Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Longtime feud between chemical manufacturer, landlord gets toxic

Click to enlarge photo

The site of a former magnesium plant and toxic waste dumping, the land near Lake Mead Parkway and Boulder Highway shown in this 2008 file photo has been the subject of more than 500,000 tests for contamination.

Industrial complex

Two major Southern Nevada companies are squabbling over how to maintain a toxic chemical waste treatment facility, a Hatfields vs. McCoys dispute that could jeopardize public health with contaminated water.

The conflict arises from a 1983 agreement allowing construction of the groundwater treatment facility at what’s now Black Mountain Industrial Complex in Henderson.

The facility is owned by chemical manufacturer Olin Chlor Alkali Products, which still operates at the site, and by two other companies that used to operate there, Montrose Chemical and Stauffer Management. The landowner is Basic Management, which owns much of the complex east of U.S. 95 between Lake Mead Drive and Warm Springs Road.

For more than 20 years, the facility removed chlorine, agricultural chemicals and related waste from the groundwater below the industrial site by order of the Nevada Environmental Protection Division.

Basic Management says that Olin and its partners have admitted the treatment facility needs $900,000 in repairs to keep it running, but don’t want to pick up the tab. If the repairs aren’t made, Basic wants the facility moved from its property.

Olin disputes Basic’s claims in a District Court lawsuit.

State officials say the facility is not posing a risk to public health, at least for now.

What’s at stake is how and where to treat contaminated groundwater that flows into the Las Vegas Wash and then to Lake Mead, Southern Nevada’s main source of drinking water.

Although officials say there is no immediate risk to public health, the environmental agency raised that prospect in court papers: If the facility is shut down contaminated water might reach the wash.

“It’s not an immediate threat to the public, but it’s a long-term risk,” Senior Deputy Attorney General William Frey said. “The groundwater migrates toward the Las Vegas Wash, surfaces there and flows into Lake Mead. We certainly want to cut it off before it goes that far.”

The dispute led to a weeklong shutdown of the facility this month before it was reopened by a court order.

The shutdown of the pumps wasn’t long enough to endanger the public or the groundwater, said Vinson Guthreau, an Environmental Protection Division spokesman.

This isn’t the first time the industrial complex has caused worry about groundwater contamination.

In 1997, authorities detected perchlorate, a rocket-fuel booster, in the lake. The perchlorate, which can cause thyroid problems in adults and brain dysfunction in infants, was traced to chemical plants once owned at the complex by Kerr-McGee and American Pacific. Cleanup coordinated by the state kept perchlorate in the lake within levels considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Chemical manufacturing began at the complex in 1941, when the U.S. government designated 5,000 acres for production of magnesium to build warplanes and support military efforts during World War II.

Through at least the 1970s it was common for the companies to dispose of chemical waste in unlined evaporation ponds or transport the waste off-site via ditches. Some waste was left on surrounding land.

By the early 1980s, the Environmental Protection Division began cracking down on waste dumping and ordered the chemical companies to clean up the groundwater and contaminated soil at the site, then known as the Basic Management Industrial Complex. The state ordered Montrose and Stauffer in 1983 to clean up their waste.

Fast forward to the lawsuit between Olin and Basic.

Attorneys for the facility did not return repeated calls for comment on the lawsuit, and Basic’s attorney declined to comment.

But court documents reveal a dispute that grew bitter after the Environmental Protection Division reached an agreement with chemical companies in 2006 on the third phase of a cleanup program.

A previous agreement gave the treatment plant owners an easement on Basic’s land for a groundwater recharging trench along with access to the facility for maintenance.

Basic says it began complaining by 2007 that the facility had become outdated because it was no longer “properly intercepting” contaminated groundwater. The facility also had begun contaminating Basic’s property and the environment “by spewing unhealthy water back onto the property.”

Basic says Olin and its partners refuse to spend the estimated $900,000 on plant upgrades and lack permits and insurance to continue operating. Basic also says that Olin and its partners don’t comply with the 2006 agreement with the state, such as by failing to maintain proper permits.

Basic said it warned for more than two years it would block Olin and its partners from the facility beginning March 1 if corrective measures weren’t taken.

“Indeed, they have had decades to repair and maintain their water-treatment system yet they refuse to do so even though they are harming the environment and contaminating Basic’s property in violation of federal and state clean water regulations ...” Basic says.

Basic wants the treatment facility moved to Olin’s property on the western end of the complex where the Stauffer Chemical plant once existed.

Olin, which bills itself as North America’s leading manufacturer of industrial bleach, says it has spent millions of dollars upgrading the facility, has always carried adequate insurance and has a permit approved by the Environmental Protection Division.

Olin also says the above-ground leaks occurred more than four years ago and were fixed with state approval. In arguing against a forced move, Olin says it is in the ideal place to treat the contaminated groundwater, and that moving it could jeopardize public health and the environment.

Bob Conrad, spokesman for the state Conservation and Natural Resources Department, which includes the Environmental Protection Division, confirmed that the facility complies with the state’s 1983 order and has not posed a threat to public health.

Faced with Basic’s March 1 deadline, the facility’s owners shut it down Feb. 28. Basic responded by placing large boulders on the road leading to the facility, and Olin reacted with its own lawsuit.

The Environmental Protection Division filed a motion to intervene in support of Olin’s request for a temporary restraining order, arguing it’s in the public’s interest to maintain ongoing groundwater treatment and access for maintenance.

The facility reopened March 7 by order of District Judge Kathleen Delaney, who agreed with the division that keeping it operating was in the public interest.

Had the facility operated without access for maintenance, carbon filters through which the contaminated water flows would have become clogged, Frey argued. That would have created “dangerous back pressure” that would have caused water to spill onto the property and led to “massive contamination that would not otherwise occur under normal operations.”

“The continued operation and maintenance of the treatment system is fundamental to the protection of groundwater to mitigate risks to human health and the environment,” he said.

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