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.

But that hasn’t stopped some people from taking notice. Sherry Cooper is a retiree and environmental activist who lives less than a mile away from the plant on a hilltop. She’s been speaking out against the plant ever since it arrived in 2014 because she says the chemicals it emits are dangerous.

“Everybody’s too afraid to speak out,” she said. “They were worried because of their job. But what’s the job costing? They don’t understand that they are being chemically poisoned every day.”

US Nitrogen declined an interview for this story, but said in a statement that they prioritize safety.

“Our priority is to identify any opportunities to enhance safeguards and to take proactive steps that further protect our employees, neighbors, and the environment,” the emailed statement reads. “We remain committed to communication, compliance, and continuous improvement across our operations.”

Now, after an accident at a similar plant owned by the same company in Ohio, the federal government is investigating US Nitrogen. Local activists in Tennessee say it’s been a problem for years.

‘I was getting sicker and sicker’

In 1982, Cooper moved to Greene County from Flint, Michigan for the clean air, clear water and natural beauty of Tennessee. For over 30 years, she says, she didn’t have any problems with her lungs. That is until she says she began to see clouds of orange, rust-colored gas coming from the nitric acid plant that had just been built near her home.

“I didn’t know what it was at the time,” Cooper said. “All I know is I was getting sicker and sicker.”

Her eyes began to burn when she walked outside, and she started getting blisters on her skin. She said it was hard for her to walk or talk.

“I was literally dying up by my hill,” Cooper said.

Pierce Gentry WUOT

Local retiree and environmental activist Sherry Cooper claims that since US Nitrogen first began operating in 2016, she has had difficulty breathing, along with persistent skin and eye irritation.

For years she lived this way. In 2023, she started seeing a lung specialist. They told her that she had developed crystal nodules in her lungs. They couldn’t pinpoint a cause, but Cooper is convinced it has something to do with the orange clouds she sees above US Nitrogen.

“If I’m sitting out in my front yard, I can see the gasses coming over the treetops,” Cooper said. “It’s dangerous. It’s deadly. And what I tell everybody, what goes up, has to come down. And every time we mow, every time it rains, anything we do outside, we’re stirring it back up and breathing it in even more.”

The risks of nitric acid

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) permits US Nitrogen to emit certain levels of nitrous oxides, which include nitrogen dioxide – a potent greenhouse gas that accelerates global warming – and nitric acid, which can be dangerous to humans. US Nitrogen has cooling towers at its plant that allow excess gases to be vented as part of its day-to-day operations.

Immediate exposure to even a small amount of gaseous nitric acid can be dangerous, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the short term, it can irritate the eyes and skin. If exposure persists, it can lead to a host of lung issues.

Joshua Fu is a professor in the University of Tennessee’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He’s studied air quality and its impacts on human health for over 30 years.

“Nitric acid is highly corrosive and can affect both respiratory health and also environmental deterioration, which is damaging to the crops, soil and flowers as well,” Fu said.

According to Fu, even if US Nitrogen isn’t exceeding federal emission guidelines and is taking necessary precautions to protect workers and neighbors, they could still be unknowingly impacting people with pre-existing health conditions, which research indicates to be more common in rural regions such as Greene County.

“Some people may be weak or have a chronic disease,” Fu said. “Those people can get exposed and that’s it.”

November release was ‘probably one of our worst yet’

On a normal day, US Nitrogen starts up and begins heating large amounts of ammonia. As the ammonia heats, it breaks apart into a gas full of nitrous oxides, according to company memos sent to TDEC describing the process. These gases are combined with oxygen and water to create nitric acid, a volatile chemical.

Using the nitric acid from this process, the plant then produces an ammonia nitrate solution they call “Hydrox 503.” Its parent company, Austin Powder, then has the solution shipped to one of their other facilities, where it’s used to make explosives.

But on Sunday, Nov. 24 of last year, US Nitrogen didn’t have a normal day. Workers tried to start the plant at 6:42 a.m., according to narratives provided by plant administrators to TDEC.

But the valve that controls oxygen flow into the cooling tower was left shut tight. Without any oxygen to combine with the water, a cloud of nitrogen gases, including nitric acid, escaped into the air.

Courtesy Park Overall WUOT

A plume of rust-colored vapor stretches out across Midway, Tennessee on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024.

Nearly an hour later, at 7:25 a.m., US Nitrogen’s Environmental Health and Safety Manager Kim Ryans called Greene County 911 to let them know about the accident, records indicate.

“We had a failure during startup of our nitric acid plant,” Ryans told the 911 operator. “It’s probably one of our worst yet. So it’s probably going to scare some people, but there’s absolutely no harm to human health or the environment.”

“There’s nothing in it, no worries?” The 911 operator clarified.

“No there should be no worries,” Ryans replied.

One hour after Ryans notified Greene County 911 of the release, records indicate that they attempted another startup of the nitric acid plant at 8:28 a.m.. Again, the valve that controls oxygen flow was left closed.

Two hours later, a man who lives on a farm near the plant called 911, saying his eyes were burning and he was “stopped up” after stepping outside and observing the release.

