Chemical in Ohio River traced to Greenup plant

A Greenup County industrial plant has been ordered to stop dumping a toxic chemical into the Ohio River after it was detected as far away as Louisville -- more than 250 miles downstream.

The company, Pregis Innovative Packaging Inc. in Wurtland, Ky., now faces the possibility of several hundred thousand dollars in fines, according to enforcement records made public yesterday and interviews with state officials.

Plant manager Michael Nadeau said his company, which makes polypropylene foam packaging, has not conceded that it has discharged the chemical into the river.

"We're investigating the issues that were brought forth by the Division of Water," he said. "We take these allegations very seriously."

Kentucky state regulators described the case as a mystery that took months to resolve, starting in April, after the solvent methylene chloride first started showing up at a monitoring station at Cincinnati's water intake 130 miles away.

Several days later, trace amounts were detected near Louisville's water intake, Louisville Water Co. officials said.

Both water utilities stepped up treatment to make sure the chemical, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers a probable human carcinogen, didn't get into people's drinking water.

An investigation by the multistate Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, whose monitors first detected the chemical, helped identify the source, said Larry Sowder, a Kentucky water quality official.

"It took some sleuthing to determine where it was coming from," said Allison Fleck, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Division of Water.
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