Union Attacks Kaiser Pollution Fines For Mead Violations Have Quadrupled Since Strike

A new report by the United Steelworkers of America takes aim at pollution problems at Kaiser Aluminum’s Mead smelter during the 16-month labor dispute.

The glossy eight-page brochure with an ominous black cloud on its cover will land soon on the doorsteps of people living near the plant north of Spokane.

The pamphlet asks residents to report any emission problems they see to state and county clean-air agencies.

The union report says Kaiser’s pollution fines have quadrupled at Mead since the strike and lockout began in September 1998 - a trend affirmed by the Washington Department of Ecology - and warns the emissions may pose a long-term health hazard.

Additional fines for recent air and water pollution violations at Mead are in the works, said Jani Gilbert, Ecology Department spokeswoman in Spokane.

“We are disturbed we’ve had to resort to larger and larger fines to get the company’s attention,” she said.

The Steelworkers’ brochure made its debut at a Wednesday press conference in Spokane.

“We call upon the company to clean up its act,” Steelworkers’ Western district director David Foster said.

The union’s research shows that Kaiser has operated the plant irresponsibly during the labor dispute, Foster said.

Kaiser officials strongly disagree.

They say the report is part of the Steelworkers’ ongoing effort to take the labor dispute to Kaiser’s aluminum customers, power suppliers and the public.

Kaiser “takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously,” said Bud Leber, the company’s regional environmental manager.

Although it has had some problems for which it has been fined, the Mead plant “has operated during the labor dispute in substantial compliance with local, state and federal regulations,” Leber said.

The Ecology Department, however, isn’t happy with Mead’s recent performance.

“Over the past year, we’ve seen some improvement in the day-to-day practices at Mead, but they still have some system and design problems,” Gilbert said. “We are very concerned they won’t be able to meet federal Clean Air Act requirements.”

Pollutants emitted from aluminum smelters include hydrogen fluoride, sulfur dioxide, particulates and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons.

The hydrocarbons that make up 2 to 3 percent of Kaiser’s emissions are on Ecology’s “27-most-wanted” list of persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic chemicals that can harm human health.

They are included in a federal regulation that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adopted in 1997 to deal with primary emissions from aluminum plants.

The Steelworkers’ report zeroes in on Mead’s $50 million carbon furnace that bakes anodes for making molten aluminum. It has had a series of problems since its opening in 1997.

The furnace was supposed to reduce Mead emissions, but its performance has been disappointing, the Steelworkers’ report says.

From November 1997 to May 1999, there were 162 emission bypass incidents at the carbon baking furnace that sent particulates into the air, the report says.

In an August 1999 press release announcing a $58,800 fine, Ecology said 49 of the plant’s first 70 bypasses were avoidable. Kaiser said it was still working out bugs in its $3.7 million pollution control system.

The bake oven’s worst startup problems occurred between November 1997 and May 1998, long before the strike, Leber said.

In that period, the plant bypassed the pollution control system for 43 days in a row - triggering a $4,600 Ecology fine.

Kaiser has had much better results lately with the computer that runs the pollution control system, Leber said. “We are still not where we want to be, but we are getting very, very close,” he said.

The Steelworkers also examined Kaiser’s workplace safety record.

They looked at federally mandated records on injuries and lost work days, which show accidents at Mead grew by 147 percent in the first three months of the strike.

In that period, there were 50 lost-time injuries and six serious injuries, the researchers said.

Kaiser acknowledges there were more injuries to inexperienced workers during the first months of the strike, said spokesman Scott Lamb in Houston.

But those incidents have diminished and the Spokane plants are now running as safely as they were before the strike, he said.

The Steelworkers international began distributing their brochure at the Mead Royale Park trailer court near the smelter on Wednesday.

One resident, Hudlene Brown, said she had severe nosebleeds last summer and smelled “an awful smell in the air” at night that she suspected came from the smelter.

“A couple of hundred people live here. We wonder if we are safe,” Brown said.

The Steelworkers plan to continue passing out their report on Saturday with help from local church leaders, environmental activists and families of locked-out Steelworkers.

However, the effort is proceeding without the help of most local locked-out Steelworkers.

That’s because they’ve been warned by the union that Kaiser could fire them for handing out a report that disparages the company, a union official in Pittsburgh said.

Kaiser hasn’t threatened to fire any locked-out workers for criticizing the company, Lamb said.

“We’ve had a 40- or 50-year relationship with the Steelworkers. I don’t know if in all those years the international has ever traveled to Spokane to talk about Mead’s environmental releases. It’s clearly designed to take attention away from the labor dispute,” Lamb said.

Graphic: Fines for Kaiser’s Mead plant rise