Mercury trickled down the conveyor belts in the plant facilities, and then ran onto the ground, and finally into the river.  The sludge, itself, had mercury in it.  Worse of all, the mercury would never flush out of the river and the ecosystem it contained.  The fish would die, and be eaten by microbes.  The microbes were eaten by larger creatures, which in their turn were eaten by fish.  The cycle of death has no end to it. 

          Olin estimated that it lost 100 pounds of mercury a day into the environment from 1951 until 1970. 

         Olin reduced the loss of mercury to a half a pound a day, but then the Virginia State Water Control Board lowered its permissible standards down to lower than that.  In 1972 the EPA permanently shut the plant down.  The mercury cells were moved to New York State, where they were put back into use.  In 1980 ‘Superfund’ legislation was passed providing money to clean up the worse of the chemical pollution sites in the country.  Saltville was on that list. 

         In 1982 Olin Mathieson was ordered to dredge the river at the plant, and to bury that mercury contaminated dirt along with the remaining sludge in Ponds 5 & 6, which were placed where the old sludge pond and chlorine plant had been.  The material was covered with an impermeable cap, and fenced in.  The contents are very caustic and will cause chemical burns on contact.  The area is fenced to prohibit human entry. 

       The surface area of the combined ponds is 125 acres, and their greatest depth is 80 feet.  Due to the mercury contamination, in Virginia it is illegal to eat fish caught in the North Fork of the Holston. 

      The relationship between the Town of Saltville and the Federal Government has been a twisted one.  After 1972 the employment rate in Saltville was 70%.

 

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