DHEC board won’t review Giti Tire air permit for Chester plant

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control will not review an appeal of the air permit issued for plans to build a Giti Tire plant near Richburg.

On Sept. 1, Chester County resident Dave Cole appealed the permit issued in late August by the department to the full DHEC board.

Cole called DHEC’s action a “sham permit” because the pollution limits agreed to by Giti Tire are just below what would be required for a major permit. Cole said the permit does not consider that this is phase one for Giti. Company officials have said a phase two could double production at the plant which could push the plant past agreed pollutions limits.

The board informed Cole of its decision Thursday. Cole said he is considering his options. He can appeal the decision to the state’s Administrative Law Court.

Giti is building a $560 million plant in Richburg capable of making about 5 million tires annually. Over the next decade, the plant is expected to hire about 1,700 employees. Construction of the plant should start in October, Giti officials have said, with plant operations expected to begin by the end of 2016. Unless Cole appeals to the state’s Administrative Law Court, Giti has the permits it needs to start construction.

Cole has said he is not against the jobs and would likely agree to the permit if Giti would install thermal oxidation equipment in its process, reducing the levels of volatile organic compounds, hazardous air pollutants and toxic air pollutants. The oxidation process is similar to the catalytic converter on a car, he said.

Giti Tire, in an e-mail to The Herald, said it has no plans to exceed 250 tons per year of volatile organic compounds “even with the plant expansion.”

Giti said it “voluntarily” included both phases of construction in the air permit application to show DHEC and Chester County that a major source air permit is not required for construction of the facility.

The DHEC permit covers only the first phase of construction. A separate construction air permit application will be submitted before the facility initiates the second phase, Giti officials said.

Giti said if the expansion results in the plant exceeding 25-tons-per-year limit on combined hazardous air pollutants additional requirements “may be” added under the facility’s air permit. The 25 tons limit is to avoid a major impact on air quality.

The company has promised to use a “cementless” process in making tires which relies on the natural stickiness of the rubbers for adhesion.

DHEC said the cementless process reduces the amount of volatile organic compounds released. DHEC’s position is based on information from tire plants in South Carolina. Two plants, the Continental Tire plant in Sumter and the Bridgestone Americas plant in Aiken, use the cementless process.

Giti officials said thermal oxidation or similar control technologies requested by Cole are normally used by the tire industry to control emissions from the cementing processes. Because the tire-making process emits large quantities of volatile organic compounds, “these exhausts can be captured as concentrated emissions,” Giti Tire officials said.

Cole owns a farm and operates a bed and breakfast which is about two miles from the Giti Tire plant site near Richburg. In a letter from Giti Tire attorneys to the DHEC board, Giti said Cole should be more concerned about a nearby animal feeding operation and Interstate 77 when it comes to odor and exposure to volatile organic compounds.

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 8:30 PM with the headline "DHEC board won’t review Giti Tire air permit for Chester plant."