“I went outside this morning and my eyes was burning, my skin was burning, and they had orange stuff coming everywhere out of their pipes,” the man said. “It’s awful down here. You can’t even breathe. I mean, my skin is itching off of me.”

“Well, they called us and they advised us that they did have something happen this morning,” the operator replied. “They said that there was nothing in it to hurt the environment or the people.”

There was no emergency response. Later, in a memo sent to TDEC, US Nitrogen said that an estimated 900 pounds of nitrogen gases escaped into the air above the plant that morning.

Many people who live nearby didn’t even notice as the cloud of rust-colored vapors stretched out across the town of Midway. But a few people did.

One of those people lives nearly 10 miles away, outside of Greeneville. Her name is Park Overall, and she’s a retired actress turned environmental activist. In the 1990s she levied criticism against the Champion International paper plant in Canton, North Carolina on national television. Her comments helped ignite a conversation which led to several lawsuits against the plant, forcing its sale to another company.

Nearly two decades later, she set her sights on something closer to home: US Nitrogen.

From the very beginning, when the plant was first proposed to the public in 2013, Overall began attending meetings and submitting comments on draft permits.

“And I did everything in my power to stop it,” Overall said. “I went to every single Industrial Development Board meeting.”

The movement to bring the plant to Greene County was largely spurred forward by the Industrial Development Board of Greene County, a committee made up of local politicians and business owners with the goal to promote industry and increase employment opportunities in the county.

Pierce Gentry WUOT

Retired actress and environmental activist Park Overall has spent over a decade campaigning against the arrival, activation and continued operation of the ammonia processing facility in Midway, Tenn., known as US Nitrogen.

Overall claims that from the very beginning, local and state government discussion surrounding the arrival of the plant was shrouded in secrecy. In late 2013, Austin Powder held discussions behind closed doors with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Tennessee Valley Authority and TDEC at TVA’s Knoxville headquarters, according to documents reviewed by WUOT News.

“I watched that whole thing unfold – how they did it – and they did it by hook or by crook,” Overall said.

Despite receiving over 500 letters and emails from people who live in Midway and along the Nolichucky River opposing the plant in 2014, TDEC issued permits and construction began. By 2016, US Nitrogen fired up its boilers for the first time.

A history of violations

In early August of 2016, US Nitrogen had already violated its air permits by failing to properly operate the plant’s catalytic reduction system, which absorbs the majority of the emissions that would otherwise escape into the outside air. According to a letter sent to TDEC admitting the violation, they had operated the plant this way for over a month.

TDEC chose not to fine the company for its permit violation. Less than three weeks later, US Nitrogen released between 1,000 and 3,000 pounds of nitric acid into the air during a reported malfunction while trying to start the plant, records show. Again, they went unfined by TDEC.

This pattern continued for most of the other permit violations the plant has incurred since beginning operation. In early 2017, a piece of equipment failed at the plant, releasing nearly 500 pounds of gaseous nitric acid into the air. Then, in 2018, TDEC discovered that the plant had been operating a source of toxic ammonia gases for over two years without permits or regulatory oversight. In 2019, the plant’s wastewater ponds overflowed for days, potentially leaking water containing dangerous chemicals into nearby streams like the Nolichucky River. In 2020, TDEC found that the plant had been miscalculating its emissions data for over a year.

Through all of this, TDEC chose to fine US Nitrogen a handful of times, amounting to penalties of $12,500, according to their enforcement database. After the company’s most recent violation in November, the regulator fined them for not providing information in a timely manner, bringing total penalties to $23,500.

TDEC has also twice approved confidentiality requests which will seal data surrounding emissions at the plant; once in 2022, after TDEC requested worst-case nitrous oxide release numbers, and again earlier this year, after the department investigated the Nov. 24, 2024 incident.

‘Problems would be readily visible if somebody bothered to look’

The chairman of the litigation committee for the Tennessee chapter of the Sierra Club says that’s a sign of a weakened environmental regulator.

“[TDEC] has really failed to make US Nitrogen even live up to the terms of their permits, let alone issue a permit that’s really protective,” said Axel Ringe. “They don’t really make what I consider a good faith effort to really pin down what is happening.”

Ringe says that TDEC positions itself as business friendly and has a track record of being an industry-oriented regulator, at the cost of environmental protection.

“I think in most cases, they believe in what they’re doing, and they try to do a good job,” Ringe said. “It’s when you get into the upper levels and into the general counsel’s office and into the commissioner’s office that the problems come up. Because at those levels, there is a lot of political pressure.”

In 2011, when Governor Bill Haslam picked Robert Martineau as TDEC commissioner, he said he wanted someone who would balance industry interests with environmental protection. Martineau soon enacted sweeping changes within the department, slashing positions and spending while consolidating operations, all while re-prioritizing TDEC’s mission.

“Martineau … told his staff early on that their job was to make sure that the applicants who came to them got their permits – that those were their clients,” Ringe said. “So under Martineau, enforcement by TDEC took a nosedive. And that, as far as I know, has not recovered since then.”

