# Ohio River Pollution Control - Please read!



## steelheader007 (Apr 8, 2004)

OHIO RIVER VALLEY WATER SANITATION COMMISSION

5735 Kellogg Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45230 www.orsanco.org



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jeanne Ison, 513-231-7719



The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) is requesting public comment on a request for a variance from its Pollution Control Standards provision which prohibits mixing zones for bioaccumulative chemicals of concern beginning no later than October 16, 2013. The request for a variance was received from PPG Industries, Natrium, WV facility and is in regard to their discharge of mercury to the Ohio River.



The Commission is accepting comments from the public from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, 2011. Subsequently, the Commissions Pollution Control Standards Committee will consider the request and supporting information, as well as public comments received, and develop a recommendation as to final disposition of the variance request. Following development of that recommendation, a second 45-day public comment period will be held prior to the full Commissions final decision. 



Comments should be received in writing at the Commission headquarters, 5735 Kellogg Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45230 or by email at [email protected] no later than Dec. 15, 2011. For more information on the variance request, visit ORSANCOs website at www.orsanco.org or call ORSANCO offices at 513-231-7719.



ORSANCO is the water pollution control agency for the Ohio River and its tributaries. Member states include: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. The federal government is also represented.



November 1, 2011



[email protected]

5735 Kellogg Ave.

Cincinnati, OH 45230

513-231-7719 Phone

513-231-7761 Fax

www.orsanco.org

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## steelheader007 (Apr 8, 2004)

bump!......................


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## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

OK, I'll play dumb. In layman's terms what does this say???


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

BMustang said:


> OK, I'll play dumb. In layman's terms what does this say???


I think I understand. The current regulations set standards for mercury discharge. The standards are due to go down by 90% or so, and PPG says they can't meet that standard even if they stopped production, because of "historical sources" that are releasing mercury from the site.

Currently PPG is allowed to use a "mixing zone" and the new regulations will not allow that.



> A mixing zone is an area of a lake or river where pollutants from a point source discharge are mixed, usually by natural means, with cleaner water. *In the mixing zone, the level of toxic pollutants is allowed to be higher than the acceptable concentration for the general water body. The mixing zone is an area where the higher concentration is diluted to legal limits for water quality. *Outside the mixing zone, the pollutant levels must meet water quality standards. A typical mixing zone consists of two parts: the zone of initial dilution (ZID), near the outfall, and the chronic mixing zone from the ZID out to where water quality criteria are met. The discharge into the mixing zone may be effluent from water treatment plants, chemicals, or hot water from cooling towers.
> 
> The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking steps to ban the use of mixing zones for toxic chemicals. The Great Lakes Initiative (2000) also bans the discharge of twenty-two chemicals considered to be bioaccumulative. Bioaccumulative chemicals (BCCs) are those that become more concentrated as they move up through the food chain, for instance, from aquatic insects to fish to humans. As the release of BCCs into water bodies is phased out, industries will need to treat the discharge at the source.


PPG says this variance would not increase their mercury discharge; in fact they've made improvements in reducing discharge but they won't be able to meet the new standards. So they're asking for this variance to allow them to continue to use the mixing zone.


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## ronj18 (Jul 21, 2011)

what kind of public comment are they looking for do you all think? Like full blown out research paper or multi-page essay? I wouldn't mind writing a paper about this for my english comp class...
It says a request for variance...does that mean the big companies are asking the public for support on polluting the rivers in which we play or more like permission to continue on what they are doing, puting blame of mercury on historical sources? I am all for making the pollutant standards strict as can be, if not impossible to dump or mix in the river...


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## kyjake (Nov 21, 2007)

Hope they don't get the exception to keep dumping their mercury.Would like to see the river cleaned up to the point that there wasn't any warnings necessary
for eating fish out of the river.
Jake


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## steelheader007 (Apr 8, 2004)

FOSR said:


> I think I understand. The current regulations set standards for mercury discharge. The standards are due to go down by 90% or so, and PPG says they can't meet that standard even if they stopped production, because of "historical sources" that are releasing mercury from the site.
> 
> Currently PPG is allowed to use a "mixing zone" and the new regulations will not allow that.
> 
> ...


Darn alex your correct could not have said it better!


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

I didn't know about those mixing zones, that's a sort of loophole.

Suppose for example you drink a pint of liquor a day, straight by the shot. Your doctor tastes it and says Woah, that strong stuff will rot your gut, you can't drink this. So you mix that shot into a big glass of water and your doctor tastes it and says, that's better. But you still drink a pint a day.

(edited to add: then the rules change and the doctor says you have to cut back on the water *G*)

The discharge from the pipe is the liquor and the mixing zone is the glass of water.


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## eatwhatyoukeep (May 2, 2005)

I'm really concerned that this country hasn't learned any environmental lessons at all. Cancer is all around us and the reason for that is because companies are interested only in profit margin

When I lived in Vermont a work friend of mne knew someone that was being forced to clean up an area next to lake champlain for polution. The guy said "there were no rules in place it isn't fair". If there weren't any rules in place we would be back to the days of rivers catching on fire. I wouldn't call myself a liberal at all but you cannot blindly let big businesses run the country without some controls in place.


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## chadwimc (Jun 27, 2007)

BMustang said:


> OK, I'll play dumb. In layman's terms what does this say???


"Send the jobs to China" about sums it up...


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

...speaking of which, who knows what pollution they allow over there...


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## FISHNASTY (Oct 19, 2004)

"send the jobs to China" is correct. 
Please note that if PPG shuts the plant down and fires everybody they will not meet the new standards. Discharge standards for some metals are now in the parts per billion instead of parts per million, what that means is that if the lab tech has a filling and breathes on a sample it could fail. 
I am not for pollution but I don't think the general public has any idea how random these standards are.


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