plants. But the combined cycle plants do raise concerns about water usage. The average natural gas plant uses 10 million gallons of water a day.

o Alabama is home to three of the 50 dirtiest plants in terms carbon dioxide emissions according to the Environmental Integrity Project. Only Texas, Pennsylvania and Indiana had more facilities on the list than Alabama. Southern Company plants ranked first, second and third for carbon dioxide pollution. Alabama Power's Miller Steam Plant in Jefferson County was No. 2 on that list, while Barry Steam Plant in Mobile County ranked 40th. The Barry plant ranked 19th in the nation for mercury emissions

· ThyssenKrupp has applied to ADEM for air permits. – PR 3/16/07, 4/4/07

o State regulators said in April that they have seen no obstacles thus far to approving air permits for the ThyssenKrupp mill. However, recent filings with the state show that it will become the largest new source of air pollutants in Mobile County in decades. With new pollution control technologies, the bulk of its direct emissions would result from burning fuels such as natural gas, according to company representatives and ADEM officials. But the scale of the plant's operations would be such that the total emissions would be quite large compared to those of other local manufacturers.

o ThyssenKrupp would be Mobile County’s second-largest source of nitrogen oxide, the major pollutant involved in the formation of harmful ground-level ozone. The quantity of nitrogen oxide produced by ThyssenKrupp is equivalent to the emissions of a couple of hundred thousand additional cars driving on Mobile roads each year.

o New-generation steel mills, such as the IPSCO plant in Mobile County, are dramatically cleaner than the early 20th century steel mills. While IPSCO is one of Mobile County's top emitters of major air pollutants, it releases far fewer pollutants than Alabama Power Co.'s Barry Steam Plant. Sulfur dioxides, which are primarily responsible for acid rain, and nitrogen oxide pollutants, which play a role in ozone pollution, would increase as a result of a new steel mill. Other major pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds are also not expected to present a problem. But the biggest boost in such pollutants might well come from the additional electrical generation required to run such a plant.

o Steel mills have historically been one of the nation's primary sources of particulate pollution, commonly known as soot. But ThyssenKrupp, like other modern steel mills, would use elaborate "bag house" filters to capture almost all of the plant's fine particles. The plant's total particulate emissions of a little less than 600 tons annually would have a negligible effect on air quality

o Mercury was once considered a problem at recycling mills like the one proposed by ThyssenKrupp. But new federal regulations are being implemented that are designed to prevent mercury from getting into the scrap metal that ThyssenKrupp would be using.

o The plant will also need water discharge permits, both for any runoff from its property and any discharges from manufacturing. Mobile BayKeepers has said it will be looking at the volume of cooling water that the plant draws from the Tombigbee River. The company will also be required to get permits for any wetlands affected directly by the plant, and for any docking facilities on the river. The site was long ago cleared and prepared to suit industrial clients, and except for its long bank along the Tombigbee River, it is mostly high and dry.

· ExxonMobil’s Mobile Bay 76 natural gas platform 1½ miles east of Dauphin Island released hydrogen sulfide that swept across the island's east end and sickened dozens of people in September 2007. – PR9/30/07

· McDuffie Coal Terminal:

o Over the past decade, the Press-Register has reported on persistent complaints about coal dust from residents of the Church Street and Oakleigh neighborhoods, a little over a mile from the McDuffie facility.

o See Rob Holbert, Lagniappe, 12/4/07

o The Alabama Port Authority might be required to pay a $30,000 fine to ADEM for multiple violations of the federal Clean Water Act concerning coal dust at the other state docks facilities. Docks officials had delayed replacing the system because they were planning on shutting down the facility, but in 2005, the volume of coal handled by the docks exploded and management decided to create a makeshift coal-handling facility at the old bulk storage terminal. The coal was placed on open-sided docks not designed to contain loose elements, which allowed more coal sediments to enter the water.

Water Quality

Highway 98 Runoff

· Details of the U.S. 98 project

· MAWSS sued the highway department in 2004, arguing the route now under construction "carried the greatest potential ... to cause damage to Big Creek Lake." The settlement required the Mobile County Commission to pass new subdivision regulations and the highway department to change the roadway plans in order to limit the impact on water quality.

