In June 2020, the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection sent inspectors to a PTFE recycling company in western Kentucky to investigate.
Inspectors are following up on the whistleblower's complaint in Henderson, accusing Shamrock Technology of releasing more permanent chemicals into the air than it told state officials.
At that time, the company signed an agreement to identify and clean up the pollution caused by recycling Teflon materials to make micronized ink and powder. Forever chemicals, also known as PFAS, are by-products related to cancer and organ damage.
Inspector Jennifer Miller recorded that she found clover powder scattered on the concrete floor. She found finer white powder in the garbage can outside and the drain next to the facility.
"The facility failed to take appropriate precautions to control the release of hazardous substances, pollutants or pollutants into the environment," Miller wrote in the violation notice.
Four months later, state officials found permanent chemicals in a creek that captured runoff from clover on its way to confluence with the Ohio River. State officials told WFPL News that clover may be the cause of the pollution.
The state government did not fine Shamrock for breaching the agreement. Instead, environmental officials decided to issue a permit to allow Clover Technology to continue to pollute the same stream.
The WFPL and APM reports learned about inspections and other state actions after reviewing thousands of pages of city, state, and company records that outline the permanent chemical contamination of clover in Henderson. The investigation found:
It wasn't until WFPL news and APM reports that a series of stories broke out in August that state and local officials began to inform the public about the widespread PFAS pollution in Henderson. We reported that state officials found “very high and worrying” levels of PFAS in Shamrock’s facilities, and then reported that the company found this in almost every sample collected by the company in the Henderson community where thousands of people live, work, and play. Kind of chemical substance. Due to groundwater pollution, Henderson lost $100 million in business opportunities.
Despite the known health risks, there is no state or federal law that regulates PFAS compounds-PFAS compounds are a family of thousands of chemical substances found in everyday products, due to their durability and intimidation in the environment and the human body. It is highly respected for its incredible durability.
Since there is no specific law on PFAS chemicals, the state is trying to regulate established public health hazards with one hand tied behind its back.
Within the federal scope, PFAS chemicals are not yet classified as hazardous wastes. Still, the Energy and Environment Cabinet of Kentucky is implementing the 2019 agreement with Clover Technology Corporation under the state's Super Fund Act to manage hazardous waste, including chemicals that pose a major hazard to human health or the environment.
Clover accepted the terms of the agreement, but continued to deny that PFAS is a hazardous waste. The company also denied violating any laws, regulations or licenses, and despite signing the agreement, it does not consider this to be an admission of "any factual claims" contained therein.
The conceptual model of PFAS exposure pathways included in Shamrock Technologies' 2020 Offsite Characterization Report.
The result was that the cabinet used its regulatory powers to characterize the pollution of clover as hazardous waste, while allowing the company to release these same chemicals through air and water, even if officials privately expressed concerns about the impact.
The state declined requests for interviews for this story and other issues related to the Henderson pollution. Instead, a spokesperson from the Energy and Environment Cabinet responded to a series of 30 written questions.
Although state officials are well aware of Henderson’s pollution levels, they said that there is no need to notify the public because state experts believe that these levels do not pose a threat to human health.
Energy and Environment spokesperson John Mulla wrote in the statement: “On the contrary, the Cabinet believes that it is prudent to continue to protect the public by cleaning up clover sites and eliminating or reducing emissions to the environment.”
PFAS, also known as perfluorinated and polyfluoroalkyl substances, is associated with various types of cancer, liver, kidney and thyroid damage, inflammatory bowel disease, low birth weight, and reduced vaccine effectiveness.
Public health experts say that chemicals in the PFAS family pose a threat to public health. They also said that state and federal officials did not adequately regulate chemicals, which disappointed the public.
"The government, no matter what agency it is, must say that this is a problem," said Linda Birnbaum, an honorary scientist and former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. "If you bury your head in the sand, you ignore the existence of the problem."
Dump the eternal chemicals in the ditch
State records show that between 2014 and 2018, Shamrock Technologies discharged contaminated water from a 1,500 gallon tank containing an incredibly high concentration of permanent chemicals into a Henderson facility The ditch before. According to the agreement, the company has no license to do so.
Company records show that the pollution found in the groundwater below the site exceeded the federal health recommendation level by nearly 5,000,000 times-comparable to the pollution found at EPA Superfund sites in military installations across the country.
According to state records, Shamrock Technologies dumped high concentrations of PFAS chemicals in this trench in front of the Henderson Building in Kentucky.
Clover proactively disclosed the pollution situation to the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection in 2018.
After the company notified the state, officials quickly took action to test Henderson's drinking water supply, including six private wells within a mile radius around the Clover facility in early 2019. They also notified Henderson City officials.
