Environmental group seeks investigation of Neville Island metal recycling company
Emsworth residents report noise, fumes
The first time Sonia Kowal heard a bang from across the Ohio River from her home, she thought it was a gunshot.
She is among several residents along Terrace Drive in Emsworth whose homes face Neville Island, where a variety of industrial companies are located. They say explosions from Metalico Pittsburgh — a metal recycler — disrupt their neighborhood with noise and fumes.
Operations were relatively quiet one day last week, but Ms. Kowal said that sometimes the explosions are so powerful that her windows shake. “Because it’s just this fireball explosion, this gasoline exploding,” Ms. Kowal said. “It’s just jarring.”
Metalico Pittsburgh collects scrap metal for steel mills, copper and aluminum smelters, and foundries, according to its website. The plant is part of a chain in several states, including New York and New Jersey.
The environmental group Allegheny County Clean Air Now helped set up a surveillance camera to capture the explosions and is calling on the Allegheny County Health Department to investigate Metalico.
A health department spokesman said that the plant is in compliance after paying a fine over a violation last year but that it will investigate new complaints in a separate action.
In November, the department issued an enforcement order to Metalico, saying the company was out of compliance with regulations outlined in its operating permit. It cited “reporting of upset conditions” and “visible emissions” — and fined the company $6,900.
Allegheny County Clean Air Now co-founder Thaddeus Popovich said problems have persisted.
“We were told by people who live there, ‘ We get explosions, we get backwards smoke and foul air that drifts over the river, we hear clanging in the middle of the night with barges being loaded with scrap metallic objects,’” Mr. Popovich said. “So we investigated.” His organization helped install a camera at Ms. Kowal’s house to provide 24/7 surveillance of the plant. On Monday, ACCAN published a video on YouTube with footage of the plant over the past few years. At times, the image shakes and a bright burst of flame appears to come out of the shredder at Metalico.
Mr. Popovich said he believes the bursts of flame come from cars being crushed with gasoline still in their tanks.
A Metalico spokeswoman said the company is in compliance with regulations.
Scrap metal is put through a shredder when entering the plant, said spokeswoman Glenda Wehrli in an email.
“Noise levels generated during its operation are not significant, to the point that normal conversation levels can be maintained while standing next to the shredder while it is in operation,” Ms. Wehrli said, adding that the visible emission is steam that “does not impact the environment.”
She said “the low levels of particulate matter generated during the process” are controlled by something called a “Smart Water Injection System.”
Recycling metal reduces the amountof ferrous and non-ferrous material that would enter landfills and thus reduces greenhouse gas emissions, she said.
But the health department order from 2018 said Metalico did not demonstrate that it was monitoring or keeping records of its emission control equipment. Such records are required to operate the recycle shredder.
In addition, the order said the opacity of visible emissions exceeded the limit of Metalico’s operating permit.
The order also said the recycling company has to record the hours of operating the shredder, water usage of the Smart Water Injection System, the amount of weekly scrap metal processed and any results of noncompliance.
In a written statement, Ms. Wehrli said the company did not appeal the order. Instead, Metalico developed an “action plan” and met with representatives from the health department’s Air Quality Program to discuss it.
The plan included “enhanced inspection procedures of incoming material, initiation of the environmental incentive program for inspectors and operators and the inspection of existing air emission control equipment by the manufacturers of the equipment.”
Ryan Scarpino, health department spokesman, said the department had received 55 complaints through its online complaint form.
“We are working on enforcement related to these new complaints, which will be a separate order,” Mr. Scarpino said.
Ms. Kowal remains frustrated. She said she has contacted Jeanne Creese, the Neville township manager.
“She said there [are] no restrictions because it’s an industrial zone,” Ms. Kowal said. “And I’m like, ‘Well, we’re not an industrial zone.’ This is residential and densely populated over here.”
“I just get so fed up with it, but I’m stuck,” Ms. Kowal said. “I can’t afford to move out.”