Eramet at a loss to explain photos of ‘cloud’

Photos showing a yellowish cloud emanating from an Eramet Marietta ferromanganese refining furnace this spring have generated some concern from Ohio Citizen Action, but company officials say an internal investigation has revealed no problems.

The plume was photographed around 6:20 p.m. on May 12 by Ohio Environmental Protection Agency investigator Ken Mettler, who observed the cloud coming out of furnace 18 at Eramet's facility along Ohio 7 south of Marietta.

Mettler submitted the photos to Christina Wieg at OEPA's Logan office, commenting that he had "never seen emissions like this from Eramet before," according to a memo Mettler sent to Wieg on May 13 and posted on the Ohio Citizen Action Web site, www.ohiocitizen.org.

"We just happened to have scheduled a recent visit to the OEPA office to look at agency records and discovered the photographs," Melissa English with Ohio Citizen Action said on Wednesday. "If we hadn't found this, would anyone know it had happened?"

The photos have been posted on the group's Web site.

Eramet officials were apparently unaware the release had occurred on May 12, according to company spokeswoman Joy Frank-Collins, who said OEPA didn't notify the plant of the incident until May 28. The company immediately began an investigation, she said.

Frank-Collins said the internal investigation revealed nothing unusual had occurred on the evening in question.

"According to our records from that date, there were no equipment failures and no releases outside of our ordinary operating procedures," Frank-Collins said. "And no other reportable events occurred that day."

Eramet is required by its Title 5 operating permit to report all emissions events to OEPA.

"And due to the nature of our operations, as a courtesy we also report incidents or activities that are exempted from the requirements of our permit, with the exception of routine tapping and testing events that are scheduled throughout each day," Frank-Collins added.

In a June 6 memo to Wieg, Eramet environmental engineer John Hughes said no tapping or testing was going on when Mettler's photos were taken.

"Even though our investigation has showed no events or equipment failures, in due diligence we have gone back and reviewed the situation and gone over permit regulations with our operating personnel to reinforce the proper procedures to follow," Frank-Collins said.

OEPA is continuing to investigate the incident, according to agency spokeswoman Erin Strouse.

"We've had several e-mailed responses from (Eramet), and they have said their equipment showed no operating problems, but we told the company that was not adequate and asked them to investigate further," she said.

Strouse noted that not all of Eramet's furnace releases are regulated by the company's operating permit.

"Apparently there are different types of plumes that may come from furnace 18 that the company is permitted to release," she said.

"At this point we have not identified any particular violation by the company," Strouse said. "But we are requesting additional record-keeping by Eramet as part of their new Title 5 operating permit."

The company's current permit officially expired in December 2007. Strouse said Eramet applied for a renewal on time, but OEPA is still in the process of reviewing the new permit. She said the old permit will remain in effect until the new one is approved.

English said Ohio Citizen Action will continue to call on Eramet to work on eliminating all chemical releases into the air.

"We're especially concerned about airborne manganese and odors generated by the facility," she said.

Frank-Collins noted that Eramet has just completed a reconstruction project on Furnace No. 1 that is expected to help reduce that furnace's particulate matter and manganese emissions by 54 percent.