‘Very big problem.’ Dozens more complain of odor coming from York County, SC pulp mill
The smell of rotten eggs nearly knocked Betty Rankin to the ground Tuesday afternoon.
Rankin had just finished taking care of the horses on her farm in Rock Hill when the odor hit. Her farm is a few miles from a York County, S.C., pulp and paper mill whose alleged foul-smelling emissions for months have sickened Rankin and residents in the surrounding area.
Rankin grabbed onto a nearby bench and waited for the fumes to pass. She’d been “attacked” by the same smell twice on Monday, she said.
“I felt like the inside of my body was on fire,” she told four lawyers who also represent an Indian Land woman in a federal lawsuit against New-Indy Containerboard LLC of Catawba, S.C.
The lawyers organized a town hall meeting Wednesday night in Rock Hill and encouraged those present to join the lawsuit.
“I’m wearing double masks because of New-Indy,” Rankin continued. “I’ve been vaccinated. I can keep socially distanced. What I can’t keep is New-Indy from attacking my home, my farm, my body.”
The near hundred other residents at the town hall nodded their heads. A handful clapped.
“This case is so unusual,” one of the lawyers, Philip Federico from Maryland, said. “It’s different than any case we’ve ever seen from the standpoint that many of you are actually telling us you can smell this inside of your home...”
Before Federico could continue, those in the room clamored — “Oh yes!”
‘Something that can make you sick’
Federico and Delaware lawyer Chase Brockstedt, two of the lawyers working with Terri Kennedy in her lawsuit against New-Indy, recently reached a $205 million settlement for thousands of Delaware residents whose drinking water had been poisoned by Mountaire Farms chicken plant.
The “awful and unpredictable” odor, invaded Kennedy’s home “three to five times a week” and caused Kennedy, who was at the town hall Wednesday, to seek medical treatment, according to her lawsuit filed last week by lawyers from the Rock-Hill-based Elrod Pope law firm.
Kennedy, whose Indian Land home is seven miles from the New-Indy plant, experienced headaches, bloody noses, sinus issues and nausea from the “rotten egg” odor, she said in the federal lawsuit.
“This is about as good as it gets,” Federico told the crowd. “It’s better than what we had in Delaware...
“When you let corporations, like this out-of-town corporation New-Indy, come into your community, destroy your environment and get rich doing it, the only way to get together and get their attention is with a class action.”
Kennedy’s lawsuit is the third class-action filing against New-Indy. Two York County women filed one at the end of May, and so did a homeowner in south Charlotte earlier that month. Each of the three lawsuits seeks at least $5 million in damages for the mill’s hydrogen sulfide and other emissions.
“If you’re smelling it, it is bad for you,” Federico said. “It has health consequences. It’s not just a bad smell. It’s something that can make you sick.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control determined New-Indy is the source of the odor and ordered the plant to reduce its hydrogen sulfide emissions, according to official reports from both agencies.
In response to the EPA order, New-Indy’s mill manager Tony Hobson said in a statement that the plant has continued to try to determine the source of the odor “and resolve the issues relating to the odor emanating from our plant.”
“We are committed to the safety of our ... local employees and the surrounding area; protecting the environment; promoting economic vitality, and charitable giving to support great local causes,” Hobson said.
New-Indy action
New-Indy has not yet filed an official response to the three lawsuits in federal court, according to court documents.
Tuesday, New-Indy filed court documents asking a federal judge to give the plant until July 21 to respond, court documents show.
A federal judge gave New-Indy the extension, according to court documents filed Thursday.
New-Indy is a joint venture between New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s holding company, the Kraft Group LLC, and Schwarz Partners LP, according to two of the lawsuits. The Catawba plant makes pulp, which is used to produce paper, tissue, cardboard and specialty paper, according to its website.
S.C. Rep. Tommy Pope, R-York, who is the main South Carolina lawyer representing Kennedy, said Wednesday he remembers when Bowater owned the mill.
“As a kid, we’d play out in the yard and you could go tell daddy it was going to rain because if we could smell Bowater, we knew it was going to rain,” Pope, majority leader pro tem of the S.C. House, said. “That’s not what we’re dealing with anymore. We’re dealing with a different animal.”
EPA, expert response
Wednesday, a handful of health and environmental experts detailed the harmful effects of continued exposure to the hydrogen sulfide emissions, including sinus problems, headaches, shortness of breath, anxiety and depression, and offered explanations why the mill’s odor is so prevalent.
Kenneth Norcross, a wastewater engineer, experienced consulting with nine pulp and paper wastewater plants, similar to New-Indy, he said. He told the crowd the sulfur-based odor is a by-product of the pulping and treatment process used at the plant. However, in his 40-year career, Norcross said he’s never been to one “that had an odor like this.”
By mid-May, South Carolina’s DHEC had received more than 17,000 complaints from residents “related to the odor” from New-Indy, agency officials said.
Soon after, DHEC determined “the odor is injurious to the welfare and quality of life and is interfering with use and enjoyment of property” and ordered New-Indy to “correct the undesirable level of air contaminants,” officials said.
The EPA also ordered the plant to immediately reduce hydrogen sulfide emissions and monitor the air in communities surrounding the plant. The EPA is monitoring the air around Rock Hill and into North Carolina in response to requests by various state and local agencies and the Catawba Indian Nation, officials said.
Deborah Jennings, an environmental law consultant, told the crowd Wednesday it’s “very rare” for the EPA to issue such an order.
“In 30 years of being a partner at my law firm, I’ve only seen two or three of these,” she said.
Staff Writer Joe Marusak contributed.
This story was originally published June 17, 2021 at 4:32 PM.
