Bayer is one of the largest pharmaceutical, chemical, and biomedical companies in the world, with a reported revenue of over $54 billion in 2023. After it acquired Monsanto in 2018, Bayer became the sole holding company of P4 Production, which operates a phosphate ore mining and refining facility in the town of Soda Springs, Idaho. The facility produces glyphosate, the key ingredient in the controversial herbicide, Roundup.
The Clean Air Act requires companies like P4 Production to disclose the types and amounts of air pollutants they emit during “upset” events – accidental releases of potentially harmful chemicals. This helps citizens remain informed about the quality of the air they breathe. Despite the vast size and long operational history of P4 Production’s parent companies, Monsanto and now Bayer, and despite Bayer’s demonstrated ability to comply with such reporting requirements at other facilities it operates, public records indicate that P4 Production has violated the Clean Air Act permit for its Soda Springs facility 773 times in the past five years, consistently failing to include proper estimates of the air pollutants it emits during upset events.
Over this period, P4 Production’s excess emission reports, which are required to describe the nature and extent of excess emissions, have instead contained vague, boilerplate language. NELC’s review of hundreds of these reports revealed that P4 Production never identified the actual pollutants released, and frequently failed to estimate the quantity of pollutants released. We believe that each such failure is a violation of the Clean Air Act’s reporting requirements, one that leaves neighbors in the dark about the pollutants in their midst.
In September 2024, NELC sent P4 Production a 60-day notice of violation on behalf of the non-profit groups Idaho Conservation League and Environment America. This pre-suit notice identifies the facility’s ongoing reporting violations, as required under the Clean Air Act, and represents the first step in a legal process intended to secure compliance, to better understand the facility’s emissions, and to protect Idaho’s environment.