SCRUBBER  ABSORBER        NEWSLETTER               

                                                                                                                  January 2005
                                                                                                                         No. 367

Creosote Plant Sets Record for Odor Complaints

Neighbors of the J.H. Baxter creosoting plant in Eugene, OR, set a new record for odor complaints to the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority or LRAPA.

Through early November, about 100 residents called to complain of the plant's noxious odors on 660 occasions, compared with 436 Baxter-related calls for 2003.

Regulatory officials working with the plant managers are slowly identifying cracks and vents at the creosoting factory where gases escape and plugging them up. But it's a sprawling operation and they promise no quick resolution to the odor problem.

The Register-Guard reports since 2003, the air agency has been in negotiation with Baxter on a "best work practices" document that would lay out agreed-upon fixes.

Air agency director Brian Jennison said that's no sign of failure. The company is already doing the fixes the document prescribes, and when those fixes don't solve the problem, negotiations begin for additional steps, he said.

For instance, the company discovered that a puff of fumes was released each time the hot chemical oil used for treating wood was returned to a tank.

“They have a pressure vacuum valve on the tank so it won’t explode or implode, and as a result these tanks can burp,” Jennison said.

Now, the company is designing a scrubber system that will clean the gases before they're released.

This is the best the agency can do, Jennison said.

The agency is reluctant to use its power to declare Baxter a nuisance and fine it up to $10,000 per violation. Nuisance odors are hard to quantify, and the agency's authority in that area is untested.

"If we go to fining them, we're in a confrontational posture that may or may not result in any engineering fixes. I'd always rather pay engineers than attorneys," Jennison said.

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