AdvanSix chemical plant, Hopewell. Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
Today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch has a story that illustrates the importance and need for vigorous local journalism, while also illustrating the limitations of local journalism due to the lack of seasoned reporters and editors.
The story deals with the violation of environmental regulations by a chemical plant in Hopewell. The plant, a cornerstone of manufacturing in Hopewell, has been there a long time, under at least three owners. It is huge, covering about 200 acres. It is the facility responsible for dumping Kepone into the James River between 1966 and 1975, when it came under court order for the practice. The current owner is AdvanSix, headquartered in Parsippany, N.J.
As reported by the RTD, the plant has been cited 66 times over the past eight years for violations of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the company has violated the Clean Air Act “every month over the past two years.”
There have been fines. In 2013, the former owner was fined $3 million for violations. In 2015, that owner was fined $300,000 for more violations. The latest fine, in 2022 against the current owner, was for $50,000.
The article goes into some depth about the chemicals released and the amounts, along with a description of the health risks associated with specific chemicals.
The reporter tries to link the excessive release of chemicals to the overall poor health of the city’s population. For example, life expectancy for Hopewell residents is five years lower than the state average; cancer mortality is double the state average; and the rate of hospitalization for asthma is three times the state norm. However, public health authorities are reluctant to make an explicit link, citing the presence of other factors, such as poverty.
The article hints at a social justice issue, citing the proximity of two public housing complexes to the plant. However, that argument is undercut by the presence of more upscale housing nearby.
The article concludes with a description of the outrage and frustration of city officials that they had not been informed about all the violations.
My Soapbox
This is an important story and the RTD deserves credit for taking the initiative to review the file of citations for violating environmental regulations. But there are so many questions left hanging.
Chief among these questions is: Why has the company been allowed to get away with this for so long? A Virginia Department of Environmental Quality spokesman was quoted as describing the plant as “having patterns of noncompliance” going back to 1990. It is not as if regulatory agencies did not know about the plant’s noncompliance. “Since 1990, the EPA and the DEQ have had the company on their radar,” the article points out.
Following that up is: What could be done? The article points out, “The DEQ is slowly building a case to make the plastics producer comply with environmental rules. The state has the authority to file an injunction or fine the company. To do either, all that state lawyers need to prove is the potential for harm, according to a DEQ manager familiar with AdvanSix’s case.” What else is needed? Isn’t a “pattern of noncompliance” enough?
Then there is the matter of fines. Why have they been so piddly? An outside expert interviewed for the story dismissed the $50,000 fine in 2022 as amounting to nothing more than a fee. For a company that had enough profits to buy back stock, a $50,000 fine is not going to deter it from violating its permit requirements.
The people who should have been asked these questions are the DEQ agency heads and board members from prior administrations, as well as EPA regional managers from those time periods. However, the reporter does not seem to have thought to have made those inquiries.
A major company flaunting environmental regulations and emitting illegal amounts of dangerous chemicals into the air and water, endangering human health and creating dead zones in the James River, is an outrageous situation. The RTD has performed a public service in alerting the public to the situation. It is unfortunate that the reporter and editors did not follow up to get the story of why this situation has been able to persist for so long.
