Opponents Cite Fears About Proposed Smelter

About 40 county residents have voiced their opposition to a proposed aluminum recycling facility two miles south of Lincoln, Ark.

The state Department of Environmental Quality accepted comments through Nov. 3 about a draft air quality permit to Bush Valley Recycling Inc., said Doug Szenher, public affairs manager for the agency.

Those who submitted comments gain standing to appeal the agency's decision. At least two lawyers have been hired to represent groups of nearby property owners. Lincoln city officials also spoke against the proposed aluminum furnace during an Oct. 29 public hearing that drew about 60 people.

Agency officials in the legal and air divisions are reviewing the application and public comments. Szenher said he doesn't know when a decision will be made.

Szenher said the furnace is safe and produces a relatively low amount of emissions, as long as the operator follows the permit guidelines.

Tom Smith, president of Bethel Heights-based Roll-Off Service Inc. and a partner in the new venture, knows he's in for a fight. When Smith offered to answer questions or explain the process at the hearing, he said all the participants wanted to know was how to stop him.

Opponents cite fears about fumes coming from the smokestack. They worry metal will be left on the ground, allowing storm water runoff to wash contaminants into nearby Jordan Creek, a tributary of the Illinois River.

Smith said the operation is safe for the environment and keeps reusable materials from going to a landfill. Those who oppose it don't understand it how it works, he said.

The material will be mostly stored indoors in a proposed 7,000-square-foot facility on the site, Smith said. An owner of a similar facility said keeping the material dry is essential, because water entering the unit poses a danger to operation.

Operators of similar facilities explained the diesel-fired sweat furnace reclaims aluminum mixed with iron and other metals through a smelting process. Aluminum's lower melting point allows it to flow into "sow molds" or ingots, which are then sold.

The leftover materials are raked out for disposal or sold as scrap iron.

The furnace is equipped with an afterburner and a 25-foot smokestack designed to reduce contaminants by exposing all air emission to temperatures in excess of 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit for longer than 0.8 seconds.

Between 2,000 and 4,000 pounds of material can be loaded into the unit each hour, depending on the iron content.

Some of the items recycled can include household building material such as gutters, windows and siding, as well as scrap metal, automotive parts and lawnmower engines.

Szenher said any permit issued by the state is designed to comply with all state and federal environmental standards. Those standards are established to be protective of both human health and the environment.

"In this particular case, the emission limits are considered to be a minor source of air pollution, and, if operated properly and according to its design plan, the facility should pose no danger to either human health or the environment," he said.

"As the draft permit indicates, the total allowable emissions for the facility are just under four tons per year, relatively speaking, a very small emissions source, and the only hazardous pollutant listed is an extremely low emission rate for dioxins and furans."

The draft permit includes the following emissions:

• Particulate matter, 0.2 tons per year.

• Sulfur dioxide, 0.6 tons per year.

• Volatile organic compounds, 0.1 tons per year.

• Carbon monoxide, 0.4 tons per year.

• Oxides of nitrogen, 2.3 tons per year.

The agency approved -- without a single public comment -- a permit earlier this year for a similar operation in Lake Village using the same type of furnace.

Richard Livingston, an owner of Livingston Pecan and Metal, Inc., said he didn't hear any objections after notifying the mayor and other elected officials about the furnace. No complaints have been filed with the agency since Livingston began operating the furnace about six months ago.

Livingston said his operation is next to a cotton gin in the fish-farming community in the southeast corner of the state.

On a normal day, Livingston said he doubts neighbors of the proposed facility would even notice smoke coming from the unit. "If they do, he's doing something wrong." A neighbor 50 feet away from his facility has never complained, said Livingston.

Livingston said he buys everything made of aluminum at his "little country scrap yard," recycling up to 6,000 pounds of aluminum in a day using the furnace.

He buys a lot of scrap auto parts, such as engine blocks and bumpers, but requires the oil or transmission fluids to be drained, which helps reduce emissions.

Oil, rubber and plastics can produce visible smoke, but if water reaches the inside of the furnace, it poses a danger to the operator, he explained. Small amounts of water cause the furnace to pop, while larger amounts cause an explosion, he said.

The unit is expensive to operate -- using about $300 per day in natural gas, Livingston said.

"It's not anything that's going to hurt the environment at all, especially if maintenance is done on the thing and it's working properly," Livingston said.

The smelting process of the sweat furnace is not the focus of most of the comments. Lincoln Mayor Henry Buchanan said he's concerned about the owner's track record.

Some of the neighbors' objections include concerns about truck traffic and the impact on a nearby bridge, but the agency won't consider those in the permitting decision.

The agency can reject the permit, if it determines the applicant is a "bad actor," Szenher said.

Charles Harwell, a Springdale lawyer representing about a dozen property owners, filed a nine-page objection to the permit, focusing on Smith's record. Harwell attached numerous newspaper articles and documents, Szenher said.

Smith claims Harwell's comments are incorrect and based on either faulty or incomplete information.

"It appears that he spent five minutes on (the) research. He should be ashamed of writing such inaccuracies," Smith said. "They are grasping for something to make a good thing look bad," Smith said.

Smith said David Harsh, project manager, has done a good job educating people about the process, but said neither the attorneys nor the mayor called to find out about it.