What appears on its face to be a routine request for Florida Department of Environmental Protection renewal of an existing wastewater permit for a company that has operated in Pace for many years has turned controversial.
Taminco, a subsidiary of Eastman Chemical, has requested to continue to be allowed to discharge up to 1.23 million gallons a day of wastewater into Escambia Bay in the event of a 25-year storm event, a term that puts the probability of such a storm at 4% each year.
The problem, as environmental activists see it, is that the chemical processing plant now operating at 4575 U.S. Highway 90 in Pace as Taminco U.S. LLC has already done considerable damage to the environment, and by extension the local population, over its many years of operation. County Property Appraiser records indicate the U.S. 90 site had been approved for heavy industrial uses as far back as 1968.
Spotty environmental record
Records indicate the plant operators, which before Taminco and Eastman Chemicals was called Air Products and Chemicals, have faced legal challenges over the years as a result of pollution discharges. Those include a legal settlement to minor children apparently harmed by releases from the plant…