Public hearing to be held Monday on MXI emissions

ABINGDON, Va. – Extra emissions control equipment should eliminate the odor from MXI that nearby Hapco employees blame for making them sick, according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
A public hearing will be held Monday on a new draft permit for emissions from MXI, an industry that recycles alcohol-based products into fuel at its plant at Exit 22 of Interstate 81.
“We believe the limits and measures we’re going to establish in this draft permit are protective of human health and welfare,” said Rob Feagins, air permit manager for DEQ in Abingdon. “We believe our requirements in the permit to address the issue of odor will also address [any] individual concerns about odors in the atmosphere.”
Hapco first complained last spring, when an odor entered its facility and workers in that plant – which makes metal flag poles and light poles – experienced symptoms similar to drunkenness.
Hapco’s plant, where large doors are kept open during the day for ventilation, sits just above MXI’s cooling tower.
The odor-related illness occurred several times until June, when DEQ issued to MXI a notice of violation for exceeding its limit for emissions of volatile organic compounds, primarily ethanol, which is alcohol.
Brian Potter, operations manager for MXI, said the process has been shut down since June, and Kalonn Roberts, spokeswoman for Hapco, said there hasn’t been a problem since.
In the past few days, however, a flier has circulated about Monday’s public hearing, credited to “Citizens for a Safe and Clean Environment” and declaring, “Don’t let MXI further pollute the air you breathe.”
At least one nearby resident has complained of ill health effects believed to be caused by the odor from MXI.
Roberts said Hapco officials are waiting to see what happens Monday, and hopeful the DEQ’s solution will work.
Potter said the plant has already installed the additional equipment – at a cost of about $100,000 – and is ready to begin operating with it as soon as it gets the green light from DEQ.
When the issue arose, MXI had already filed for a permit modification to match the actual emissions from its new process, he said – and has, at the same time, gone through the process of selecting the best available control technology for the odor and volatile organic compounds.
“We’re confident that all that’s going to work,” Potter said. “With what we’ve installed, you should not be able to smell any odorous emissions from now on.”
The two components added are an oil-water separator to physically separate the compounds from the reused water and a filtration system before it reaches the cooling tower.
Feagins said the added systems are needed because a fairly new piece of equipment at MXI, which enables water to be reused at the plant, does not fully separate the chemicals from the water and, as a result, they were being released from the cooling tower along with steam from the plant.
He said air samples did not reveal anything that raised concern about any adverse human health effects.
Feagins said the draft permit, in addition to requiring the equipment be installed to prevent the odor from escaping, would allow a nearly tenfold increase in allowed emissions of volatile organic compounds.
He said a decision on the permit won’t be made until after Monday’s public hearing, which begins with a public information session at 6 p.m. before the 7 p.m. hearing in the Abingdon High School auditorium.

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