When the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) met on Tuesday
January 6, 2004, it only took them about fifteen minutes to vote down
the proposal from United Purifying Technologies (UPT). After four people
from SouthWest Neighbors Protecting Our Environment (SWNPOE) testified
briefly, and two SWACO board members spoke against it, the board
defeated a resolution to offer a lease to UPT. This ended the
possibility that the Trash Burning Power Plant property on Jackson Pike
would be used as a tire pyrolysis facility.
The citizens of southwest Columbus got up in arms about the proposal
from a start-up company that consists of one person, president Jeff
Troth, and a plan that he has been trying to implement for over a
decade. When the Ohio EPA issued a draft air permit to UPT on July 17,
2003, it vaulted the proposal to the forefront of the projects being
considered by the SWACO to pay off the debt the City of Columbus still
owes on the construction of the plant that has been idle since late 1994.
The pyrolysis facility that UPT envisioned would shred tires then bake
them at 450 degrees in a reaction vessel in the absence of oxygen. The
lighter, natural gas like hydrocarbons that would be emitted from the
heated rubber would be cycled back to the burners that heat the vessel.
The oil that would come from the rubber would be collected for re-sale.
According to Troth, the most marketable product would be high-grade
carbon black for use in air or water filters. It could also be used as
filler in synthetic products used to make conveyer belts.
Back in April of 2002, SWACO held a public meeting on the UPT proposal
according to an article by Mark Ferenchik of the Columbus Dispatch
(
www.greenlink.org/public/hotissues/tireburn.html). "Mike Long
(SWACO Director) said the tire recycler could generate $2 million a year
for the city, which still owes $89. 5 million (on the property)."
Ohio Citizen Action and of the Buckeye Environmental Network organized a
coalition of residents that met weekly, and adopted the name SouthWest
Neighbors Protecting Our Environment (SWNPOE). No one attending one of
the SWNPOE weekly meetings could come away feeling that approval of the
tire pyrolysis proposal would be quick or easy. These residents were
determined to make their voices heard.
After Ohio Citizen Action distributed a fact sheet to residents in the
neighborhood titled, "Guess who wants to be your neighbor," outlining
the air pollution dangers to the residents of the area, they held a
meeting on Thursday, September 18, 2003 at the Finland Middle School.
Teresa Mills and representatives of Ohio Citizen Action informed the
group of assembled residents that the proposal called for processing
8,333 pounds of tires an hour, 24 hours a day, 360 days a year.
Mills addressed the group, "This is one of the most important fights of
our lives, and it is for our children." She was instrumental in the
effort to shut down the Trash Burning Power Plant many years ago.
According to Mills, the proposed operation would have the right
conditions for the formation of dioxin, a dangerous carcinogen. There
also could be fugitive emissions of toxic air pollutants from various
valves, flanges and seals in the facility.
The weekly SWNPOE meetings that followed included discussions with the
primary people responsible for authorizing and operating the proposed
pyrolysis plant. On October 28, Ron Mills of the Solid Waste Authority
of Central Ohio (SWACO) addressed a meeting of the SouthWest Neighbors.
He told the group that the burden was on UPT to demonstrate the
technical, environmental and economic feasibility of the proposed
operation.
SWACO required UPT, the company that would own the facility and lease
the property from the City of Columbus, to comply with the terms of a
Memorandum of Understanding that they issued in February of 2002 before
they would approve the proposal. The Memorandum stated that UPT would
need to show that a similar facility had operated successfully for one
year, that it would comply with State and Federal environmental
regulations, and that a market existed for the product. Ron Mills said
that UPT had not yet met these three criteria, so SWACO could not
recommend the plan to the Columbus City Council. Since the City of
Columbus owns the property, City Council would be required to approve
the plan before UPT would be allowed on the property.
At another SWNPOE meeting in November, a member asked Mike Long, the
director of SWACO, why he seemed so sure that UPT's proposal was a good
plan in a letter dated May 6, 2002 addressed to community leaders, and
now he is saying that he is taking a wait and see position. Long replied
that at one point we can have confidence, and another doubts. "SWACO is
not making any judgments at this point."
