Plant seeks permit to treat, discharge acidic wastewater
April 26, 2021 GMT
GEISMAR, La. (AP) — A Louisiana fertilizer plant says it can treat contaminated and highly acidic wastewater to drinking-water standards, and wants a state permit to discharge treated water into the Mississippi River — the drinking water source for New Orleans and other downriver communities.
PCS Nitrogen Fertilizer LP has shut down a production line that, since the 1960s, has piled up a 180-foot-tall (55-meter) heap of phosphogypsum at its plant in Geismar. That pile is topped by lakes holding an estimated 90 million to 100 million gallons (340.7 million to 378.5 million liters) of wastewater — enough to fill two-thirds of the vast building where NASA assembled moon rockets.