Barrel plant owners promise to install new pollution equipment at St. Francis facility

The company running a chain of troubled barrel refurbishing plants is promising to install pollution control equipment on its St. Francis facility in an effort to eliminate strong odors.

The equipment could resolve long-standing complaints from residents about putrid fumes blowing out of the plant and over the surrounding area, an industrial pollution expert said.

"If this is properly designed, installed and operated, it should greatly reduce or eliminate odor complaints in the surrounding community," said Jacob Persky, an industrial hygienist with RHP Risk Management, a Chicago-based environmental consulting firm.

"This is a tremendous result of activism by the community."

The move comes as the plants — in St. Francis, Milwaukee and Oak Creek — face wide-ranging enforcement action by federal and state agencies. Five agencies have leveled more than 70 violations of environmental laws against the plants.

The plant is also facing increasing pressure from residents in the area, who held a march in December to protest the fumes. The City of St. Francis also has stepped up pressure on the plant and is considering taking enforcement action.

The violations followed a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation which uncovered a host of problems that endangered workers and residents living near the company's plants in the Milwaukee area and three other states — Tennessee, Indiana and Arkansas.

The plants refurbish 55-gallon steel drums and large plastic chemical containers, cleaning them for reuse or recycling.

Workers at the plants told the Journal Sentinel that chemicals were routinely mixed together, triggering dangerous reactions that resulted in chemical and heat-related burns, injuries from exploding barrels, breathing difficulties and other health problems.

Residents near the St. Francis plant say it is often miserable living there. Fumes result in burning eyes, sore throats and headaches, forcing them to stay in their homes at times. Three of the residents have filed a class-action lawsuit.

The three plants, known locally as Mid-America, are operated by Container Life Cycle Management, a joint venture majority owned by Greif Inc., a $3.3 billion Ohio-based firm. CLCM also operates plants in Arkansas and Tennessee. Its plant in Indiana was recently closed.

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In a letter to nearby residents, plant manager Kevin Meyer said the company is installing a regenerative thermal oxidizer, known as an RTO, at the St. Francis facility. The unit uses high temperatures to convert chemicals into water and heat, largely eliminating odors.

The company said the RTO will be custom-made for the St. Francis plant and will be a "multi-million investment." The company will submit applications for permits in coming weeks, and the equipment should be operational by September, the letter said.

"We are installing the RTO because CLCM is investing in the St. Francis employees, facility and our community as we believe the RTO will eliminate odors," Greif spokeswoman Debbie Crow said Friday.

The news comes a day before a pair of public hearings on the pollution violations will be discussed. It is hosted by U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) and officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other regulators.

The meetings Saturday are: 10 to 11:30 a.m. St. Francis High School Theater, 4425 S. Lake Drive, and 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Villard Square Library Community Room, 5190 N. 35th St. Doors open 15 minutes before the meetings start.

Residents were cautiously optimistic about the new equipment coming.

"It feels like a definite step in the right direction," said Amy Szuta, one of the leaders of the effort to force the plant to clean up. "I don't want to be fooled by a facade of great-sounding solutions that we may never be able to verify. It definitely gives me hope."

St. Francis City Administrator Mark Johnsrud took the news as a positive step. The city has been considering whether to pursue an action against the company for being a public nuisance.

"The city is pleased to see that they are taking steps towards abating the problems identified by city residents," Johnsrud said.

This is not the first time the company has touted multi-million-dollar improvements in the St. Francis plant that is said would solve the odor issue, which goes back more than 15 years.

In 2015, facing an odor violation by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, general manager Mike Higgins wrote that the plant had spent $4 million to install an industrial wash line which "includes some of the finest fume/odor scrubbing equipment available in our industry."

In the same letter, the company said it was being wrongly signaled out. The company claimed only one person had complained about the smell and suggested it was coming from a fermentation operation in the area.

However, a DNR investigator reported the odors he personally smelled at the plant were "significant, obnoxious and objectionable" in October of the same year.

That 2015 complaint is part of the basis of 19 current DNR violations against the plant, which have been referred to the state Department of Justice for possible prosecution.

In a letter to state lawmakers concerned about the issue, Attorney General Brad Schimel wrote that he was working with the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice on the case, saying it likely will likely be a joint prosecution led by federal authorities "because the enforcement action implicates regulatory policy at a national level."

"Based on the successful working relationship we have had with the EPA on previous cases, I'm confident we will come to an appropriate resolution that holds this company accountable for their alleged actions," Schimel wrote in the Jan. 10 letter.

Health effects debated

The company's letter to residents, dated Jan. 24, calls the odors from the plant "unpleasant" but added that "all available test data and studies indicate that these odors do not represent a health threat."

"We will continue to monitor the data and review the latest studies to protect the health of our workers and neighbors," it said.

Air testing by the Journal Sentinel and separately by the EPA found that the smokestack emissions were creating nuisance odors in the neighborhood and may be responsible for health ailments reported by residents, including scratchy throats and eyes, fatigue and headaches.

The EPA has asked the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to evaluate its air data to see if there are health risks. The EPA also has asked the city of St. Francis to test the air when there are odor complaints.

In November, the EPA issued 20 violations against the three Mid-America plants. Earlier the state Department of Transportation had issued 16 violations.

Szuta said she and her family suffer ill effects when the odors invade their neighborhood south of the plant.

"At the exact same moment I smell it, my throat burns, sometimes for hours or days," she said. "My body doesn't do that when I breathe fresh air. I don't have to be a scientist to figure that out."

Residents who want to report smell complaints can call the St. Francis Health Department at 414-316-4313. CLCM is providing ways for residents to provide feedback and get information: a website, www.clcmwi.com, a hotline at 414-502-7358 or email info@clcmwi.com.

Read the investigation

To read the Journal Sentinel's "Burned" investigation, into safety hazards at drum reconditioning plants, go to jsonline.com/burned.