Henderson extracts drinking water from the Ohio River, so despite the serious pollution below the site, the state found in February 2019 that the PFAS content in Henderson's tap water was relatively low-in line with EPA drinking water standards. Similarly, they found detectable PFAS levels in a private well. State records show that officials did not consider any health risks.
Even so, the city's water company began to take measures to filter out PFAS chemicals in 2019.
Under the instructions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Shamrock dismantled underground storage tanks that had previously stored extremely high levels of PFAS before May 2019. After that, Clover began to remove the PFAS-contaminated water from the site instead of dumping it into the ditches. State records show that the company also installed air filters, dust prevention measures and vacuum cleaners to reduce the source of PFAS.
In addition to refurbishing facilities, the company also reached an agreement with the state to determine the level of pollution and then clean it up. William B. Neuberg, President of Shamrock Technologies, signed an agreement with the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection in October 2019.
Then, in December, the state environmental scientist Larry Hughes wrote a letter to Neuberg, warning his company's pollution could affect Henderson's descendants. He explained that the quality of the chemical exceeds "any conceivable level of cleanup announced so far or in the near future" and will remain an important source of groundwater pollution that threatens the Ohio River aquifer.
Hughes wrote: "This may have significant impacts on groundwater resources for thousands of years."
With the COVID-19 pandemic first sweeping across the country, leading to the closure of many industries, executives at Shamrock's Henderson plant are looking to increase production. According to a voicemail from Shamrock's manufacturing director, in April 2020, the company's plant in New Jersey was closed due to COVID-19. Company executives hope that Shamrock's Kentucky plant will meet demand. They asked to meet with state regulators to lobby for the green light to increase air emissions.
Melissa Duff, director of the Kentucky Air Quality Department, wrote to her colleague: "He let me know that they are'tight' on products because they supply their products to the ink/printing industry. , So it is considered an'essential' operation."
In June 2020, a water inspector department of Shamrock Technologies discovered a rusty pipe and "unidentified emissions."
Shamrock’s consultants and an attorney urged state officials to approve the permit. In an email, state environmental lawyer Mary Ann Lee told her colleagues that Shamrock is using the agreement with the state government as a lever to further increase PFAS emissions.
"They have submitted an application to the [air quality department] to increase air emissions and rely on the agreed order to argue that they should be able to increase it. The longer they delay the deadline according to the agreed order, the more they impose on the [air quality department] The greater the pressure to approve additional applications," Li wrote.
According to state records, while the state was processing Shamrock’s permit application, it was also investigating a former employee’s complaint, which stated that the company allowed additional PFAS emissions to escape through Shamrock’s chimneys.
According to an e-mail statement from Mura, the Air Quality Department investigated the complaint and found no violation of air emission permits, but they also sent a water department inspector to the scene in June 2020.
In June 2020, a department of water inspectors recorded the white powder in the trash bin of Clover Technology.
At that time, Miller found white powder inside and outside the clover factory in Henderson.
According to state records, Miller determined that Clover Technology had violated best management practices and failed to apply for necessary storm and industrial discharge permits from the state government.
She issued a notice of violation in September 2020. But Clover Technology delayed the inspector's findings. An attorney from the law firm Dinsmore & Shohl rejected every claim in the violation notice in a letter to the state government.
According to the email, lawyer Caroline Brown argued that the white residue outside the facility actually came from a gravel parking lot, and disagreed with the statement that Clover failed to properly manage hazardous substances.
"PFAS is a class of emerging pollutants, and Kentucky or federal regulatory agencies have no standards for these pollutants," Brown wrote.
The company believes that the agreement with the state covers these disputes.
"The agreed order settles'all civil claims and disputes involving suspected violations and defects'," she wrote.
After the state discovered more PFAS chemicals in Canoe Creek, Shamrock’s lawyers are rebutting these violations. Canoe Creek is a narrow urban river that flows through communities, cornfields and industrial areas including clover to the Ohio River. . This level exceeds the EPA's recommended lifetime health limits for drinking water.
The Energy and Environment Cabinet told WFPL News that the pollution of clover may be the cause of the pollution.
Nonetheless, in December, the Cabinet issued a license to Clover Technology, allowing the company to legally pollute Canoe Creek.
Off-site and community pollution
Just three days before Shamrock Technology obtained the license in December 2020, the company reported the results of another round of PFAS testing.
Shamrock’s consultants tested land on up to 10 football fields around three facilities in Henderson. Company records show that they found permanent chemicals in almost every sample: schools, medical centers, restaurants, and near homes.
The EPA database shows that people living near these facilities are two to three times more likely to be people of color than in other parts of the county, and 60% of them are low-income people.
