FAIRLAWN — They make things that blow up at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, so it’s no surprise that the industrial waste there is a bit dicey.
The arsenal released 14 million pounds of toxins into the New River in 2008, byproducts of making propellants and explosives used to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That’s far more than any other factory or utility in Virginia, according to the Toxics Release Inventory, an annual scorecard of emissions compiled by the state Department of Environmental Quality.
Yet the arsenal is within emission limits set by the state, and environmental regulators say it has a relatively good track record.
Arsenal officials say they can do better.
The volatile nature of making ammunition is “definitely an additional challenge, but that goes with the territory, ” said Phillip Lockard, environmental compliance manager for ATK Alliant Techsystems, the Minneapolis-based company that runs the arsenal for the U.S. Army.
In a step that will lighten the plant’s industrial footprint, the Army recently spent $100 million on improvements to the production process, which relies heavily on nitric acid and sulfuric acid. The acids are mixed with other ingredients — their names are classified information — to produce propellant. Leftover acid is dumped into a sewer that leads to a wastewater treatment plant.
There, the acid is neutralized with liquid lime and diluted with up to 7 million gallons of water a day. That process produces nitrate compounds, which represent more than 98 percent of the plant’s toxic releases.
From a perforated pipe that runs along the bottom of the New River, the nitrates are released into the water. The releases meet state standards for drinking water, Lockard said.
Even environmental advocates say 7,000 tons of toxins doesn’t seem to have a noticeable impact on the surrounding ecology.
“It’s a great irony that the fish population below them is one of the best on the entire river, ” said George Santucci, executive director of the National Committee for the New River, a nonprofit group devoted to protecting the waterway.
“While I’m not excited about the fact that they’re dumping that much toxic material into the river, to the Army’s credit, they have been doing lots of things to try to mitigate the amount of nitrates they release, ” Santucci said.
Arsenal officials say nitrates are relatively benign compared with mercury, lead and other chemicals tracked by the Toxics Release Inventory.
Nitrates can affect the blood’s ability to carry oxygen. However, that is a concern only if high concentrations are consumed.
With fish and other aquatic life, the main concern is that nitrates contribute to algae growth, which can reduce the amount of oxygen in the water. That can kill fish. But there have been no reported fish kills in the river directly downstream of the arsenal, said Bill Hayden, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality.
Much of the $100 million spent by the Army has been for a new building that looks something like a grain elevator, in which nitric and sulfuric acid are made.
The new building, to be operational by the end of the year, is more energy efficient and will do a better job of recycling acids, said Joy Case, a spokeswoman for the arsenal.
Other improvements have already led to a 14 percent decrease in the amount of nitrates the arsenal released into the river during 2009, according to preliminary numbers.
“If production levels remain steady, that decreasing trend will continue in the coming years, ” Case wrote in a statement shortly after the arsenal topped the 2008 Toxics Release Inventory last month.
However, it will take a huge decrease to knock the arsenal from its place at the top of the list, with 14.3 million pounds of toxins. All but 300,000 pounds were released into the river.
That’s more than three times the amount produced by the Chesterfield Power Station near Richmond, No. 2 on the list at 3.8 million pounds. MeadWestvaco, which operates a paper plant in Covington, placed third in 2008 with 3.3 million pounds.
Each year, arsenal officials take more than 2,000 measurements of what goes into the New River, as required by a wastewater discharge permit from the state. They are required by law to report any releases that exceed those allowed by the permit.
Over the past 10 years, DEQ has cited the arsenal six times. Four of the citations were for violations that included excessive acid emissions; the other two dealt with record-keeping or other paperwork matters, according to records obtained through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Together, the citations carried fines of $23,310.
Six citations in 10 years is not an unusually large number, considering the size of the arsenal’s 7,000-acre facility and the fact that two cases involved record-keeping, said Steve Dietrich, director of the DEQ’s regional office in Roanoke.
Statewide, DEQ issues 50 to 75 consent orders, or citations, each year.
Lockard, ATK’s environmental compliance officer, said any number of consent orders is too many.
“We take it seriously, ” he said. “We’re constantly doing things to get better.”
Meanwhile, production at the arsenal has been increasing. The plant produces about 20 million pounds a year of nitrocellulose, a key product. Most propellants made at Radford are shipped to other facilities where the ammunition is finished.
The plant is currently bidding on a contract to make armor-piercing missiles that will include depleted uranium. That process will entail preparing an environmental assessment and obtaining a permit from the state Department of Health to handle radioactive materials.
Three years ago, when the arsenal first made news for its top ranking on the Toxics Release Inventory, officials invited environmental groups and others to tour the plant and learn more about pollution control efforts.
“As far as they knew, we just had pipes and were dumping this stuff into the river, ” Lockard said. In reality, he said, “we have a lot of environmental programs here.”
Santucci, head of the National Committee for the New River, said he’s been impressed with the arsenal’s openness. In addition to taking guided tours, the committee has done its own research.
“We’ve done a lot of digging, ” Santucci said. “There might be something we’ve missed. But to date, we don’t have a smoking gun.”