In the small community of Midway, about 10 miles west of Greeneville, there are no hospitals. There are no clinics and there aren’t any grocery stores. But there are about 2,000 people living in the rolling hills that mark this area, many well within view of a nitric acid plant which sprawls over 400 acres. Tucked neatly behind the hills and trees of the valley, the plant produces ingredients that are used to manufacture blasting powder.
It’s called US Nitrogen, though locally it’s just known as “the nitrogen plant.” It donates scholarships to the local schools. It holds community fundraisers. Sometimes an alarm blares on Saturdays as workers test emergency response systems. But not many people who live nearby actually know what it does. Or that it’s had several accidents in the last decade, potentially endangering their health.
WUOT News found that in the last 10 years, US Nitrogen has had at least five documented excess emission events, three chemical spills and four violations of the Clean Water Act. Many of these incidents went unfined by regulators, and the plant has twice successfully petitioned the state to seal data surrounding some of these events…