· Mobile Baywatch and the Alabama Rivers Alliance filed another lawsuit, claiming that the state did not properly study the road's environmental impacts. That suit was settled earlier when the highway department promised more public input and better environmental assessments on future road projects.

· In September 2007, the Press-Register began documenting large amounts of mud washing from the miles-long construction area and into area streams, forests, wetlands and Big Creek Lake and the Escatawpa River. Sediment was found to have completely filled in some small stream channels.

o Press-Register reporters documented the absence of even the most basic runoff controls -- such as silt fences, hay bales and other environmental protections -- around some of the road project's bare dirt expanses. Highway officials acknowledged there were no protections along some creeks, but said that numerous steps had been taken to reduce dirt runoff and that they were unaware that there was a runoff problem in the Escatawpa. – PR 9/16/07

o On multiple occasions, the Press-Register's reporters have documented the company's employees using heavy equipment in creeks that feed the city's drinking water source, and steep exposed banks with few environmental protections. When Press-Register reporters approached a work site on Scarbo Creek, the heavy machinery ceased working and was moved to an upland area next to a W.S. Newell truck. The crews did not go back to work until reporters left the site. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspectors again found heavy equipment operating in a stream and cited ALDOT. – PR 11/8/07

o The Alabama Department of Environmental Management inspected the road work 16 times, even the day after the first article appeared in the newspaper, and never mentioned any significant problems at the site, according to ALDOT. Since the newspaper's articles, ADEM has issued a formal "Notice of Violation" to ALDOT and is still considering imposing fines against the transportation agency.

o Initially, ALDOT officials said the agency itself would have to pay any fines levied by ADEM -- rather than the road building contractor W.S. Newell -- meaning that Alabama taxpayers would ultimately pay the fine. Later, ALDOT said that the state's contract with W.S. Newell was set up in such a way that Newell might have to pay the fine.

o While ALDOT officials initially denied to the newspaper that there were any problems at the site, McInnes ultimately issued an apology to the people of Mobile for damaging the drinking water source. Days after that apology, the newspaper again documented a heavy load of mud escaping from the site and flowing unchecked into the Escatawpa River.

o Mobile-based Thompson Engineering was hired by McInnes to manage the project after the Press-Register’s reports. ALDOT’s project manager replacement, an employee of Thompson, was fired for continued violations after less than two weeks on the job.

o Mississippi officials alerted the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to problems at the U.S. 98 work site in August and cited concerns from Alabama citizens who said ADEM ignored complaints about runoff from the west Mobile County project. The warning came in e-mails written three weeks before the Press-Register published articles - PR 12/11/07

· In November 2007, The Mobile Area Water and Sewer System and Mobile Baykeeper filed lawsuits against the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) seeking to immediately stop all construction activities at the U.S. 98 rerouting project in west Mobile, alleging that the agency violated the Clean Water Act. That action would extend to damage done by the highway department to tributaries to the Escatawpa River. – PR 11/14/07

o The suit states that "sediment deposits are more than two-feet thick" in some wetland areas, a fact disputed by ALDOT officials until the newspaper supplied them with photos of Press-Register reporters standing in sediment that was 25 inches deep.

o W.S. Newell and Sons Inc., the transportation department's road-building contractor, is named in the suit and accused of negligence. MAWSS demands compensatory and punitive damages from the contractor for the contamination of the drinking water supply.

o Individual ALDOT employees are also named in the suit, including Ronnie Poiroux, who is the head of the agency's Mobile office. He was in charge of the project until control was taken away from him. The suit alleges that "Poiroux acted fraudulently" and "in bad faith." He was described as "asleep at the switch" by ALDOT director Joe McInnes during an interview with the Press-Register.

· ALDOT Spokesman said this section of the road was about 75 percent complete and that ALDOT had "spent about $18 million to date on this project." About $2.2 million of that was spent since September in an attempt to install required environmental controls and repair environmental damage.

