Stinky SC paper mill tells judge it has improved. Residents say the plant still reeks
The New-Indy paper mill in York County has made changes to improve the plant after residents complained about noxious odors from the facility, lawyers for the company told a federal judge Tuesday.
But residents suing the company say the odor has just changed as opposed to improving.
New-Indy attorney John McGahren said the company has put in a new steam stripper and plans to put in another steam stripper as it complies with an order from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to eliminate the odor.
McGahren added complaints have dropped and the company has paid a $1 million fine levied by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
South Carolina regulators have received tens of thousands of complaints about the odor with many people saying the stench smelled like rotten eggs.
“The plaintiff’s concerns have been largely addressed,” McGahren said during a hearing in front of federal Judge Sherri Lydon on whether to dismiss a lawsuit filed by nearby residents. The judge did not rule on the defense’s request to dismiss the case.
Residents filed the suit seeking a court order requiring New-Indy to eliminate the odors and cut pulp production until the company obtains a higher level air pollution permit.
McGahren added agencies in charge of environmental permitting are putting “extreme pressure on New-Indy.”
Despite the changes made by New-Indy, odors have not gone away, residents said.
“Well, they’re complying with some orders. The odor has changed,” said Jackie Baker of Tree Tops, a community for people 55 and older about four to five miles from the New-Indy plant. “And now it smells like a dirty diaper that maybe is being burned. Sometimes it’s just a very Porta Potty smell. Other times it has a like a burn smell to it as well.”
Baker said the current steam stripper at the plant is not adequate and another one has yet to be installed.
“When that smell comes I have to go in the house. My eyes itch, my ears itch,” said Bonnie Lens, who moved to her Tree Tops house nine months ago. “You can tell that it’s toxic. Had I known this I would have never moved there.”
Lawyers for residents argued the company should have obtained a stricter permit from DHEC that would have required public input. Instead the company received a lower level permit that did not require public participation.
In applications to DHEC, New-Indy said it would emit less than 10 tons a year of sulfur; instead it emitted 15 tons a day for nine days, said David Hoyle, an attorney for the residents who filed the lawsuit.
The company’s estimates were based on output of the wastewater treatment plant in 2015, when “it was in much better repair,” Hoyle said.
Hoyle called the modeling done by the company a “misrepresentation,” rather than a mistake.
New Indy, whose parent company is partially owned by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, purchased the former Bowater and Resolute Forest Products plant in 2018, and then switched manufacturing processes. When making the changes, the mill bypassed several key pollution control processes as it switched from making bleached paper to brown containerboard, according to previous reporting.
This story was originally published June 20, 2023 at 3:54 PM.
