MUNCIE, Ind. — The Steel Dust Recycling LLC facility in Millport, Ala., is the nation's second-largest emitter of mercury/mercury compounds into the atmosphere — 1,139 pounds in 2017, according to the federal government's most recent Toxics Release Inventory data.

Concerned citizens suspect that a sister facility proposed in Muncie would become the largest mercury air polluter in the nation at 1,540 pounds per year.

That is one reason there is increasing citizen alarm about the probable issuance of a construction permit for the Muncie project, doing business as Waelz Sustainable Products.

The permit application to build the $50-$55-million steel-dust recycling plant awaits a decision by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM).

City officials say they trust IDEM to protect public health and the environment

Citizens who don't share that trust have enlisted the support of a retired environmental consultant, Alex Sagady, East Lansing, Mich., who has armed them with information to help attack the application. He is volunteering his time to their cause.

Bryan Preston, a GIS technician who lives on the south side of Muncie, found Sagady through a friend from Pittsburgh who used to do legal work on Clean Air Act cases.

While anyone can read the 238-page permit application, "unless you are a specialist in air quality, you won't be able to … make any sense of it," Preston told The Star Press.

While 60 to 90 new jobs at an otherwise useless brownfield site — the former BorgWarner automotive factory — sounds positive, the plant will be recycling a hazardous waste, steel dust, which is "toxic stuff," Preston noted.

And the plant would be built on the west edge of the city, upwind of "all of Muncie, really," he said.

Like citizens, local economic development and elected officials are not capable of scrutinizing the facility's pollution control equipment, either, Preston went on, and "everybody knows" IDEM and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "are vastly underfunded and increasingly de-fanged by state and federal administrations."

Sagady, whose former clients have included the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, is raising questions about mercury, particulate matter (PM) and other air pollutants, as well as the trainloads and truckloads of hazardous steel dust that will be processed at the site.

"Largest Industrial Air Emission Source of Mercury/Mercury Compounds in USA Planned for Great Lakes Region at Muncie, Indiana," read the headline above Sagady's Facebook post on July 10.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Sagady served as director of environmental and occupational health at the American Lung Association of Michigan for 15 years. He earned a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics education from the University of Michigan in 1972.

His concerns/assertions include:

• Waelz Sustainable Products (WSP), a joint venture between Heritage Environmental Services, Indianapolis, and Zinc Nacional, Monterrey, Mexico, was quoted in The Star Press as saying groundbreaking would occur this July or August, taking for granted that it would receive a construction permit from the state.

• The facility would recycle up to 1,000 tons per day of steel dust, a hazardous waste.

• Aerial maps on Google show that the formerly white roof of Zinc Nacional's Steel Dust Recycling facility in Alabama has been darkened by apparent "fugitive emissions" of particulate matter coming from the plant.

• Because IDEM, unlike its counterpart in Michigan, lacks airborne toxicant control rules for new and modified sources of pollutants, the environmental impacts of the release of 1,540 pounds of mercury/mercury compounds per year in Muncie are not being considered or evaluated.

• No mercury emission controls or legally enforceable limits are being proposed for the Muncie facility.

• In its construction permit application, WSP seeks to avoid review under the federal Prevention of Significant Deterioration program that applies to new "major sources" of air pollution. The program requires installation of the "best available (pollution) control technology;" an air quality analysis; an additional-impacts analysis; and public involvement. The company seeks to classify the the facility — which is actually a "sintering plant" or "chemical processing plant" — as a "minor source" of air pollution.

• The company's application shows a lack of control over fugitive emissions (or leaks) from the facility (as opposed to stack, chimney, vent emissions). WSP claims fugitive emissions will be controlled by negative-pressure conditions in the facility. Other steel-dust recycling facilities using similar equipment have a history of causing serious air pollution from fugitive dust.

"I doubt that local officials understand the magnitude of and have much appreciation for the impact of this on people living next to the plant," Sagady told The Star Press. "No one wants to live in a polluted environment. This plant will generate considerable amounts of mercury emissions, clearly in the same ballpark with what they admit to be their mercury emissions down there in Alabama. But the primary health effect to worry about is exposure to PM10 (inhalable particles) and PM2.5 (fine inhalable particles) right next to the plant."

