FHRPineBend.com - Impacts: River Water Quality

Learn about Flint Hills Resources' pollution prevention efforts and how you too can make a difference.

On report pages, click here to see how much of the selected pollutant was emitted from the refinery.

Source Data information for river water quality impacts.

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River Water Quality
The Mississippi River supports fish and other aquatic wildlife, and continues to be an important flyway for migratory birds, from songbirds to geese and ducks to bald eagles. The portion of the river that flows past FHR's Pine Bend refinery has been classified by the MN Pollution Control Agency as supporting but threatened for aquatic life due to total phosphorous, nitrite/nitrate concentration, oxygen demand, turbidity and suspended solids.

The river does not meet all of standards set by the MPCA and US EPA due to multiple discharges to the river from industrial sources (like the refinery), municipal wastewater treatment plants, stormwater runoff, air deposition of pollutants, and other tributaries (like the Minnesota River).

For thirty years, the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services has been measuring water quality at sites along the Mississippi River in the greater metropolitan area. You can access the Council's data at: http://es.metc.state.mn.us/eims.

The MN Department of Health has issued a fish consumption advisory for this stretch of the river for mercury and PCB's.

The refinery has tried to minimize its impact on the Mississippi by achieving excellent operation of its wastewater treatment plant. The refinery has not had an effluent exceedance in over six years and continuously looks for opportunities to improve its wastewater management practices. Over the last ten years, Flint Hills has significantly reduced discharges of ammonia to the river, however that has resulted in an increase discharges of nitrates.

The refinery is just one source of discharge to the Mississippi River. Other sources of contaminants include industrial and municipal discharges, runoff from city streets and farm fields, and even deposition from the air. The Mississippi River does not fully support all of the uses which it could. There is too much mercury, too many solids (and thus too much turbidity), and too many nutrients to fully support all the different types of aquatic life it once supported. As part of an effort to improve the quality of the Mississippi, as well as other rivers and lakes in Minnesota, Flint Hills participated in a process with other businesses, environmental groups, state and local government to develop a plan and funding mechanism to clean these state water bodies that do not meet federal water quality standards.

Water use is another impact of refinery operations. Flint Hills is currently working on a project to further treat and reuse its wastewater in order to supply water to new processing units that are being built to produce cleaner diesel fuel that the federal government is requiring in 2006. This water reuse project grew out of discussions with the Community Advisory Council to the refinery and refinery neighbors.<

Water quality in 82% of the Mississippi River, from the headwaters down to the Quad Cities in Iowa, is impaired. Also, fish can only be eaten without restriction from only 15% of the Upper Mississippi.

The Clean Water Act requires states to set water quality standards that protect designated uses for all rivers. If a standard is violated, the state must prepare a study called a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) that determines the maximum concentration of the pollutant that may be added to the river from all contributing sources while still allowing the river to meet water quality standards. Until a TMDL is established, the state cannot allow more of the pollution causing the violation.

In that particular stretch of the Mississippi River where the refinery is located, MCEA is concerned with levels of ammonia, heavy metals, chloride salt, phosphorous and soil particles that cause turbidity in the river.

More work lies ahead to improve the quality of the river and its aquatic life.