by Logan Finney, Idaho Reports
The J.R. Simplot Company will spend about $150 million on waste processing upgrades at its Don Plant fertilizer manufacturing facility outside Pocatello, as part of a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after allegations that the company failed to properly identify and manage certain hazardous waste streams.
The plant manufactures phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizer for agricultural uses. The site includes phosphogypsum stacks, which hold the waste rock and acidic wastewater from phosphate processing.
“This settlement will bring important benefits to Idaho and the communities that have been affected by the Don Plant’s operations,” U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit said in the news release. “We are grateful that our state partner, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, helped formulate and will oversee work that Simplot will fund to mitigate the impacts of its phosphate operations on water quality and the environment along the Portneuf River, working in cooperation with both the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the City of Pocatello.”
Under the settlement, announced Tuesday by the Justice Department, Simplot will implement process modifications at the Don Plant facility to enable greater recovery and reuse of phosphate. The agribusiness giant is also required to set aside about $108 million for the environmental cleanup involved with any eventual closure of the plant, as well as pay a $1.5 million civil penalty.
Simplot is also providing $200,000 in funding that will be administered by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the city and tribe for environmental mitigation work on the Portneuf River.
“This settlement advances EPA’s goals by creating environmentally beneficial waste management practices and ensures that the U.S. taxpayer will not be responsible for future costs associated with closure of this facility,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield of the EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Additionally, this settlement ensures that any future expansion of Simplot’s operations will be conducted according to strict requirements to minimize impacts to surrounding communities, including the Fort Hall Indian Reservation.”
Under the settlement, Simplot agreed to replace the facility’s cooling towers with one or more newly constructed cooling ponds by mid-2026, which should reduce the plant’s fluoride emissions into the air. The public will have a 30-day period to comment on the proposed consent decree, which was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Idaho.
“After our 2020 settlement with Simplot’s phosphoric acid and fertilizer plant in Wyoming, we are pleased to reach this settlement with Simplot’s other major phosphoric acid and fertilizer operation,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Environment and Natural Resources Division said in the news release. “This proposed consent decree will comprehensively address the waste management, air emissions and reporting issues EPA identified with respect to the Don Plant’s operations.”
The phosphogypsum stack was fully lined in 2017, the press release noted, in accordance with a previous consent order between the company and the government.
The Idaho State Journal reported that the plant at one time was responsible for 1,200 pounds per day of phosphorus load into the Portneuf River but had reduced that to about 600 pounds per day in 2010.
The state legislature refined design and construction standards for new phosphogypsum stacks in 2021.
J.R. Simplot Company spokesperson Josh Jordan provided Idaho Reports with the following statement:
“The J.R. Simplot Company is pleased to have worked with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice to reach this settlement. This more than 500-page settlement, which took over 15 years to achieve, provides for additional recovery of phosphate in our production process and other environmental protection measures associated with the handling of our ore processing materials and wastes. This settlement is part of our work to continue to provide important crop nutrients throughout North America to help feed a growing population.”
Logan Finney | Associate Producer
Logan Finney is a North Idaho native with a passion for media production and boring government meetings. He grew up skiing, hunting and hiking in the mountains of Bonner County and has maintained a lifelong interest in the state’s geography, history and politics. Logan joined the Idaho Reports team in 2020 as a legislative session intern and stayed to cover the COVID-19 pandemic. He was hired as an associate producer in 2021 and they haven’t been able to get rid of him since.
