Without help from local officials, proposed new regulations by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) may cause a Virginia based recycler to relocate.
For the past two years, MXI Environmental Services has faced complaints from residential and commercial neighbors that odors from the recycling facility have caused vomiting and nausea.
In response, the Virginia DEQ has proposed amending MXI's existing air permit by prohibiting the company from using the plant's wastewater in its cooling tower. This would require the company to dispose of wastewater through a combination of pre-treatment on site and use of the county sewer system.
The sticking point is the cost of connecting to the sewer system. MXI claims that the connection will cost $1.3 million upfront and annual bills would be between $200,000 and $300,000. This would be on top of an estimated $1.5 million in cost to upgrade the system.
"It’s something significant enough that it would really inhibit our ability to make any money in the future,” MXI VP of Operations, Brian Potter, told Tricities.com, “but we were willing to do that to eliminate this problem.”
To maintain operations, MXI is looking for the county to waive the upfront connection fee. Without it, they would be forced to explore relocation possibilities taking 80 jobs with them.
“We’ve never had any sort of government subsidy here before, and that’s the only thing we’ve ever asked,” Potter said of the request to have the sewer connection fee waived. “And it wasn’t for us. … It was to try and fix this odor problem.”