SWNPOE members also told Long that they were afraid UPT might get a
modification to the air permit after it was finalized so that they could
recycle computer parts as well as tires, which could generate more toxic
organics and metals. Even though Jeff Troth, the president of UPT,
denied that he planned to expand the process to computer parts, the air
permit could have been modified to include them without a public hearing.
Long said that SWACO is considering several other proposed uses for the
old Trash Burning Power Plant property, such as non-burning sorting of
refuse, use as a transfer station, a paper to ethanol conversion
facility and a process that would use sludge to produce electricity.
The Ohio EPA regulates facilities that emit significant amounts of
pollutants to the air and must issue a final Permit to Install before
operations can begin. This permit, which is drawn up by Ohio EPA
engineers, sets limits to the amount of pollution that the facility can
generate and prescribes pollution control equipment that the company
must use.
Richard Lindstrom of the Ohio EPA is reviewing the permit application
and writing the permit. Lindstrom disputes the likelihood of significant
dioxin formation, which requires oxygen, because the pyrolysis vessel
design excludes oxygen while the rubber is being vaporized. According to
Lindstrom, even if dioxin is formed, most of it will be destroyed by
pollution control equipment that the permit requires. It should be
burned by the thermal oxidizer and washed out by the scrubber. There
would also be a "bag house" to remove particulates in much the same way
that a vacuum cleaner takes the dust out of the air it pulls through a
carpet. The air pollution laws also require UPT to use Best Available
Technology, which means they must employ the same controls that similar
industry processes use.
Opponents pointed out that this type of catalytic tire pyrolysis is a
relatively new technology, and other types of tire pyrolysis facilities
have not met with economic success anywhere they have been tried. The
U.S. Department of Energy says the process is not economically viable,
and many feared that it could end up being an additional tax burden if
things did not work out as planned and UPT folded, leaving the city
stuck with the bill for cleaning up whatever toxic and waste materials
the company left behind.
The Ohio EPA held a meeting on October 21, 2003 to inform residents
about the UPT pyrolysis proposal. They began by describing the
permitting process, the limits of pollutant levels that would be allowed
under the permit that would be issued to UPT, and the controls that
would be required. They pointed out that this was a much smaller
operation than the original Trash Burning Power Plant operation, and
believed the dioxin emissions would be low.
From the questions and comments coming from the residents in attendance
it was clear that the Ohio EPA did not change many minds. They had no
answers to questions about Emergency Planning and the potential for
explosions.
UPT had not demonstrated they have the money to clean up the site if
they end operations. The solid waste permit they need from the Ohio EPA
required this financial assurance information, but UPT wanted to wait
until after the air permit was issued to provide it. They would not be
allowed to accept tires until they get the solid waste permit.
The group of residents questioned the economic benefits of the pyrolysis
plant to the area as well as why it should be located in such a highly
populated area. Mr. Robinson, head of Air Pollution Control at the Ohio
EPA Central District Office replied that the pyrolysis facility would
get rid of waste tires and free up landfill space. As for fugitive
emissions from valves, flanges and couplings, Ohio EPA assumed that they
would be to be so low that they did not need to include them in the
control measures mandated by the air permit.
The concerned citizens attending the meeting did not seem to be
reassured by what they had heard from the Ohio EPA. One resident pointed
out that the permit limits allowed 150 tons of pollution per year to be
emitted. Another said that the politicians were not protecting our
health; they were only interested in getting more money for the City of
Columbus.
Mr. Robinson said he could understand why the group of area residents
might have doubts about the credibility of what the Ohio EPA was trying
to tell them. Most people still remember widely publicized problems with
the old Trash Burning Power Plant and Buckeye Egg Farm.
There was little doubt that UPT would get the final Permit to Install
from the Ohio EPA even though at least two dozen south Columbus citizens
gave on the record comments against it at the Public Hearing on November
6, 2003, and UPT had no lease arrangement with the City of Columbus that
owns the facility. Most of the people who testified thought the
pyrolysis plant would add to the air pollution hazards already in the area.
