Risk Assessment and Site Monitoring Associated with Disposal of Ground Calcium Carbonate Processing Residuals
Omya, Inc., of Florence, Vermont is the world's largest producer of high quality ground calcium carbonate (GCC) from marble bedrock, which is extracted from off-site quarries. GCC is an important component in many paper, paint, and plastic products. Processing activities at the facility produce slurried tailings residuals which are piped to a settling basin to reduce water content, and then trucked to on-site former bedrock quarries for disposal. Organic chemicals are used in the grinding process to float out non-calcium carbonate minerals, which in turn become part of the slurried tailings residuals.