· State highway officials made decisions to save money by setting aside some standard environmental rules and practices during the roadway construction. – PR 12/17/07

o Poor engineering of the roadway itself, designed by the Alabama Department of Transportation and Volkert Engineering, also contributed to runoff problems, according to interviews with transportation officials. Design flaws have caused the tall, steep manmade hills supporting the new roadbed to fail in a number of places. At times, the contractor insisted they needed far more environmental controls than Volkert engineers originally called for.

o Records state that the agency, in order to finish the project more quickly, allowed its contractor, W.S. Newell Inc., an exemption from certain rules designed to prevent runoff. In particular, transportation officials allowed the contractor to clear about eight times as much land at one time as is typically allowed, exposing a much greater area to erosion. Contractors were also allowed to build sediment containment ponds after the land-clearing began, rather than before clearing, as had been called for in the Stormwater Management Plan submitted by W.S. Newell. And many of the drainage ditches were lined with an inexpensive plastic fabric instead of the 26 million pounds of rock called for in the original plan in order to "eliminate some of the (cost) overrun." Placing 26 million pounds of rock along the roadway was one of the first actions taken by transportation officials after the Press-Register published stories and photos.

· ALDOT announced a 1,440-foot bridge will be constructed 15 to 25 feet above the wetlands at an additional cost of $9.3 million – PR 5/2/08

· Transportation officials said the agency was still working with MAWSS to come up with an alternative plan to to prevent hazardous chemicals from contaminating the city's drinking water. – PR 5/2/08

Sewage

· Between September 2003 and February 2004, Prichard Water Works dumped approximately 50 million gallons of untreated sewage into 8 Mile Creek. The State of Alabama filed suit against PWW for permit violations in 2004. Mobile Baykeeper also filed a lawsuit against PWW calling for the replacement of the Prichard Water Board, upgrades to the existing system, and the institution of a long-term maintenance program. Prichard Water filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Mobile Baykeeper, but that motion was denied. PWW then filed a lawsuit against the operators of the sewage plant, blaming McCrory, Williams for the spill.

· The Mobile Area Water and Sewer System agreed in 2002 to spend $60 million over five years upgrading its treatment plants and pipes as a result of a lawsuit accusing the system of repeatedly violating federal law through massive sewage spills. Sewer system officials say they’ll pay for the upgrades with a 25 percent increase in waste water fees, phased in over two years.

· Mobile Baywatch filed the initial intent to sue in late 1999, claiming that the sewer service violated the Clean Water Act more than 1,000 times over five years. The Baywatch action was later joined with suits filed separately by the U.S. EPA and ADEM. The sewer service will be required to buy and preserve $150,000 worth of land in the Dog River watershed, and an additional $300,000 worth of land elsewhere in Mobile County. Mobile Baywatch will also receive a $50,000 grant to establish a database for water quality monitoring.

· Mobile Baykeeper is suing the Bayou La Batre Utility Board over repeated discharge violations. Bayou La Batre is planning to build a new, $24 million wastewater treatment plant with federal money within the next two years. For the past three years, the city utility has been under a court order to improve facilities and prevent spills -- the result of a lawsuit settled with ADEM in 2004.

ADEM Regulation

· In 2008, ADEM approved new rules to bring Alabama in line with water carcinogen standards around the Southeast. Alabama had been operating under the least stringent regulations allowed by the EPA. Arsenic was not affected by the rule change. Business groups, including Alabama Power, filed complaints saying the state already had stringent requirements dealing with arsenic. – PR 4/18/08

Mercury Contamination

· Mercury can be converted to methylmercury in water by reacting with bacteria or other chemicals.

o When it's taken up by life through the food chain, the concentration increases in larger predators, like swordfish or king mackerel.

o Mercury is a neurotoxin and can cause neurological damage and developmental disorders in children and fetuses, and can impair adult brain function.

o Mercury can cause reproductive failure in wildlife such as bald eagles.

· Mobile is one of the two worst spots in the nation for mercury deposition, according to recent scientific studies. – PR 7/27/2007

· In the 1970s, the Mobile area had several chlor-alkali chemical plants, which used mercury as an ingredient to produce a wide variety of chemicals including chlorine

o These included Olin Corp.'s McIntosh Plant, Stauffer Chemical's Cold Creek plant, and Occidental Chemical Corp.'s Mobile plant. These have all been closed, but the resultant mercury contamination persists.

