Suffolk companies face inquiry over use of toxic chemical

SUFFOLK

Two companies opened here in 2006 with little fanfare or debate, each reliant on a chemical called methyl bromide, which the world is trying to ban because it depletes the ozone layer in the atmosphere.

It also is highly toxic to humans.

Royal Fumigation, near homes in downtown Suffolk, and Western Fumigation, next to a school on the edge of the city, both use the chemical to kill pests on timber and other goods bound for overseas ports or entering the United States as imports.

The companies spray more than 20 tons of methyl bromide a year onto goods stacked indoors under plastic tarps, in accordance with regulations set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Workers must wear protective clothing and respirators during the procedure, which can last for hours.

Once the chemical treatment is finished , gas emissions are dispersed through ceiling vents and by opening doors at company warehouses.

What the two firms did not do since coming to town is contact Virginia environmental regulators. The businesses have been operating for the past four years without state knowledge or hazardous air-pollution permits.

Alerted to the situation last summer by a New Jersey businessman, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has taken up the case.

DEQ is pursuing the companies with enforcement actions for allegedly failing to abide by state air-pollution rules. The agency also is demanding that both firms apply for, and live under, emission-control permits.

“We’re definitely concerned about it, that this hazardous chemical is not being regulated,” said Patricia Buonviri, state air toxics coordinator at DEQ in Richmond.

While methyl bromide has been used for years as a fumigant against insects that might otherwise spread overseas, Virginia has never required environmental air permits – until now, Buonviri said.

“It’s one of those things that slipped through the cracks,” she said.

Among its dangers, methyl bromide can cause respiratory disease, kidney damage and neurological impairment, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The two companies responded to violation notices earlier this year by saying they did not know they were supposed to contact the state. The companies said they assumed they were in compliance with all regulations, given their pesticide-management agreements with the federal Department of Agriculture.

In addition, they argued, few, if any, states require air permits for fumigating with methyl bromide. And if Virginia starts now, it may push business to ports in other coastal states that do not regulate so tightly.

“The company’s noncompliance is completely unintentional,” Thomas E. Knauer, counsel for Royal Fumigation, wrote to state officials in January. “Like other companies in the U.S. conducting methyl bromide fumigation. Royal honestly, but mistakenly, believed that by complying with the provisions of the federal Clean Air Act governing critical use exemptions for ozone depleting substances, the company was automatically in compliance with other requirements of the Act.”

Anne Bookout, a vice president of Royal Fumigation, based in Delaware, said the case is being closely watched in other states and by other companies that use methyl bromide under federal exemptions to an international treaty calling for a global ban on the chemical.

The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987 and adopted by Congress, is intended to curb the use of substances that destroy the ozone layer – a thin atmospheric shield that protects against ultraviolet rays from the sun.

The treaty established milestones for phasing out methyl bromide. In the United States, the chemical was supposed to be gone by 2005. But without enough alternatives, the U.S. government continues to allow limited applications for fumigating imports and exports and in farming.

The Environmental Protection Agency knows about the Suffolk cases, recognizes a need to regulate methyl bromide and supports the actions Virginia is taking, said Ruth Podems, an EPA spokeswoman in Philadelphia."

Since learning of the two companies in Suffolk, the state DEQ has taken air samples along the fence line of Royal Fumigation, at 520 Finney Ave., to try to determine if a health risk exists for neighboring residents."

In addition to a barbed-wire fence, a line of trees buffers the company from a small cluster of low-income homes on unpaved back roads. According to preliminary results from sampling done this winter and spring, most chemical readings were low, well below the safety level of 950 micrograms per cubic meter, according to DEQ officials.

They noted, however, one reading above the health threshold, at 959 micrograms, and another just under that level. Wind patterns seem to be a key factor in the mix, they said.

The agency has not taken samples near Western Fumigation, at 4165 Pruden Blvd., and does not have plans to do so because of the high cost of sampling, officials said.

