Letter: Retired Timet ‘family member’ calls scrubber article unfair

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1998 | 9:57 a.m.

The editorial attacks Mike Naylor for allowing Timet to continue to operate for four months without the scrubber. I assume that Timet has agreed that the company will be emitting 11 tons of particulate, chlorine and hydrogen chloride.

Let me introduce myself. I'm Eldon Poulsen. On April 1, 1997, I retired from Timet after 43 years. It was and is a great place to work. The company doesn't just employ people, it adopts them. An employee of Timet is family. For this reason I take exception to anyone who attacks this great organization.

Because I have 43 years experience at the Henderson plant, let me point out a few historical events that led up to where we are today. In 1950 Timet bought into the Henderson complex. The complex was a mothballed magnesium-chlorine plant that was surplus from the Second World War. It was the reason Henderson was born as a city.

For five years, Timet was in the development stage and the company was spending lots of money on the plant. In 1957 the company spent $20 million upgrading the melt shop and installing the office building. Timet had 1,300 employees at that time. The magnesium operation was the old IG Farben type open cells. Each cell was losing 450 pounds of chlorine to the atmosphere. There were over 100 cells on line at that time.

In 1980, Timet spent more than $80 million to install the Alcan technology of closed cells, and the emissions were reduced to nil. The number of employees was reduced to fewer than 800.

In 1991, an additional $110 million was spent on the plant to improve the reduction operation and eliminate emissions.

In short, the company has been a good neighbor to the people of Henderson. It has maintained a large payroll that is spent mainly at the businesses in Henderson. Yes there will come a time when the interests in Henderson will run Timet out of the valley. But in my opinion it will be a sad day indeed.

Eldon Poulsen