St. Francis council seeks resolution on plant after residents’ complaints

ST. FRANCIS - The City Council has begun to apply pressure on the Mid-America Steel Drum plant, voting to draft a resolution on the matter after months of complaints from residents about persistent foul smells from the facility.

The council voted Tuesday night to direct staff to draft a resolution urging federal and state environmental investigators to complete their 10-month-old investigations into the troubled barrel refurbishing plant as soon as possible.

Council members also agreed they will talk in closed session next month about the possibility of declaring the plant a public nuisance, allowed under local ordinance or state statute, as they look for ways to force changes at the facility.

“It’s a problem that has been going on for many years and is not getting any better ... We have to discuss violations to our ordinances. I’m not a lawyer but they seem pretty clear-cut,” said Ald. Ray Klug, noting residents have complained about putrid smells coming from the plant for at least 15 years.

“A sense of urgency is needed here.” Residents who have been pressing the council for months to do something appreciated the new tone,

but said much more is needed.

“We have been asking them since February to take some action, and we are grateful that they are finally listening,” P.J. Early said.

A protest march by residents is being planned for Dec. 28, starting at Willow Glen grade school.

In February, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel began publishing an investigative series that has exposed dangers to workers and residents from barrel refurbishing operations in the Milwaukee area and other states.

Since then, five government agencies have examined the area plants, including St. Francis, and issued more than 70 violations and $114,000 in fines. Those investigations are continuing.

Air testing near the plant in St. Francis by the Journal Sentinel and separately by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed the presence of chemicals commonly used by the plant at levels that constitute a nuisance odor and which may be making people in the neighborhood sick.

The Journal Sentinel’s examination of drum recycling plants in other states revealed the industry’s record of pollution, fires and noxious smells being discharged over surrounding residential areas.

The three Milwaukee-area plants, which operate as Mid-America, are part of Container Life Cycle Management, a joint venture majority owned by Greif Inc., a $3.3 billion Ohio-based firm. This week, Greif announced it had closed IndyDrum, a CLCM facility in Indianapolis.

The EPA is planning more testing, to be done by the city starting in January. St Francis School District did testing at Willow Glen, which is a half-mile south of the plant, after complaints of powerful odors. The results are not in yet.

The EPA is planning a public meeting on the plant in St. Francis in late January, said city attorney Paul Alexy.

Alexy also said he’s been assured the case against the Mid-America plants is a top priority for the EPA and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Given the cost of air testing, City Administrator Mark Johnsrud said it would be best to rely on the EPA’s results to lay the groundwork for a possible nuisance case.

He warned residents at the meeting that the bar could be high to prove a public health nuisance. And even if the city is successful, the plant would have a chance to make changes before the city could move to close it, he said.

The company sent a letter to members of the city council, dated Monday, that noted the St. Francis plant was inspected a dozen times in 2017 and said it is committed to working with regulators to address issues.

“At the same time, we will defend ourselves from allegations we believe are incorrect,” the letter said.

The company may be moving toward settling the air pollution part of the case with EPA but is fighting the hazardous waste violations.

In a letter to the council, CLCM said it doesn’t believe the pollution readings cited by EPA are typical of its operations, but it will meet with EPA before the end of the year to “begin discussing long-term solutions.”

But the company is contesting the EPA’s finding that all three Milwaukee-area plants were illegally storing hazardous waste without a permit.

The company said the violations amount to an effort by EPA to rewrite a longstanding definition of when a drum is considered empty. A provision of the federal hazardous waste law says that a container — plastic or metal — is considered “empty” if it has an inch or less of residue in the bottom that cannot be poured out.

“If the agency desires to change existing regulations, there is an administrative process to do so. To date, no such process has taken place,” the letter said.

According to violations, EPA inspectors found drums in the three plants’ “heavies” section which were not empty and contained hazardous waste.

The EPA declined to comment on the matter because it is an open case.

City Council President Donald Brickner said he has been frustrated by years of inaction by EPA, DNR and the company. He lives just south of the plant and smells the odor with the right wind.

“The city has been treated like a canary flying into a coal mine,” he said. “We have been ignored for way too long on this issue.”