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Celebrating removal of nitrates
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| Visitors on board the horse-pulled carriage that transported visitors to the wetlands. (Thelma Grimes/photo.) |
ANPI successfully decontaminates groundwater, soil
Thelma Grimes/San Pedro Valley News-Sun
Apache Nitrogen Products, Inc. (ANPI) in St. David reached a milestone Thursday when they celebrated the successful removal of nearly a half million pounds of nitrates.
ANPI hosted a celebration along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) at the area on the property located southeast of Benson known as the wetlands, or superfund site.
About 10 years ago, ANPI began a major project with the oversight of the EPA to clean up groundwater and soils in the area. The groundwater was contaminated with nitrates.
Apache, which manufactures solid and liquid ammonium nitrate, ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers, nitric acid and aqua ammonia, was placed on a national watch list in 1990. This list required them to come up with measures to improve water and soil contamination.
In 1997, the EPA signed a record of decision to require Apache to clean up the site, which is how the wetlands came into existence. After three years of construction, the wetlands, which were designed to remove nitrate from groundwater, began processing water.
"We are proud of the hard work, innovation and accomplishments as a company and as a member of a team with the EPA, ADEQ, Fish and Wildlife, USGS, CH2M Hill, Hargis and Associates, Humboldt State University and others," said Bob Cashdollar, president and CEO of ANPI. "It was this teamwork that has brought us together today. I'm personally proud of every employee at Apache who worked tirelessly both in the past and in the present to help us in our journey to achieving our vision."
However, the idea to build the wetlands, which consists of five ponds, wasn't easy and some didn't think it would work. Four of the ponds are between two and four feet deep, and the fifth is about six feet deep.
Bill Ellett of ADEQ spoke at the celebration marking the project's 10-year anniversary. Ellett said he was not as optimistic as some about the wetlands idea.
"We started working on this 10 years ago and I can honestly say a lot of interesting things happened," he said. "Caterpillars proved to be devastating. During monsoon season the ponds would overflow. I was very skeptical about all of this, because it wasn't what I was used to with a superfund site. I can say the patience was worthwhile."
Pamela Bielke and Greg Hall of ANPI agreed that building the wetlands was no easy task, and it took many years to finally getting them working properly. To be more specific, Bielke said the ponds were not treating water correctly until about 2002.
Hall said wildlife played a big part, talking about the effect of caterpillars. In the late 1990s, caterpillars took over and started eating the cattails in the ponds, which proved to be devastating to the treatment of the bacteria.
ANPI eventually had to spray once a year to keep the caterpillar population down.
Bielke said the actual treatment of water was also a learning process. They found that molasses treated nitrates, but for a couple of years it was determined ANPI was using too much molasses. When it got into the colder months it caused a rotten egg smell to travel to nearby residents.
The hard work of ANPI employees was well worth it, along with assistance from the EAP and ADEQ. Bielke said the EPA recently put out a statement stating ANPI has met all requirements in the order, and the wetlands are now just one of the company's routine operations.
The wetlands clean up water passing through. When water enters the wetlands, it measures in at 200 parts per million of nitrate. When the water leaves the wetlands and is drained into a nearby wash, it measures at 1.2 parts per million, below drinking water standards.
About 100 guests attended Thursday's celebration. The guests were taken by horse-drawn carriage up to the wetlands.
"The wetlands turned into such a love affair," Brenner said. "I refused to give up on this project. Apache Nitrogen should be extremely proud of where they are today because the wetlands are functioning beautifully."
Phil Whitmore, a hydrologist consulting on the project over the last 10 years, said after a long process and a lot of hard work the staff and everyone involved in the project deserves to be congratulated.
"This is a big milestone," he said. "This wetlands is a beautiful accomplishment that included the cleanup of soils and a cleanup of the groundwater system. It's been a long run to get here, but it's a great success."
Whitmore said the challenges still facing ANPI in the future is the need to always maintain a balance in the ponds between the right amount of pumping to maintain a certain level of nitrates, and how much water to put back into the system.
The celebration was capped off with a barbecue and music that lasted into the afternoon.
Thelma Grimes/San Pedro Valley News-Sun
Apache Nitrogen Products, Inc. (ANPI) in St. David reached a milestone Thursday when they celebrated the successful removal of nearly a half million pounds of nitrates.