· Airborne mercury emissions are now recognized as the primary source of mercury contamination in water.

o Waste incinerators -- particularly medical waste incinerators -- were high on the list of airborne mercury emitters. The University of South Alabama, for example, closed Mobile County's last medical waste incinerator a few years ago.

· EPA considers airborne emission from power plants as the most important source of mercury contamination nationally.

o Southern Company produces more mercury than any other utility in the United States, according to research by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

o Alabama's coal-fired power plants produce some 4,920 pounds of mercury a year.

o Alabama's coal plants -- primarily operated by Alabama Power Co. -- produce more mercury than all the coal-fired plants in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi combined.

o The largely coal-fired Barry Steam Plant is the area's largest single source of all pollutants, and, according to company officials, emits 500 to 600 pounds of airborne mercury each year. The Barry Plant was the fourth largest emitter of mercury in the state, and five Alabama Power facilities made the top 10. – PR 12/23/01, 1/26/06

· Many of south Alabama's streams have been posted with advisories, urging people not to eat largemouth bass because of mercury contamination. – PR 12/23/01, 7/18/2007, 7/19/2007

o In 2001 Press-Register research indicated that mercury contamination in Gulf fish, particularly big predators such as cobia, amberjack, tuna and grouper, was so high that they shouldn't have been sold to the public, under standards set by the FDA.

o In 2001, Hair tests sponsored by the Register indicated that some Gulf fish consumers had mercury levels in their bodies up to 11 times greater than the "safe" level established by the EPA. Results from hair tests conducted at the 2006 Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo show one out of every three of contestants had mercury levels above the EPA safe level (1 part per million), their average level was 0.93 parts per million, and the highest was above 4 parts per million.

o The highest mercury level ever recorded in a largemouth bass was found in 2003 in a swamp adjacent to the Olin Superfund site.

o In 2005, in the wake of the discovery of significant mercury contamination in the community of McIntosh, state officials moved to bring Alabama's mercury standards for fish into compliance with the EPA-approved standards in use in all of the surrounding states. Those EPA standards call for consumption warnings on a waterbody beginning when fish contain mercury at a level of 0.4 parts per million in their flesh. Prior to the change, Alabama did not issue warnings until fish contained a level of 1 part per million.

o In 2007, Fish from Mobile Bay and Mobile-Tensaw Delta were found to be relatively low in mercury and other contaminants in fish testing conducted by ADEM. Most of the fish that were found to be high in mercury this year were largemouth bass.

o Fish from the western edge of the Delta were placed under new advisories designed to limit consumption. Testing suggests that fish on the western side of the Delta -- which is home to the Olin Corp. and Ciba Corp. chemical plants and their associated federal Superfund cleanup sites -- are higher in mercury than fish from the middle section and eastern side of the Delta. Testing found fish in the Mobile River to have elevated levels of mercury, and EPA data indicates that mercury levels in the mud on the bottom of the river are about 20 times higher than mercury levels elsewhere in the Delta.

§ Some largemouth bass in the Mobile River are so high in mercury that a single serving could put a grown man over the EPA's safe level for the toxic metal in the human body, and individual fish to contain mercury at levels as high as 2.6 parts per million. Under federal guidelines, fish with mercury at more than 1 part per million may not be sold to the public. Despite that information, the Alabama Department of Public Health says people should consume no more than two meals of bass per month from the Mobile River. In the past, the same test results would have led state health officials to issue for that section of the river a "do not consume" warning for largemouth bass.

DDT

· The effects of DDT in bird populations are well known, demonstrated by the near-extinction of brown pelicans on the Gulf Coast. The toxic chemical is known to affect the reproductive systems of birds.

o DDT was regarded as a miracle pesticide when it was first introduced in the 1940s because it persisted in fields for a long time, a single application killing bugs far longer than other pesticides. That same persistence made DDT especially deadly when the poison ended up in natural ecosystems

· Mobile Bay appears to have some of the most severe DDT contamination recorded in any Gulf Coast estuary.

o DDT was both produced in the Ciba factory on the edge of the Delta and used extensively for decades by Alabama farmers. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service data suggests the DDT found in Mobile Bay can be traced directly to the Ciba site

o Average DDT levels in fish from the