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Air Sampling of Pocatello's FMC To Be Revisited
Release Date: 1/6/1998
Contact Information: Greg Weigel
weigel.greg@epamail.epa.gov
(206) 553-5773
January 6, 1998 - - - - - - - - - 98-1
NEWS ADVISORY
EPA will return to Pocatello early this spring to check again to see if there is any danger from emissions of hydrogen cyanide and phosphine gas given off by two waste ponds at the FMC phosphorous plant. The return visit is being planned even though laboratory results this week corroborated EPA's findings last month that the gases presented no danger to workers at the plant or to people in the neighboring area.
During their one-day sampling effort on December 23, the EPA inspectors used hand-held monitoring equipment to measure the air for the presence of hydrogen cyanide and phosphine gas. They took measurements at three locations outside the FMC plant and five locations on FMC property. The hand-held equipment provided instantaneous read-outs that showed no detection of either gas.
As a back-up, the inspectors also took air samples at the ponds that were sent to a laboratory for analysis by equipment more sensitive than the monitoring devices used in the field. Four samples were taken (two for phosphine gas, the others for hydrogen cyanide) in the air less than one meter above the surface of the ponds. Using a detection limit of 0.3 parts per million (ppm), the lab found no traces at all of phosphine gas. As for hydrogen cyanide, the lab found concentrations of 0.442 ppm in one sample, and 0.106 ppm in the other. Both readings were far less than the 10.0 ppm OSHA standard.
EPA's return visit to the FMC plant is based upon the possibility that warmer weather might increase emissions of the gases. During the December 23 inspection, temperatures were low, and there was ice on the ponds.
EPA's sampling last month was prompted by concerns expressed by local citizens that the hydrogen cyanide and phosphine gas emissions from the waste ponds posed a threat to human health. The concerns were voiced in the aftermath of disclosures made by FMC in early December that -- because of a change in waste disposal practices at the plant -- the ponds were emitting into the air each day more than 500 pounds of hydrogen cyanide and more than 100 pounds of phosphine gas.
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