The discovery of clover shocked some scientists.
A plume of groundwater pollution from Shamrock Technology Inc. has exceeded half a mile in some places and seeps into wetlands of endangered species. According to the analysis of state environmental scientist Larry Hughes, the two clover sites are less than 1,500 feet from the Ohio River.
A state environmental scientist wrote to the head of the Department of Environmental Protection and attached this photo to explain the level of pollution in Henderson’s groundwater.
Hughes also pointed out that Shamrock’s consultants found perfluorinated and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the roofs, tree canopies, soil, waterways and air emissions around Shamrock’s three facilities. Hughes wrote that water pollution is the biggest health risk in the region.
When the perpetual chemicals reach the aquifers of the Ohio River, "the impact on viable potential drinking water and economic groundwater resources (currently) may exist (in the future)," Hughes wrote to an executive at Clover.
The promotion and pull of Henderson's PFAS pollution occurred largely without the public's knowledge or knowledge. The situation changed when WFPL News first reported PFAS contamination of clover in August.
The Beshear government declined requests for interviews for these stories, and when WFPL News asked about pollution in communities around Henderson in August, the Energy and Environment Cabinet downplayed the truth.
The statement said: “Although further testing of the groundwater under the company’s facilities showed very high levels of PFAS in the shallow aquifers, the [Ministry of Environmental Protection] does not believe that these same levels have migrated off-site.”
Although technically correct, the statement is also deceptive. The content of PFAS chemicals in the aquifer is still more than 200 times the EPA's lifelong health recommendations, and the impact of PFAS chemicals in the air is ignored.
Canoe Creek in Henderson, Kentucky.
State officials now admit that clover has polluted the community, but told WFPL News that it believes it is unnecessary to warn residents because their own models show that the concentration of PFAS in soil, water, and air does not exceed the "target risk" human health level. "
Mugla wrote in the statement: “The Cabinet will use the best judgment of its professionals when deciding when to proactively notify residents, the public, and when to take urgent or immediate action.”
Public health experts say otherwise. Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said these chemicals pose a health risk to the public. She said the state should take more measures to prevent Clover and other companies from releasing PFAS and other related chemicals into the air.
"You don't want this to happen. You don't want it to come out of the stack. This is definitely not something that should be allowed or allowed," Birnbaum said.
The e-mail revealed that the Energy and Environment Cabinet had never calculated the total mass of PFAS chemicals emitted by Clover from its chimneys, even though they have been allowed since 2010.
EEC’s Mura wrote: “Since PFAS is not a substance regulated by the EPA, these emissions were not provided or reviewed before the current air permit for Clover was issued.”
The Cabinet began to take measures to strengthen the oversight of Kentucky's permanent chemicals. It has published two studies on PFAS pollution across the state and is developing the ability to study chemicals in fish tissues.
Since the WFPL started reporting pollution, the Cabinet has also announced plans to comprehensively review the statewide industrial facilities that may use or produce permanent chemicals.
Records show that in October, the Cabinet rejected the application for a permit for Clover, which would lead to an increase in PFAS emissions.
Tony Hatton, commissioner of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, stated that PFAS air emissions may be considered a harmful air pollutant.
Speaking of the risks posed by permanent chemicals at a state meeting in October, Hatton said: "This may need to happen so that we can better control PFAS control and emissions to the environment."
However, the Cabinet did not take a position on the legislation establishing the highest levels of PFAS chemicals in drinking water.
The main supporter of the bill, Democratic Rep. Nima Kulkarni from Louisville, said that the bill will be the first and only step taken by Kentucky to solve the permanent chemical problem.
"Ultimately, it will kill humans through various cancers," Kurkani said. "So if you look at its long-term impact on our health and the health of our community, its impact on generations, its impact is really shocking and very difficult to resist."
The bill has never even held a hearing.
Nearly three years after Clover Technology first admitted its pollution, the company and the state government are still trying to figure out the extent and concentration of the pollution.
Shamrock did not respond to interview requests, but company officials said in a written statement in August that it plans to address all potential health risks and environmental impacts of its Henderson plant.
“As part of the agreed order, Shamrock has been working closely with the Commissioner’s Office to determine the characteristics and extent of the pollution, including any remedial measures needed to address, contain or remove the pollution,” wrote Michael Jussila, Shamrock’s manufacturing director in Henderson.
To date, Shamrock Technologies has not paid any fines or faced legal proceedings. Cabinet officials stated that it is faster to cooperate with companies than to prosecute them.
This story was produced as part of the APM Reports Public Media Accountability Program, which supports investigative reports from local media across the country. The public broadcaster also provided support.