US Magnesium admits its wall to protect Great Salt Lake is on pause. EPA says the company is violating cleanup deal.
In May, the Environmental Protection Agency learned that progress on the wall had halted — and it informed US Magnesium that it was out of compliance with, clean up past contamination, add a new filtration plant to treat wastewater and make other improvements at its Tooele County plant The work related to the retaining wall “has been temporarily delayed due to the magnesium system shutdown,” he added. “In regard to environmental impact, US Magnesium has not detected any contaminant migration from our impoundment area,” referring to the waste pond region that will be surrounded by the wall.
But the company stopped magnesium production in September 2022, it has said in court documents, and equipment failures the previous year had curtailed production even earlier. By November 2023, work had halted because US Magnesium hadn’t paid a single one of the company’s five invoices, Forgen alleges in its lawsuit, filed in October in 3rd District Court. The mine owes Forgen $5.8 million, plus interest and fees, according to the complaint.
An eighth company, Odin Environmental Solutions in California, had settled a June 2021 suit against US Magnesium out of court. But it’s now asking a Utah judge to enforce the remaining $1.5 million owed under that settlement. The decree also notes US Magnesium’s “inability to secure and/or maintain” the financial resources needed for the mitigation work “in no way excuse performance of the work or any other requirements of this consent decree or any other statutory or regulatory obligation.”
The settlement required US Magnesium to “construct an extensive barrier wall and berm,” Maxwell said, in order to comply with what’s known as the nation’s Superfund law — the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act .