SC pellet mill faces $15K fine more than a year after DHEC says it broke pollution laws
The Jasper County wood pellet mill that neighbors say emitted toxins that made them sick — and broke federal and state environmental regulations requiring permits— agreed to pay the state $15,000 in fines, according to documents obtained by The Island Packet.
The fine, which could have been $10,000 for every day the mill operated in violation, comes more than a year after a surprise onsite inspection by S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control found Jasper Pellets LLC in Ridgeland had constructed new equipment without obtaining the proper permit or notifying the agency that it had started construction.
The consent order ends the state’s disputes with the pellet mill plant, which began operating in 2010 and was purchased by Jasper Pellets in October 2018. The plant turns raw wood into compressed pellets that are typically shipped overseas to be used as power plant fuel. That process can produce smog and soot that the neighbors say have wrecked their health.
Under the settlement agreement signed this month by DHEC and a Jasper Pellets managing partner, the mill has 30 days to pay the civil penalty and agrees to obtain proper permits before “constructing, altering, or adding to a source of air contaminants.” It also agrees to give DHEC written notice of the date when construction of new equipment begins.
The consent order stems for an October meeting in which DHEC concluded Jasper Pellets violated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations and multiple state regulations by constructing the equipment without a permit and failing to notify DHEC in writing that the construction had begun.
According to state law, those found violating any provisions of the Pollution Control Act can be fined up to $10,000 per day.
The plant is tucked behind trees on Nimmer Turf Road, a sparsely populated street with only the mill, Nimmer Turf Farm and a few houses. Most Jasper County residents don’t know the mill is there. But it is just more than a half mile from heavily trafficked Tillman Road, which has multiple subdivisions.
What led to this?
In April 2019, Jasper Pellet applied for a construction permit to expand its operation to produce up to 210,000 tons of wood pellets a year, the consent order says. The permit application included almost a dozen new pieces of equipment.
Seven months later on Nov. 20, 2019, DHEC inspected the facility and discovered the company had began constructing 10 out of 11 of the pieces of equipment for which it had no permit.
DHEC “requested” that Jasper Pellets cease construction and that management “immediately issued a stop work order to all onsite contractors, terminating all construction activities,” the consent order says.
Despite the alleged violations, DHEC issued the permit to build the equipment in April 2020, months before the agency met with Jasper Pellets to discuss the violations.
On Oct. 13, 2020, almost a year after the alleged violations were discovered, DHEC and Jasper Pellets met for an “enforcement conference.”
During the meeting, representatives from Jasper Pellets acknowledged the company had constructed the equipment before receiving the proper permitting, but officials said they believed the work they did was “their best interpretation of the allowable pre-permit undertakings,” according to the consent order.
DHEC ordered Jasper Pellets to pay a $15,000 civil penalty, obtain proper permits and provide written notification to DHEC before constructing any new equipment.
With the consent order, both parties avoided having to go to court, which likely would have been a longer process.
“We are pleased that DHEC took action to hold the facility accountable for their illegal operations, sending a clear signal that South Carolina takes violations of public health protections seriously,” a Thursday afternoon statement from the Coastal Conservation League said.
The CCL was one of three environmental groups who wrote a letter to Jasper Pellets in September saying the facility had committed “significant, repeated, and ongoing” violations of the Clean Air Act.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 12:46 PM.
