Emissions Prompt Lawsuit

The Brunswick News

The Glynn Environmental Coalition is facing down the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, filing a lawsuit after the agency ignored complaints about toxic emissions at a Brunswick plant operated by Hercules Inc., for almost a year, it claims.

"The EPA has blatantly decided the law doesn't apply to them," said attorney Scott Randolph in a printed statement. Randolph is the lead attorney at the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, GEC's legal counsel.

Georgia's Environmental Protection Division issued an operating permit for Pinova, the chemical plant operated in Brunswick by Hercules, in 2002. The state agency relies on self-reporting by the company to determine whether air quality standards are being followed. It may revoke the permit if levels are exceeded.

GEC appealed to the EPA to object to the plant's operating permit in January 2003, claiming the Hercules plant routinely violates emissions regulations under the state's watch.

The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to respond to petitions in 60 days, but the petition has received no response from the agency in more than a year, GEC says, prompting the lawsuit.

Jimmy Johnston, manager of permitting for EPD's air quality branch, stands by the monitoring done by his agency and said Hercules is in compliance with all air quality standards. No regulation requires his agency to monitor for the cumulative effects of air quality, as GEC contends.

"There is no state or federal regulation that requires us to do that," he said.

More than 2.5 million pounds of pollutants were released into the air by companies located in Brunswick in 2001, according to reports filed by industry to the EPD.

Glynn County is ranked among the top 10 percent of counties nationwide for sulfur dioxide emissions, according to Scorecard, a national citizens watchdog group.