ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — ASHTA Chemicals reports “losing” 415 pounds of toxic mercury in 2009, according to company records obtained from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by Oceana, an international ocean conservation group based in Washington, D.C.

In the past, ASHTA Chemicals, 3509 Middle Road, reported “lost” mercury to the U.S. EPA as “fugitive” mercury emissions, which are released from the plant without being measured. Therefore, it’s likely that much, if not all, of this “lost” mercury was emitted into the air, according to Oceana officials.

Bradley Westfall, president of ASHTA Chemicals, said in a phone interview the allegation simply is not true.

“It is clear (Oceana’s) conclusions are designed to sensationalize this issue and serve to further Oceana’s misguided attack on ASHTA,” Westfall said.

He further charges Oceana makes “erroneous and unscientific conclusions” about ASHTA’s mercury emissions into the air based on static air sampling tests (not monitoring) that it conducted last year in the area.

For the past three years, ASHTA Chemicals reported to U.S. EPA that it had emitted no fugitive mercury into the air, but tests conducted by Oceana scientists directly contradict ASHTA Chemicals’ findings. Oceana’s testing discovered mercury concentrations up to 35 times higher than detected at a reference site 14 miles west of the Ashtabula plant.

This mercury pollution level is similar to the maximum level detected by a 2005 air survey conducted near another chlor-alkali plant. That plant reportedly emitted more than 500 pounds of mercury annually, which is 85 pounds more than ASHTA reported losing in 2009. Oceana suspects the ASHTA plant could be releasing similar amounts of mercury, on the order of 500 pounds, which ASHTA’s report to Ohio EPA supports.

In its report to Ohio EPA, ASHTA Chemicals also revealed it added 11,000 pounds of new mercury to its manufacturing process in 2009. This would be unnecessary if the plant were to modernize using mercury-free technology, according to Oceana officials. Continually using, losing and adding more mercury to the plant risks further environmental contamination, according to Oceana scientists.

Westfall said an additional 11,000 pounds of mercury was not to replace “lost mercury” but, rather, it was required when “we replaced old-process equipment called decomposers with new-process equipment that was larger in size and required more mercury to operate properly.

“This was noted in our report but conveniently left out by Oceana,” he said.

Westfall added that the manufacturing process is entirely enclosed except for known and closely controlled and measured point-source emissions into the air, which equal 0.2 pounds during the course of a year, he said.

“Fugitive emissions are not easily measured but could only come from mercury not contained or mercury exposed in the process,” Westfall said. “This simply does not occur, and even the smallest opportunities for fugitive emissions (when doing maintenance on the process and process equipment) have been eliminated through a system of preventative controls.”

ASHTA is one of four U.S. plants that has not modernized its facility, according to Oceana. The company currently is fighting federal legislation that would require it to shift to cleaner more-efficient technology.

Among Oceana’s findings from ASHTA’s report to Ohio EPA:

n The company buried highly contaminated materials on its grounds, without first evaluating how these materials would affect local soils and runoff;

n Company employees discovered a liquid mercury “spill” on the plant’s roof; and

n The company reported it did not wash down its hydrogen piping system from July through November 2009 , an essential practice to reduce mercury emissions.

Westfall said the “highly contaminated materials” that Oceana refers to, actually were construction waste from one part of the plant used to form an earthen berm around a storage facility on ASHTA’s property. When it was determined by ASHTA and self-reported to the Ohio EPA, that some of the debris contained trace amounts of mercury, ASHTA removed the berm, remediated the soil around the berm and disposed of the soil in accordance with EPA guidelines, Westfall said.

Oceana’s reference to a liquid “spill” on the plant’s roof was reported to Ohio EPA when a few small droplets of mercury were discovered on the roof of a small generator room adjacent to ASHTA’s main plant building, Westfall said. A leaky valve was the culprit, he said. Because the leaking valve was in an area difficult to access, the mercury was not cleaned up within a one-hour time frame but rather, within five hours. But it was cleaned up.

Finally, ASHTA’s failure to wash down certain hydrogen piping from July to November 2009 did not result in any additional emissions of mercury to the air, Westfall claims.

ASHTA Chemicals is the smallest of four remaining mercury-cell chlor-alkali facilities in the United States. Built in 1963, the plant currently manufactures chlorine and potassium hydroxide.

Because of a 2004 court settlement with Ohio EPA about excessive mercury discharges into Lake Erie, ASHTA is required to submit annual reports to account for all mercury used in its manufacturing process. The majority, if not all, of the plant’s chlorine is sold to nearby Millennium Inorganic Chemicals, 2900 Middle Road, to help manufacture titanium dioxide, a white-color enhancer. Potassium hydroxide (also known as caustic potash) can be used to manufacture detergent, fertilizer, cosmetics and other white products.

Oceana has campaigned since 2005 to phase out mercury-cell chlor-alkali technology. Oceana is urging the U.S. Congress to pass the Mercury Pollution Reduction Act. The House version of the bill would require ASHTA Chemicals’ plant, and other U.S. plants, to stop emitting mercury by mid-2013 or modernize to new technology by mid-2015.

ASHTA agrees mercury is a potential threat to public health, and that’s why it has spent nearly $20 million since the mid-’90s to minimize mercury emissions into the air and eliminate mercury emissions into water.

ASHTA has nearly 100 employees.