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Enron Mail |
Steve,
I contacted Cheryl Dawson the environmental manager at Enron Methanol regarding the Corporate Watch article. As you can see below in Cheryl's response the emissions reported to EPA under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) rules have decreased significantly since the 1997 report developed by Environmental Defense. Additionally, Cheryl related to me that Enron Methanol was a participant in Clean Texas 200, an effort to reduce the amount of waste being generated annually by 50% by the year 2000. Enron Methanol did achieve this goal, and has gone from a large quantity waste generator to a conditionally exempt small quantity generator. This is due to the beneficial use by the Enron MTBE plant of the mixed alcohol by -product from the Methanol plant. In 1998 , MTBE plant began using the mixed alcohols in their process stream. That is certainly a success story and is reflected in the reduced n-butyl alcohol TRI entry seen in Cheryl's note below. ---------------------- Forwarded by Michael Terraso/OTS/Enron on 08/01/2000 01:49 PM --------------------------- Cheryl Dawson 08/01/2000 01:32 PM To: Michael Terraso/OTS/Enron@ENRON cc: Subject: Re: Corporate Watch article Yes, I have seen the Defense Fund's propaganda. Here is the breakdown: (all shown in pounds) 1997 1998 1999 methanol (air releases) 173352 179519 89616 methanol (disposal off-site) 87351 57191 2742 ammonia (air releases) 2720 2720 2720 ammonia (treated off-site) 5168 4788 4788 formaldehyde (air releases only) 98300 81380 69984 n-butyl alcohol (off-site disposal only) 155266 945 42 The numbers the Scorecard used in the "1997 TRI Pollution Release Sorted by Health Effect" section are various combinations of methanol + formaldehyde + ammonia. Unfortunately they've not said anything that isn't true. It is all in presentation and effective combination. We have done much better this year in comparison but for the methanol and formaldehyde the release amounts are reduced due in part to better calculation methods and a different AP-42 for formaldehyde. And, by the way, the formaldehyde is strictly from the combustion of natural gas in the engines. We will, of course, have to address the engines for NOx but I don't know that the retrofit will affect the formaldehyde. Anyway, hope this helps. We are getting better and certainly are aware and doing what we can.
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