Residents have repeatedly complained to TDEC about activity at the plant. The regulator often responds by sending inspectors, who they say can’t find any evidence of wrongdoing. Ringe says that’s partially due to the way inspections and accountability are handled by the department.

“When they do send inspectors out, when there’s a complaint, they could try to make sure that the inspectors that they send out know what they’re doing and don’t just pay deference to the site officials who are parading them around and trying to show the best face on the things,” Ringe said.

TDEC inspections at US Nitrogen are frequently pre-announced, and led by plant staff, according to documentation reviewed by WUOT News.

Early last year, TDEC received an anonymous complaint from a former staff member at the plant who listed – in detail – 20 separate issues the plant was attempting to conceal. When TDEC told US Nitrogen that they would be coming to inspect the plant, plant manager Dylan Charles said that the inspection would be “difficult to accommodate,” and asked them to delay it by five days. Division staff told US Nitrogen that would be fine, and apologized “for the short notice.”

After the delayed inspection, TDEC promptly closed the investigation and reported no major issues.

“A lot of those problems would be readily visible if somebody bothered to look at them,” Ringe said. “But obviously nobody ever did.”

TDEC declined an interview for this story, but did provide a statement saying that enforcement is only one of its methods for bringing permit holders back into compliance.

“When the department identifies a potential violation, TDEC works to bring the permittee into compliance through education, technical assistance or corrective action,” they said in the statement.

In the absence of enforcement action from TDEC, activists like Overall have been calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to intervene for nearly a decade. But they say they’ve had little luck.

“EPA is just not available,” Overall said. “Because EPA gave all its power to the state.”

Overall is referring to the transfer of regulatory authority from the EPA to TDEC, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency in 2014 that a company’s greenhouse gas emissions alone could not qualify it for regulation under EPA’s Title V division.

Since then, EPA’s role in regulating US Nitrogen has been minimal. The one Title V permit, which would have limited the plant’s total emissions, was split into several state air pollution permits handled by TDEC, which Ringe says allows the plant much more leeway.

“If you split the thing up into two or three or four or whatever, there are lower limits,” Ringe said. “But if the facility can keep their emissions just below those lower limits for each subset, then the total is greater emissions than they would be under a comprehensive Title V limit.”

That’s why he says he’d like to see that decision reversed. The Sierra Club opposed the decision to split those permits then, and they still do now.

“TDEC could back up and recombine the permits and put them under Title V EPA regulations,” Ringe said. “I think that would be a start in the right direction.”

That hasn’t stopped the EPA from taking any action at all, however. In 2018, the agency fined US Nitrogen nearly $100,000 for not properly complying with its risk management program. In 2019, when US Nitrogen was in the process of renewing its air permits, the agency made five permit revision recommendations to TDEC to help ensure that emissions were well-regulated and safety was prioritized. TDEC wrote back and rejected all five of the recommendations.

Overall has petitioned other federal agencies for help as well. In 2018, after US Nitrogen’s first air violations, she sent an email to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asking them to evaluate the public health implications of emissions from US Nitrogen.

In a written response delivered to Overall several months later, the department denied her request. They said that they rely on state and self-reported environmental monitoring data to conduct their investigations. In their response, they stated, “no environmental sampling was conducted to quantify the type of hazardous substances released or the air concentration of those hazardous substances.”

‘Motion in a positive direction’

While the EPA and other federal departments have had their hands largely tied in the matter, that hasn’t stopped independent federal investigators from taking notice. In June, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board announced that it is investigating the November incident along with an accident that happened at another plant in Ohio owned by the same company.

“We are concerned that incidents involving nitric acid have occurred at two facilities owned by Austin Powder in less than seven months,” said CSB Chairperson Steve Owens in a news release. “While fortunately no one was injured in either incident, we want to ensure that they do not continue to happen.”

According to the CSB’s website, their investigation could take several months. But the board is not a regulator, and has no power to take enforcement action against US Nitrogen or its parent company based on their findings. They can only make recommendations to TDEC and the EPA.

A few days after the CSB’s announcement, TDEC filed the enforcement order fining US Nitrogen for the incident in November.

It’s a step in the right direction for activists like Overall, who have been working for years to get attention from government officials.

“It’s motion in a positive direction,” she said. “I’ve never heard of that board … but I will tell you, I’m so grateful.”

In response to a request for an interview with WUOT News, US Nitrogen supplied this statement about their state permit violations and the announcement of a federal investigation:

“Austin Powder is fully cooperating with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) as it conducts an independent investigation. We recognize and support the CSB’s role in promoting chemical safety and welcome its review.”

In the meantime, Overall is grateful for the attention that the community has been given. But she says that this has all happened in this region before, from Champion International’s paper plant in North Carolina to the Kingston Coal Ash Spill.

“Appalachia wants jobs,” Overall said. “Appalachia gets jobs, and nobody looks at the consequences. And if the world is going to continue, we’re going to have to look at consequences.”

This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKYU in Kentucky and NPR.