Kennecott fumes over worst U.S. polluter title

Industrial pollution in Utah is not only bad, it is getting worse, according to the 1998 Toxic Release Inventory just issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.

In fact, the worst polluters in the nation are located along the Wasatch Front: Kennecott's copper operations in western Salt Lake County and Magnesium Corporation of America's magnesium plant on the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Tooele County.All together, Utah industries and federal facilities reported 573,012,907 pounds of toxic chemicals released during 1998, most of that -- more than 476 million pounds of it -- coming from Kennecott's mining and smeltering operations.

Kennecott's dubious title as the nation's worst polluter comes because of new reporting standards required by EPA; mining was not an industrial sector that had to report pollutants prior to the 1998 report.

The ranking bumps Magnesium Corporation of America from the distinction as the nation's worst polluter, but emissions from the magnesium plant still produced 57.7 million pounds of toxic chemicals, mostly chlorine spewed into the air. That amount is a moderate decrease from 1997, but it was enough to make the company the nation's biggest polluter of those companies required to report prior to the expanded reporting categories listed in the 1998 report.

The EPA reported Utah ranks fourth in the nation based on toxic chemicals released by companies and federal facilities that have been reporting for years. That is up from a sixth-place ranking in 1997.

"The facilities releasing the largest amounts of toxic chemicals into the environment nationwide in both the original and the new industry sectors are located in Utah," the EPA reported.

Kennecott officials reacted strongly to the report, saying EPA's new reporting standards require the company to report as toxic chemicals those substances that occur naturally in the rocks left over from its mining operation. These natural substances include copper, zinc, lead and arsenic, all of which are kept in tailings impoundments.

Said Bill Williams, Kennecott vice president and general manager of environmental and engineering services, "Under the revised EPA guidelines, Kennecott will suddenly appear to be Utah's largest polluter of toxic chemicals when in reality the only things that have changed in our 94 years of mining and processing ore are the steadily increasing tonnages of materials moved at the mine and subsequently through the processing facilities.