A representative of the local Sierra Club chapter said south Columbus
already has the worst air quality in the area and that it had been
declared an environmental justice area. A young woman who had asthma and
lumps in her breast testified about the lethal legacy in southern
Columbus. One person said he had cancer of the esophagus. A local law
enforcement officer said his twins were sick all the time from the
pollution in the area. A veteran who had cancer and a wife with
Parkinson's disease said that G.I.s will risk their own lives against
incredible odds to save one person, and now his own city is willing to
kill their own people. A woman with a ten-year-old disabled son blamed
his impairment on the pollution from the Trash Burning Power Plant. One
speaker had a son with asthma and a father with cancer. "Annex us to
Grove City," pleaded a resident. Another stated, "We are just as
important as anyone else."
Many of the people who testified at the Public Hearing were concerned
with the design of the facility, and felt the pollution controls
mandated by the permit were inadequate. The specific process that UPT
was proposing for the planned facility is totally new, and has not been
verified under real world conditions. OEPA should have required vacuum
monitoring of the pyrolysis vessel. Over 100 different bi-products could
be expected, including heavy metals. All the precursors and temperatures
necessary for the formation of dioxin are present. The OEPA did not know
what catalyst would be used or how it would be stored.
According to testimony, the OEPA has never denied an air permit to
anyone. "The Ohio EPA needs reforming," one resident shouted. Ohio EPA
would not know all of the problems to expect from the proposed facility
until it was in operation. By then, residents believed, it would be too
late. One person asked if the Ohio EPA would make monitoring pollution
from the facility a priority, and how long would it take them to shut it
down if there was a problem.
Cheryl Grossman, the mayor of Grove City said that this should be of
concern to all the people in Franklin County. The city council of Grove
City had passed a resolution condemning the plan.
The group also questioned the economic justification and consequences of
the proposed facility. Since only 20 people would be employed there it
would not be bringing in many jobs. Also, would UPT have the financial
backing to assure the area would be cleaned if the company closed? Would
it be worth the property devaluation of area residential properties? How
would it impact the new housing projects in the area?
The Columbus Health Department, the Franklin County Board of Health and
the Central Ohio Sierra Club also submitted comments to the Ohio EPA
questioning the proposal. Sierra had commissioned a study by Sagady &
Associates that resulted in nine pages of technical criticisms. (read
the full text at
www.sagady.com/workproduct/SCOHonUPTtireplant.pdf)
The solid waste justification of the project, eliminating used
automobile and truck tires, deflated when SWNPOE members contacted a
tire re-cycling facility that is also on Jackson Pike. According to
Liberty Tire, the company can already recycle up to 90% of the 12 to 14
million tires that Ohio generates each year.
According to a press release dated January 2, 2004 from Franklin County
Commissioner and SWACO Trustee Dewey Stokes, "There are an estimated
29-million scrap tires in our state that are not going away on their
own." However, Stokes opposes the UPT proposal. ". . . there are just
too many unanswered questions for this project to proceed."
(
www.co.franklin.oh.us/main/press/boc201-02-04.htm)
Calderon-Grant, Inc., the consulting firm SWACO hired to evaluate the
tire pyrolysis proposal, reported a telephone conversation with Titan
Technologies, the company from which UPT is licensing the pyrolysis
technology. Titan said they had prepared process flow schematic plans
that UPT used in the application for the Ohio EPA Permit to Install
(PTI), but no detailed process or facility design plans. "It is Titan's
understanding from Jeff Troth of UPT that UPT intends to use receipt of
the OEPA PTI to raise financing."
(
www.ohiocitizen.org/campaigns/tire/SWACOUPT-01A.doc)
In addition to testifying at the Ohio EPA Public Hearing on the proposed
Permit to Install, members of SWNPOE also talked to representatives of
the office of Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, and addressed Columbus
City Council and the SWACO Board of Directors. Signatures were collected
from over fourteen thousand concerned citizens opposing the pyrolysis
operation.
SouthWest Neighbors Protecting Our Environment meetings are held on the
second Tuesday of each month at 7:00pm at the New Horizon Church on
Harrisburg Pike. They are continuing to find ways reduce air pollution
hazards in the area. Please call Ohio Citizen Action at (614) 263-4111
for more information.