Doug Marshall, president of Muncie City Council, which recently approved tax increment financing, an economic development tool, for the WSP project, told The Star Press, in reference to Sagady, "I don't know this guy from Adam … I don't know his reputation."

He went on, "I have to put my faith in the state of Indiana, with IDEM, to monitor this stuff. That's what they're in place to do … My job as a councilman is to try to bring economic development to the community, to bring in tax dollars, to provide jobs, to try to get my constituents opportunities to work, and trying to build our population up."

The council president points out that Heritage Environmental is a fourth-generation, family-run Hoosier recycling and waste-management business (whose headquarters is "full of labs, chemists and scientists"), not some fly-by-night startup.

And he is pleased to see something being done at the old BorgWarner site.

"It's hard to do anything with the ground these factories left behind," said Marshall, whose district includes the former Duffy Tool & Stamping plant, of which the only thing left is a concrete pad, like the BorgWarner property.

"I don't want to hurt anybody or make anybody sick," the councilman said. "I'm not that type of person. I'm trying to get jobs."

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation has offered WSP up to $5 million in tax credits.

Under Gov. Eric Holcomb, IDEM has done a "pretty good job" of vetting businesses seeking permits, Mayor Dennis Tyler told The Star Press, adding, "I would think this development would be no different."

Joshua Arthur, pastor of Avondale United Methodist Church in southwest Muncie, is sending or already has sent letters asking Ball State University, the town of Yorktown, IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital and others to research and consider opposing the project.

"We know that the steel dust company has a motive of profit and is actually incentivized to understate, minimize and conceal both the output of mercury and the effects of mercury in people and the environment," Arthur told The Star Press.

"If it is the largest or close to the largest polluter of mercury into the air in the United States, then I don't know how Muncie and Yorktown residents can in good conscience raise their children here.

"Would the university suffer when non-local parents elect not to send their children to breathe mercury-laced air for four years? Would the hospital have to install and upgrade their air infiltration in order to keep patients and staff safe? … This is the economic development plan by Muncie officials?"

So far, as of Thursday of this past week, Arthur said he has heard back from the town of Yorktown and from a representative of the League of Women Voters.

Pete Olson, town manager for the town of Yorktown, told The Star Press the town has taken no position. He declined further comment.

Todd Donati, director of the Muncie Redevelopment Commission, referred environmental questions about the project to Waelz officials.

According to Ali Alavi, senior vice president for regulatory affairs and general counsel at Heritage Environmental, Sagady is suggesting that the Muncie facility be classified by the federal government differently than the five other steel-dust recycling plants across the country.

"U.S. EPA considers the WSP process as high-temperature metal recovery, which is designated as best demonstrated available technology for managing electric arc furnace (steel) dust," he told The Star Press. "This categorization by environmental regulations is consistent across the other five facilities in the U.S. using the same process, none of which, to WSP's knowledge, are classified in one of the categories subject to the … major source threshold."

Federal regulations encourage recycling rather than landfilling steel dust.

The Muncie facility would not be a sintering plant or chemical processing plant, Alavi said.

Sintering typically is employed at primary metal smelters to produce pure forms of various metals from ores and concentrates from mine production, he said. That is not what occurs with the WSP process.

Chemical processing plants are commonly viewed as those that make chemicals, such as petrochemicals, he added.

Mercury would be a trace element in the incoming feed material (steel dust).

But the trace amount has been decreasing over the years as a result of the removal of mercury-containing switches from junk vehicles before they are crushed and sent to furnaces that recycle the steel, Alavi said.

With the new plant, Muncie would take on a high-profile role in America's steel industry recycling loop — by recycling the zinc-bearing steel dust produced at steel mini-mills, which produce new steel by recycling scrap steel from demolished cars, guardrails, and so forth. Much of the steel used in the U.S. is coated with zinc, in other words galvanized, for rustproofing.

The WSP process reclaims zinc oxide and iron concentrate from the steel dust.

Zinc oxide's uses include feedstock for high-grade zinc metal production, which is then used for galvanizing steel, production of the penny (98 percent zinc) and countless consumer products, including diaper rash ointment and sticky-note glue.

