Read the settlement: http://wvgazette.com/static/watchdog/PPG%20Consent%20Order.pdf

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia regulators have proposed a $1.3 million pollution settlement with PPG Industries, but the deal does not set a firm deadline for the company's Natrium chlorine plant to stop its repeated violations of water discharge limits for toxic mercury.

Lawyers for the state Department of Environmental Protection proposed the deal to resolve a lawsuit the agency filed against PPG last year in Marshall County Circuit Court.

Last week, DEP extended the public comment period on the proposed settlement for another 10 days after the agency neglected to issue a public notice about the proposal through its electronic mail notification system.

Under the deal, PPG would pay $1 million in civil penalties and would have to spend another $350,000 on "supplemental environmental projects".

The proposed settlement says one project would be a "three-year commitment" by PPG to "conduct household hazardous waste and/or electronic waste collection days." The deal gives PPG 30 days to submit plans for a second project for DEP review.

An attachment to the settlement lists nearly 60 violations of monthly and daily pollution limits for mercury, iron, copper, chlorine and total suspended solids between 2006 and 2009.

The 13-page proposal requires PPG to submit a report by July 1, 2012, "describing the actions PPG has taken or is taking" to comply with the water quality standards for mercury before a mixing zone rule that benefits the company expires in October 2013.

In May 2009, DEP filed suit against PPG after two environmental groups, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and Oceana, filed a formal notice of intent to sue the company to try to force it to stop repeated mercury violations from the Natrium plant. PPG officials had suggested the DEP suit, which helped the company head off any potentially stronger court sanctions the citizen groups might have sought in their own lawsuit.

DEP's lawsuit was the latest in a long series of actions by state officials to help PPG, including four instances in the last 20 years in which DEP backed off tougher water pollution limits for the Northern Panhandle plant.

Built in 1957, the PPG facility is along the Ohio River just north of New Martinsville. The plant is among West Virginia's largest sources of mercury discharges to the water and among the largest sources of mercury air pollution.

Part of the PPG plant makes chlorine by pumping salt water through vats, or cells, of pure mercury. Most of the industry -- representing about 95 percent of U.S.-produced chlorine -- now uses newer, mercury-free production processes.

Mercury is extremely toxic. Depending on the dose, human health effects from exposure can include subtle loss of sensory or cognitive ability, tremors, inability to walk and death. Of particular concern is the fact that mercury becomes more concentrated as it passes from a mother to her fetus. Children with exposure are at risk of having to struggle to keep up in school or needing remedial classes or special education.

After the state of Maryland threatened to sue PPG last year, the company agreed to reduce its mercury air pollutions by nearly 88 percent by 2013. The company also agreed to install any "economically and technologically feasible method or equipment that will allow further reductions in mercury air emissions" after Dec. 31, 2013.

At least three other PPG facilities in Louisiana, Canada and Taiwan have converted to newer technology that does not emit mercury into the environment, according to Oceana.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.