An annual report that tracks production-related waste from industrial facilities found nearly 750 pounds of toxic chemicals were disposed in La Plata County in 2014. However, that number is utterly dwarfed by the county to the south.
Beginning in 1987, the Environmental Protection Agency requires qualifying energy companies to record how much production-related waste they recycle, destroy or dispose of on- and off-site – in what is known as a Toxics Release Inventory, or a TRI.
A release of a chemical means the substance is “emitted to the air or water, placed in some type of land disposal, or transferred off-site for disposal or release,” according the EPA.
In La Plata County, there is only one facility tracked: the Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua Energy’s King Coal Mine II in Hesperus, about a 40-minute drive west of Durango on County Road 120.
In 2014, the most recent data available from the report that was released last month, King Coal Mine II disposed 742 pounds of lead compounds, and 5 pounds of mercury compounds “by land,” which can include landfills, surface impoundments or waste piles.
Representatives for King Coal Mine II did not respond for comment.
La Plata County falls at 2,164 out of a total of 2,335 ranked counties – the higher the toxic releases, the closer to the top of the rankings a county will appear. Previous years’ data for King Coal Mine II were unavailable, and EPA officials contacted Monday were unsure of the reasons why.
Still, a comparison of La Plata County’s release totals to its neighbor to the south, San Juan County, N.M., produces a different picture.
In 2014, eight facilities produced more than 12.3 million pounds of toxic waste, 8.26 million pounds of which were disposed or released into a combination of air, water and land. New Mexico’s fifth-largest county rates 491 out of the 2,335 counties ranked in the TRI.
The largest contributors, by far, are the San Juan Coal Mine and the Four Corners Steam Electric Station, churning out barium, manganese, zinc compounds, hydrogen fluoride, hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid into the environment.
Despite the staggering number, overall releases in San Juan County, N.M., in 2014 were down compared with recent years. In 2011, for instance, waste totals eclipsed 15.8 million pounds.
In all, a total of 21,783 facilities produced 25.4 billion pounds of production-related waste in 2014. Waste managed in 2014 increased by 2 percent from 2013, but releases into the environment decreased by 6 percent, the report said. Texas, Indiana, Nevada and Utah were listed as the highest contributors.
Archuleta and Montezuma County were not included in the TRI report.
jromeo@durangoherald.com