Western Fumigation stands within 100 yards or so of the Pruden Center for Industry and Technology, a vocational school attended by more than 400 high school students in Suffolk and Isle of Wight County.

Corey McCray, director of the school, said he knows little about Western Fumigation or its use of methyl bromide. “They don’t really communicate with us at all,” McCray said.

He said he has received no complaints from students, teachers or parents about emissions from the company.

Until 2006, when Western Fumigation opened for business, the property was home to a work center for handicapped and mentally challenged adults, McCray said.

Dennis Wilson, a Western Fumigation manager in Suffolk, referred media questions to corporate offices in New Jersey. Officials there did not return phone messages.

In memos to state environmental officials, though, the company acknowledged using more than 10 tons of methyl bromide a year – an amount that makes it and Royal Fumigation major sources of air pollution, according to federal and state guidelines. The company also said it applied lesser amounts of two other fumigants, sulfuryl fluoride and phosphide, according to the memos.

A local attorney hired by Western Fumigation told state officials the company would cooperate in the investigation and seek a hazardous air-pollution permit. In scouting how other states deal with methyl bromide, Virginia regulators said some governments ask fumigant companies to apply less than 10 tons of the chemical per year. This way, they can avoid tougher, site-specific permits.

But because neither company informed Virginia of its existence, and neither said it needed to spray more than 10 tons to remain economically viable, “that option is off the table,” said Buonviri, the air toxics coordinator at DEQ.

In neighboring North Carolina and Maryland, state officials said they do not require air permits for fumigation companies as long as they abide by pesticide-management agreements with agriculture departments.

Mike Weaver, a professor at Virginia Tech and a member of the state Pesticide Control Board, was surprised at the aggressiveness of Virginia’s DEQ.

“They’re opening a real can of worms,” Weaver said. “This will stir up a hornet’s nest, for sure.”

He said methyl bromide has deep roots in Virginia, tracing to the 1940s and 1950s, when it became a popular pesticide in tobacco farming. After the Montreal Protocol aimed to phase out the chemical, Virginia Tech undertook a study to see where methyl bromide remained in use. Weaver said he was surprised to learn the Virginia Port Authority was one of the largest applicators in the state, spraying it on imports and exports to satisfy pest-control edicts.

The port authority used to fumigate on-site at its facilities in Hampton Roads. But that changed in recent years, and the authority encouraged both Royal Fumigation and Western Fumigation to come to the region, according to case records and officials.

In a presentation to state regulators late last year, the authority said about 6 percent of its total cargo volume in 2008 required fumigation , mostly logs, tobacco, grain and cotton.

Officials encouraged the state DEQ to adopt a general permit program, instead of tougher controls, to ensure businesses “are licensed, trained and registered” in properly handling methyl bromide, according to the presentation.

Bookout, the Royal Fumigation vice president, said the port authority has been urging the administration of Gov. Bob McDonnell to “take a closer look at this situation,” hoping to avoid a regulatory crackdown.

The state DEQ has received inquiries about the case from the governor’s office, but only “to ask us about what is going on, for us to explain what we’re doing,” department spokesman Bill Hayden said.

When Royal Fumigation and Western Fumigation were shopping for space in Suffolk in 2006, there was little discussion of methyl bromide, according to city memos. Western Fumigation was granted permission by city staff to locate at the Pruden Boulevard site, as “a change from one nonconforming use to another,” a reference to the property being zoned for agricultural purposes, records show.

In a May 2006 letter from Royal Fumigation to city planners, the company said the U.S. Department of Agriculture “retains full authority” over its fumigants and that “no federal or state requirements for scrubbing or other remediation exist.”

“Due to the Port Authority’s sensitive timetable for implementation of Royal’s fumigation services,” the letter continued, “they asked that I contact you to ensure that action by the Planning Commission or City Council will not be necessary in order for them to move forward with submission of their plan.”

The company’s request was granted the next month.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340,scott.harper@pilotonline.com