The iron concentrate goes into asphalt and cement production, among other products.

The Muncie project would not only be recycling steel; it also would be recycling the land by building on the site of an abandoned automotive factory, Alavi says.

It's important to note that the Muncie facility would be smaller than the Alabama plant, he said in answering concerns about mercury emissions.

The throughput of steel dust (brownish and dirt-like) at the Alabama factory has reached as high as 310,000 tons per year. The plant capacity at Muncie would be 120,000 tons per year after phase one (one natural gas-fired kiln, or rotating drum, about 180-feet long and up to 13.5 feet in diameter), and 240,000 tons after phase two (a second kiln).

The steel dust never sees the light of day, according to Alavi. It would be delivered by covered, bottom-dump railcars or dump trucks and unloaded inside the facility.

It's further important to note that the Alabama plant's mercury emissions cited by Sagady were not illegal or unauthorized, Alavi said. They were permitted under the Clean Air Act.

In its construction permit application, WSP calculates the Muncie plant would have the "potential to emit" 1,540 pounds of mercury into the air annually. But that estimate is based what IDEM calls a "worst case scenario" in which the plant is running 24 hours a day (with no pollution control equipment), 365 days a year at full capacity.

In addition to the Alabama facility being the nation's second-largest emitter of mercury into the atmosphere in 2017, another steel-dust recycling facility, the American Zinc Recycling facility in Palmerton, Pa., ranked fourth.

The WSP joint venture partners in Muncie, Heritage and Zinc Nacional, employ 7,000 and 3,000 respectively, the companies say. Zinc Nacional was founded in 1917. It operates steel-dust recycling plants in Mexico, Turkey and South Korea in addition to the Alabama plant.

The Alabama plant paid EPA a fine of $80,000 in 2016 to settle alleged hazardous waste violations involving kiln cleanout material; dust-contaminated trash, wheelbarrow and personal protective equipment; and other incidents.

The most common way people in the U.S. are exposed to mercury is by eating fish containing methylmercury, according to EPA. Once in the air, mercury eventually settles into lakes and streams, or onto land, where it can be washed into waterways. Microorganisms in water bodies can change it into methylmercury, where it builds up in fish and shellfish, the agency says.

► Steel-dust recycling facility concerns raised

► Exide fined $820,000 for Muncie pollution

Citizens also are concerned about the WSP-Muncie plant's lead emissions. According to its application, the company is proposing a facility-wide lead emission limit of 0.5 tons per year.

That is much more than the Exide Technologies battery recycling facility in southwest Muncie reportedly releases annually. And the Exide plant remains federally designated as a "nonattaiment" area for lead, meaning it doesn't meet air quality standards for lead in the area encompassing the plant.

The WSP-Muncie facility's immediate neighbors include Elm Ridge Funeral Home and cemetery; a low-moderate-income single-family residential neighborhood on the west; the rundown, partially abandoned, partially occupied Hickory Haven mobile home park across the road; and the recently restored, 33-acre Dutro-Ernst Woods nature preserve, which includes a nature playground, to the east.

The concerned citizens are making an effort to "slow this thing down and get some serious questions answered," one of the citizens, Deborah Malitz, told The Star Press on July 12, referring to the WSP project. "We are probably going to hold our own public meeting and request at the appropriate time from IDEM a public hearing … "

IDEM isn't saying much at this juncture about the construction permit application, though at some point it will answer any questions it receives from the public after the permit's public-comment phase, which can include a public meeting or public hearing.

IDEM spokesman Barry Sneed told The Star Press on July 12 that the application is under review by the agency's Office of Air Quality, which is evaluating the regulatory requirements that apply.

"Included in this evaluation and assessment would be a thorough review of all calculations, emission estimates, proposed limitations, and proposed emission controls for all regulated pollutants," Sneed said via email.

" In addition, OAQ will determine the appropriate classification of the source to determine what the applicable permitting thresholds are, and what the appropriate permit level would be based on this review.

"If IDEM determines that the source can meet all applicable state and federal regulatory requirements, then a draft permit will be prepared and published for public review and comment. OAQ will review all public comments received during that period and provide a response as part of the final determination for this permit request."

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834 or seths@muncie.gannett.com