Agrium owns and operates a nitrogenous fertilizer plant located in North Bend, Ohio (North Bend Facility). The North Bend Facility manufactures, among other things, nitric acid. Nitric acid has many uses as an intermediate chemical, but it is primarily used in the production of ammonium nitrate and other fertilizers and explosives. The Consent Decree and the violations resolved by the Consent Decree involve the nitric acid plant at the North Bend Facility. The nitric acid plant manufactures nitric acid through the catalytic oxidation of ammonia.
The violations at the North Bend Facility primarily arose from an activity on the nitric acid plant known as the �heat train revision� conducted in 1990 and several subsequent activities which occurred throughout the early 1990�s. Collectively, these activities increased the capacity of the nitric acid plant and emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) causing a �major modification� under PSD rules and a �modification� under NSPS rules. Because of this, the nitric acid plant should have complied with the PSD requirements, by applying for and receiving a PSD Permit to Install (PTI) under the Ohio State Implementation Plan (SIP), the NSPS for Nitric Acid Production Plants, 40 C.F.R. Part 60 Subpart G, and had these requirements incorporated into its Title V permit.
This Consent Decree is the first settlement as part of the National NSR/PSD Acid Plant Priority. The settlement will require state-of-the-art NOx contro