KALAMAZOO, MI — Kalamazoo commissioners approved a controversial tax break for a paper mill that’s causing a rotten smell around the city, but they put the company on a short leash by making continuance of the financial arrangement dependent on odor reduction.
The commission approved an abatement for the $600 million Graphic Packaging International expansion at 1500 N. Pitcher Street after deliberating for several hours on the longstanding industrial odor problem during the Sept. 21 regular meeting.
Graphic Packaging had requested a 12-year tax break worth about $1.6 million, but commissioners only approved a six-year arrangement contingent on the company’s odor reduction performance at reviews in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2026.
Clawback provisions were also added to retrieve the lost tax revenue should the company fail to meet odor mitigation goals outlined at the meeting.
Commissioner Eric Cunningham pushed for the stringent reviews, casting the issue as one of generational accountability to Kalamazoo residents that’s been long forsaken.
“In the 90s, I didn’t have a voice to communicate that I was tired of smelling this,” Cunningham said; adding that his father, who’s lived in the area of town that’s plagued by industrial emissions his whole life, was diagnosed with COPD lung disease despite never smoking.
Cunningham wants to see the health of local people studied with an eye to air quality.
“I’m not saying there’s a direct correlation, but what if there was?” he asked. “I’m sure there are people across this community that have this concern.”
More than a dozen people called into the online meeting to oppose the tax break, mostly citing environmental justice concerns. The Graphic Packaging factory is located adjacent to the majority Black Northside neighborhood. Residents there are suing the company, saying the odors and dust are reducing their property values and harming their health.
Opponents who spoke included former mayoral candidate David Benac, a Western Michigan University history professor who accused Graphic Packaging of failing to address the odors despite a years-long history of violation notices from state environmental officials.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) has cited Graphic Packaging eight times in the past decade for odors and twice for fallout dusting.
The violations were revealed by an MLive investigation in August, which found that a Graphic Packaging open-air industrial wastewater clarifier along the Kalamazoo River near Paterson Street was releasing odorous hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas with peaks “well above the odor threshold,” according to a June report by the Jones & Henry engineering firm.
“If it was something that was important to the company, it would have been addressed at this point,” Benac said. “We should not be spending public money on this.”
Two people, including Dave Maurer, Humphrey Products president, called into support the tax request. Maurer warned commissioners that denying it to Graphic Packaging this late in the process would have a “chilling effect” on business investment in the city.
Kalamazoo has long dealt with noxious industrial odors that most people had previously associated with the city wastewater treatment plant on Harrison Street along the river.
The treatment plant is in the final stages of installing expensive odor control measures like carbon scrubbers and wants to reconfigure underground industrial wastewater piping in order to push odors through a new bio-filter system that’s undergoing early design.
James Baker, city public services director, said an underground piping junction chamber between Graphic Packaging and the wastewater plant is acting like a chimney for odors.
Baker said a new Envirosuite odor tracking system is recording hydrogen sulfide levels along Riverview Drive “consistently above the odor threshold” but below federal acute exposure levels. The city plans to install more sensors in the Northside and Eastside neighborhoods.
Pending upgrades to that system would allow citizens to make odor complaints online and allow operators to model odor trajectories to aid follow-up action.
Baker said the data has “corroborated” citizen complaints and could be useful for regulators and academic researchers interested in further study of the odor problem.
Aaron Wright, chair of the city’s environmental concerns committee, said odors have been a committee agenda item for years an “up until recently, Graphic Packaging had not really taken any action toward mitigating any odor issues.”
The committee formally recommended approval of the tax request “contingent on continued efforts to resolve this long-standing problem.”
Wright said he was encouraged by Graphic Packaging’s recent effort to study the stink with new odor-sensing equipment, but “the devil is in the details.”
“I’ve lived in Kalamazoo my whole life,” he said. “The smell has got to go.”
During the meeting, Graphic Packaging vice president Andy Johnson said the company is spending $4 million on wastewater effluent reduction in conjunction with its expansion and part of those plans include new odor control measures that should be running by 2022.
Graphic Packaging installed its own Envirosuite odor tracking system this month with 10 new sensors and has plans to add another six, said mill manager Rich Townley.
The company is attempting to strengthen its position in the recycled paperboard market with its expansion and the changes will require new high voltage power lines that Consumers Energy says will mean the loss of about 700 trees along the river this fall.
State regulators are holding a public hearing in October on Graphic Packaging’s request to modify an emissions permit. The request is separate from odor issues, which EGLE says are not coming from permitted stacks. Graphic Packaging is seeking approval for an increase in greenhouse gas emissions in conjunction with its expansion.
The emissions increase was cited by callers and commissioners as a concern during the meeting due to carbon pollution’s role in driving global climate change. Johnson said the mill expansion would reduce the company’s overall carbon footprint nationwide by 4 percent becasue it consolidates certain operations.
Graphic Packaging released a statement following the meeting thanking commissioners for the tax abatement approval.
“We are committed to being a good community partner – and will continue to work closely with the city to identify and address odor issues,” the company said.
Brandi Johnson-Crawford, a Northside neighborhood resident who has been critical of local and state government’s handling of the air quality issue, and who is suing the company, said she has listed her home for sale and is planning to move away from Kalamazoo.
She is upset about the tax break approval.
“The pandemic has been very scary for my family but this is so much worse,” she said. “This is a public health crisis and should be treated as so by Graphic Packaging, the city of Kalamazoo, EGLE and the EPA.”
Related stories:
Paper mill wants to boost greenhouse gas emissions
Experts: Kalamazoo climate action plan worth challenges
Major tax break approved for Graphic Packaging
Odor violations mount at Graphic Packaging mill
Lawsuit targets paper mill over pervasive stink
Anti-odor efforts part of wastewater plant upgrade
‘Mystery odor’ is back in Kalamazoo
Locals don’t know source of stink, but want it gone
The Link LonkSeptember 22, 2020 at 09:32PM
https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/09/paper-mill-causing-rotten-stink-gets-tax-break-approval-with-conditions.html
Paper mill causing rotten stink gets tax break approval with conditions - MLive.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=rotten&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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