ANPI hosted a celebration along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) at the area on the property located southeast of Benson known as the wetlands, or superfund site.
About 10 years ago, ANPI began a major project with the oversight of the EPA to clean up groundwater and soils in the area. The groundwater was contaminated with nitrates.
Apache, which manufactures solid and liquid ammonium nitrate, ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers, nitric acid and aqua ammonia, was placed on a national watch list in 1990. This list required them to come up with measures to improve water and soil contamination.
In 1997, the EPA signed a record of decision to require Apache to clean up the site, which is how the wetlands came into existence. After three years of construction, the wetlands, which were designed to remove nitrate from groundwater, began processing water.
"We are proud of the hard work, innovation and accomplishments as a company and as a member of a team with the EPA, ADEQ, Fish and Wildlife, USGS, CH2M Hill, Hargis and Associates, Humboldt State University and others," said Bob Cashdollar, president and CEO of ANPI. "It was this teamwork that has brought us together today. I'm personally proud of every employee at Apache who worked tirelessly both in the past and in the present to help us in our journey to achieving our vision."
However, the idea to build the wetlands, which consists of five ponds, wasn't easy and some didn't think it would work. Four of the ponds are between two and four feet deep, and the fifth is about six feet deep.
Bill Ellett of ADEQ spoke at the celebration marking the project's 10-year anniversary. Ellett said he was not as optimistic as some about the wetlands idea.
"We started working on this 10 years ago and I can honestly say a lot of interesting things happened," he said. "Caterpillars proved to be devastating. During monsoon season the ponds would overflow. I was very skeptical about all of this, because it wasn't what I was used to with a superfund site. I can say the patience was worthwhile."
Pamela Bielke and Greg Hall of ANPI agreed that building the wetlands was no easy task, and it took many years to finally getting them working properly. To be more specific, Bielke said the ponds were not treating water correctly until about 2002.
Hall said wildlife played a big part, talking about the effect of caterpillars. In the late 1990s, caterpillars took over and started eating the cattails in the ponds, which proved to be devastating to the treatment of the bacteria.
ANPI eventually had to spray once a year to keep the caterpillar population down.
Bielke said the actual treatment of water was also a learning process. They found that molasses treated nitrates, but for a couple of years it was determined ANPI was using too much molasses. When it got into the colder months it caused a rotten egg smell to travel to nearby residents.
The hard work of ANPI employees was well worth it, along with assistance from the EAP and ADEQ. Bielke said the EPA recently put out a statement stating ANPI has met all requirements in the order, and the wetlands are now just one of the company's routine operations.
The wetlands clean up water passing through. When water enters the wetlands, it measures in at 200 parts per million of nitrate. When the water leaves the wetlands and is drained into a nearby wash, it measures at 1.2 parts per million, below drinking water standards.
About 100 guests attended Thursday's celebration. The guests were taken by horse-drawn carriage up to the wetlands.
"The wetlands turned into such a love affair," Brenner said. "I refused to give up on this project. Apache Nitrogen should be extremely proud of where they are today because the wetlands are functioning beautifully."
Phil Whitmore, a hydrologist consulting on the project over the last 10 years, said after a long process and a lot of hard work the staff and everyone involved in the project deserves to be congratulated.
"This is a big milestone," he said. "This wetlands is a beautiful accomplishment that included the cleanup of soils and a cleanup of the groundwater system. It's been a long run to get here, but it's a great success."
Whitmore said the challenges still facing ANPI in the future is the need to always maintain a balance in the ponds between the right amount of pumping to maintain a certain level of nitrates, and how much water to put back into the system.
The celebration was capped off with a barbecue and music that lasted into the afternoon.
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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of bensonnews-sun.com.
Benson Native wrote on Nov 21, 2008 7:10 AM:
" It's too bad that Apache Nitrates wasn't made to clean up their mess 40 years ago. Too many people that I grew up with have died of various types of cancer and I have no doubt that Apache's pollution is a contributing factor. It's nice that so much ado is being made about the wetlands and the cleanup, but for me and some in my family, it's too late--we all have or have died of cancer. "
St David Reader wrote on Nov 19, 2008 3:34 PM: