A giant crane looms idly on the far end of the dock at Intalco Aluminum Corp. on Cherry Point. Here, workers unload monthly shipments of alumina ore into metallic veins and transport them to the main factory to be refined into market-grade aluminum. A fine, gray dust of remnant ore blankets its route of travel from the dock to the interior factory, clinging to the corrugated warehouses and long alleyways between. Amid the hum of machinery and lingering scent of sulfur dioxide, 400 workers are scattered about in desolate superstructures, turning a raw resource into a commodity.
"We’re proud of what we do here," said Dave Ringwald, a chemist on Intalco’s environmental staff, "even though it doesn’t look like much from the outside."
From Bellingham to Blaine, industrial facilities of various sizes pollute the soil, water and air in Whatcom County. The same facilities that produce the commodities many Americans rely on also put human and ecosystem health at risk. The atmosphere and the marine waterways surrounding Whatcom County bear the cost of production and consumption.
The following information is not meant to slander the industrial leaders in Whatcom County, but to better expose their practices to the public so all members of the community can work together to mitigate environmental and human health risks.
Aluminum
When people wrap their leftovers in aluminum foil, or a cyclist takes an aluminum-framed bike out for a ride, the health of the ozone or of the phytoplankton in the Georgia Strait seem to be unrelated. However, Intalco Aluminum Corp.’s aluminum production affects both by creating chemical pollutants such as carbonyl sulfide, hydrogen fluoride and cyanide.
During the production of primary aluminum, Intalco expels 280,000 pounds of carbonyl sulfide into the atmosphere each year, according to the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory. The accumulation of carbonyl sulfide in the atmosphere increases the efficiency of bromine and chlorine chemicals present from past pollution, which destroy the earth’s protective ozone layer, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Through widening holes in the ozone, radiation disrupts marine ecosystems. Phytoplankton are unable to photosynthesize properly with increasing ultraviolet-B rays, which can result in their diminishing populations. This affects the marine food chain through bioaccumulation — or the increase in concentration of a pollutant from the environment to the first organism in a food chain — because the biomass at the bottom of the food chain must be the greatest to support all proceeding links.
Another chemical waste product of aluminum production is hydrogen fluoride. Intalco emits 93,000 pounds of hydrogen fluoride — or enough gas to fill more than eight Goodyear Blimps — every year, according to the TRI.
Clouds, fog and rain absorb hydrogen fluoride gas to form hydrofluoric acid, which falls to the ground as acid rain.
"Hydrogen fluoride has a very high affinity for water," Ringwald said. "(It) is also very acidic; in fact, it has the highest acidity in the universe."
Tim Schon, Intalco’s environmental manager, said the plant has a system that captures 99.6 percent of all hydrogen fluoride and other airborne pollutants used in production.
Ringwald said he would compare the capture system with a large vacuum that sucks the chemicals out of the warehouses and then contains it in a large bag that the company can monitor and change every few months. Ringwald said the system needs improvements because it is not foolproof. For example, open warehouse doorways and technological inefficiencies can create leaks that release small amounts of gas, and not every release is reported, Ringwald said.
Intalco also produces K088 waste, which contains cyanide. K088 is hazardous waste from the dead cathode portion of a large battery used to heat alumina. This cathode actually is a carbon layer inside of a large pot. The carbon layer gains toxicity throughout its life. After a cathode is spent it becomes hazardous waste. Intalco is working to figure out how to make the battery last longer to decrease the amount of waste produced, said Mike Rousseau, Intalco’s plant manager.
Intalco’s Cherry Point plant produces 307,000 tons of aluminum each year, enough to make 18.4 billion beverage cans.
Intalco’s environmental policy states that the company understands the importance of protecting the environment, but asserts that improvements depend on time and money. Intalco’s environmental goals during the next few years include an improvement in stormwater collection and tre¬atment, a reduction in the use of fluoride, a reduction in the accumulation of spent aluminum potliner, and a 20 percent reduction in electricity use.
"If we are in compliance with governmental regulations then we feel we are justified," Schon said in response to Intalco’s contribution to pollution in Whatcom County. "But we want to go beyond. Working with the community is extremely important to us."
Oil Refineries
High-rising tanks and pipes at the BP Cherry Point refinery constantly retain thousands of barrels of crude oil as workers heat and convert it into conventional products. The older metallic structures at the ConocoPhillips refinery meanwhile do the same. Both refineries persistently emit pollutants that, among other things, contribute to acid rain.
The BP Cherry Point and ConocoPhillips refineries receive crude oil from Alaska for refining it into a usable commodity such as gasoline. Both companies annually report to the EPA their production of 29 hazardous chemicals, including benzene and toluene compounds, which the Washington State Department of Ecology identifies as known carcinogens. Among the most dangerous chemicals released from the refining process are sulfuric acid and nitrates.
Every year BP’s Cherry Point refinery emits 85,000 pounds of sulfuric acid, while ConocoPhillips emits 29,692 pounds. Highly corrosive and harmful to forest ecosystems, sulfuric acid and its effects extend beyond Whatcom County. Strong winds can carry the chemical hundreds of miles, where it might fall to the ground in rain or remain as dry particles and accumulate in the air.
Sulfuric acid is highly caustic, erosive to teeth and a respiratory irritant for humans. Also, children are more prone to respiratory ailments from its inhalation because children breathe more air per kilogram of body weight than adults do, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Nitrogen naturally cycles through the environment, but high volumes of nitrogen can cause rapid growth in forests, resulting in imbalanced forest systems. As a result, the roles of plants and animals in the ecosystem shift and existence of integral species are threatened. The TRI reports that in 2004 BP Cherry Point released 27,000 pounds of nitrate compounds and ConocoPhilips released 31,429 pounds into the Strait of Georgia.
"Ultimately it’s up to all of us to ensure that (toxic chemicals) are being properly handled; every member of the public is responsible," said Karen Payne, manager of health, safety and environment at the BP Cherry Point refinery.
The BP Cherry Point refinery has made many amends to its oil-refining process to reduce total emissions. Payne said one example of BP’s efforts is its frequent monitoring to control valve leaks throughout the refinery. BP has inspected more than 100,000 checkpoints on individual pipes and connecting valves during the past 10 years to reduce its fugitive air emission significantly, Payne said.
"Every time a pleasure boat or a car spills gasoline, is it reported?" Payne asked in response to whether BP’s Cherry Point refinery reported each chemical release. "We have to be scrupulously accurate and honest and credible. That’s part of the way we do business here every day."
To improve the efficiency, BP Cherry Point attempts to use as much of the crude oil as possible. Every day at BP Cherry Point, 225,000 barrels of crude oil are processed, creating approximately 229 tons of sulfur per day for resale.
"Every year spills are reduced, flares reduced, emissions reduced — we have to get better all the time," said Gary Solari, manager of health, safety and environment at the ConocoPhillips refinery. "If we aren’t good environmental stewards, then we’re out of business. If the community is upset, we’re out of business."
Everything is interconnected: Intalco receives calcined coke from BP for its aluminum production; operations at all three companies are conducted with machinery, composed in part of aluminum, which are fueled by oil refined at ConocoPhillips and BP.
"In a refinery, we try to use everything but the squeal, including carbon dioxide that we sell to Praxair to put in carbonated beverages, sulfur that we sell to the fertilizer industry, and calcined coke that we sell to the aluminum industry," Payne said.
Between these three companies it is difficult to assign rank and to state clearly which company is the worst polluter. The long-term effects of chemicals released at all three factories are uncertain. Intalco wins in the realm of volume of chemicals produced, but ConocoPhillips and BP Cherry Point release chemicals more persistent and detrimental 10 to 20 years down the line. Though all three have released millions of pounds of chemicals into the environment spanning the course of their existence, the citizens in this county and others throughout the United States share responsibility because individual consumers aid in creating the pollution the companies produce.
Identifying the consumers as Whatcom’s worst is unavoidable. According to the Department of Ecology, 57 percent of pollution in the state is due to car and truck emissions, while industrial pollution accounts for 17 percent.
To maintain society’s fast-paced lifestyle, these companies are essential. Not only are these industries necessary for economic stability, but also society relies overwhelmingly on their products. As society builds higher, neglect of the environment and of human health destroys the foundations that are attempting to support the ever-increasing weight.