Asphalt company fined for pollution

An asphalt plant that opened in an old rock mine at Eighth and Havana last year is under the gun to meet pollution control standards mandated by the owner’s air quality permit.

In less than a year, Spokane Rock Products Inc. has received seven notices of violations and has paid fines in three of the cases, according to records on file at the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority.

On Thursday, company officials said some of the plant’s pollution control devices haven’t worked as well as they had expected. Because of the problems, the company has hired a consultant to redesign the control systems.

“My perception is we’ll get this accomplished,” company Vice President Steve Robinson said. He said the company wants to be a good neighbor. Higher cost building materials and architecture were used in both the corporate office and landscaping to help the plant blend in with the neighborhood, he said.

Residents living near the old pit site fought the company several years ago when it sought to reopen the rock mine and use it for asphalt and rock production. They worried about noise and pollution.

During construction last year, an arsonist struck the plant’s corporate office. The case has not been solved, Robinson said.

Tammy Fricke, who lives on Havana Street above the pit, said the smell of asphalt has been a problem on and off since this year’s production got started in the spring.

“It’s been bad,” she said. “It’s been to the point where we’ve had to shut all of the windows.”

Fricke said she is trying not to overreact, but she is concerned about the effect of exposure to asphalt fumes. “I worry about the kids with that stuff in the air,” she said.

Fricke filed an odor complaint on July 23. On July 26, Judy Harpster, who works in the area, filed another odor complaint.

Harpster is employed at the Spokane Public School’s Instructional Technology Support Center, 4714 E. Eighth. “It smells like there’s somebody up on the roof tarring all day,” she said of the odor on July 26.

Theirs are among some 85 complaints logged against the facility since it opened last August.

The company’s most recent notice of violation was issued on July 26 and involved some of the same issues that have drawn regulators’ attention in previous notices.

Under the company permit, the exhaust stacks at the plant cannot exceed 10 percent opacity, but an air quality specialist saw greater opacity on a visit on July 26.

According to the 2002 permit, emissions of volatile organic compounds, the stuff that gives off the asphalt smell, are to be filtered down by 80 percent.

A test in June showed that emissions were reduced by 51 percent in the asphalt loading shed and only 4 percent for the asphalt silo loading point.

In addition, SCAPCA alleged that asphalt storage tank emissions were higher than permitted limits; daily inspections were not conducted as required; a performance test had not been completed as required; and effective pollution controls were not in place.

No penalty has yet been assessed for a violation notice issued on July 8. A $700 fine is pending for a notice issued on June 10. The company paid a reduced fine of $200 on July 27 for a notice issued on June 2. The company at the time agreed to work on remedies. No penalty was assessed for a violation notice issued on Dec. 18.

Also, the company paid a $350 fine for a notice issued last Oct. 30, and a $600 fine for a violation notice issued on Sept. 12.

A number of the violations were regulatory in nature. Robinson described them in a letter to SCAPCA as more administrative than environmental.

For example, the notices cited the company for not having an odor response plan in place, for not having an operation and maintenance plan, and for failure to keep records on production.

Company officials said they were doing many of those things, but not to the satisfaction of regulators.

“We are trying to get this corrected, but we have to go through this process to get it corrected,” Robinson said.