Settlement Requires WV Chemical Plant to Limit Mercury Pollution & Pay for Ohio River Conservation Efforts

Natrium, WV -- Today, the Sierra Club and Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition entered into a proposed consent decree settlement agreement with Eagle Natrium, LLC that would resolve the groups’ claims that the company violated its permit limits for discharges of mercury into the Ohio River from its chlor-alkali facility located in Natrium, West Virginia. If approved by the court, the settlement will compel Eagle Natrium to install treatment technology that is designed to eliminate the violations, pay $195,000 to the West Virginia Land Trust to protect land in the watershed where the facility is located in order to reduce methylmercury pollution in the Ohio River, and pay $25,000 in civil penalties to the U.S. Treasury.  

The Natrium facility is the last chlor-alkali plant in the U.S. that uses mercury in its production process to produce chlorine and caustic soda.  All of the other plants in the industry have switched to non-mercury technology.  In 2005, environmental groups asked the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) to tighten the mercury limits in Natrium’s permit.  In 2010, WVDEP issued a permit that imposed very low limits (8.8 parts per trillion average) starting in 2013.  In 2015, WVDEP backtracked and issued an administrative order that imposed higher “interim limits” (124 parts per trillion average). 

In 2019, the Sierra Club and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, represented by attorneys with Appalachian Mountain Advocates and Public Justice, filed a Clean Water Act citizen’s suit seeking to compel Eagle Natrium to comply with the lower 2013 limits. In March 2020, the court agreed with the groups that the 2013 limits still applied. In June 2020, VDEP issued a new permit that imposes an average limit (87 parts per trillion average) that is 30% lower than the 2015 interim limit. In seventeen months between August 2014 and July 2020, Natrium discharged mercury that exceeded both the 2013 average limit and the new 2020 average limit. Under the decree, Natrium has agreed to install equipment to treat its process water that is designed to meet the new 2020 mercury limits.

Karan Ireland, West Virginia Sierra Club’s Senior Campaign Representative, released the following statement:

“Our lawsuit successfully led to the issuance of a new permit and corrective action by the facility that will meaningfully reduce mercury pollution levels that contaminate the Ohio River and threaten the health of nearby communities. The proposed settlement ensures that Eagle Natrium will install treatment technology needed to comply with its new permit which has a 30% lower average limit on mercury discharges. Importantly, the proposed settlement helps hold the company accountable for its past pollution by requiring it to pay $195,000 for land conservation efforts in the Ohio River watershed and $25,000 in civil penalties.”

OVEC Executive Director Vivian Stockman released the following: 

“It is unfortunate that citizens had to once more do the West Virginia DEP’s job, but today’s settlement means we will have less polluted water for the five million or so people who obtain their drinking water from the Ohio River. Fishermen, boaters, and the wildlife that use the river will be better off. OVEC looks forward to the day when this antiquated technology is retired once and for all.”