"Report Shows Threat Pascagoula Residents Face From Nearby Industry"

"PASCAGOULA -- An EPA inspector, during a tour of Mississippi Phosphates in 2009, walked through a puddle so acidic it ate leather off the inspector's steel-toed boots.

The inspector's vivid account is one of dozens from an inspection that year that yielded a biting administrative order from the EPA to the company, using the words "imminent and substantial" danger when referring to the possible impact on human health or the environment.

The federal agency ordered the company to fix uncontrolled leaks and spills of sulfuric acid on its grounds, and stop untreated discharges to the adjacent bayou and uncontrolled spills and leaks of phosphoric acid to unlined ditches. The agency found more issues in 2011, and in 2012, reinforced its orders to clean up. Then last year, the state Department of Environmental Quality shut down two plants at the fertilizer manufacturer because they were creating an acid mist that caused neighboring industry to evacuate workers."

Karen Nelson reports for the Biloxi Sun Herald September 6, 2014.