Ranson Story Archives - Page 2 of 4 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

House Majority Whip Del. Paul Espinosa Hired As Rockwool Public Affairs Manager

House of Delegates Majority Whip Del. Paul Espinosa has been hired as the Public Affairs Manager for the controversial Rockwool insulation plant in Jefferson County.

Rockwool made the announcement in a press release Tuesday.

Trent Ogilvie, the President of Rockwool North America, said in the release the company had been looking to hire someone who, “knows the area, understands the issues, and most importantly can connect with all members of the community in a meaningful way.”

The release goes on to tout Espinosa’s achievements in the Jefferson County community and in the West Virginia House of Delegates.

Espinosa said in the release he’s been impressed with Rockwool’s outreach and open dialogue with the community over the past year. He said the company has taken many steps to address the community’s concerns and promise environmental stewardship.

Rockwool has been a source of contention, division and large community rallies in the county for the past year. The company would manufacture stone wool insulation on former orchard land across from an elementary school and feature two 21-story smokestacks releasing a range of chemicals.

The company is expected to offer 150 full-time positions and be operational by mid-2020.

Let's Talk Rockwool, A Discussion with Del. Sammi Brown

Rockwool has become a household name in the Eastern Panhandle, and it sparks a flurry of discussion and debate.

This European-based stone wool manufacturing plant is currently under construction in Ranson, Jefferson County despite pushback from residents on the grounds of environmental concerns and the plant’s proximity to a nearby elementary school.

Jefferson County Dels. John Doyle and Sammi Brown, both Democrats, beat their Republican incumbents during the 2018 election, right in the middle of rising contentions around the plant.

As we approach one-year since the start of public outcry, West Virginia Public Broadcasting sat down with Del. Brown, whose district includes those directly impacted by Rockwool.

We discuss the magnitude the plant played in last year’s election, how Rockwool brought people together but also created division; we discuss Brown’s recent arrest while protesting the plant, and we explore what the fight for those opposed looks like going forward.

Jefferson County Residents Hold First Rockwool Construction Site Protest

More than 200 protesters rallied at the construction site of the Rockwool plant in Ranson, Jefferson County.

Hundreds of people opposed to Rockwool organized a three-hour protest at the construction site this week.

Rockwool is a Denmark-based manufacturing company that produces stone wool insulation. It’s an alternative to other insulation, such as fiberglass, and it’s touted as ‘green.’ But the way it’s produced is by burning down basalt rock and recycled slag.

A large portion of Jefferson County residents and those from nearby areas have been protesting the plant for the past year citing health concerns; the main one being for students at an elementary school less than a mile away.

Residents in Jefferson County rally at the construction site of the Rockwool plant in Ranson, W.Va. on May 16, 2019.

The protest was organized by the group Resist Rockwool. David Levine, who is the former president of the group, said Rockwool has recently begun vertical construction.

“And [Rockwool believes] that if they show that the walls are going up fast, and this is happening, and this is happening, then at some point we’re going to give up, but hell, walls have fallen down. We’re not going away.”

Rockwool broke ground in June of last year. Since then, there have been several pending lawsuits filed from opposition groups, rallies and an overall division within communities in the Eastern Panhandle.

**Editor’s Note: This story was corrected on May 20, 2019 to reflect David Levine’s role in the Resist Rockwool group.

Rallies, Legal Action, Grassroots Movements – Nearly a Year of Rockwool Debate

This summer will mark one year since thousands of residents in Jefferson County, West Virginia started a movement to rally against a Denmark-based company called Rockwool. The company’s proposed West Virginia plant would manufacture stone wool insulation across the street from an elementary school. The issue has sparked contention throughout the region. The voices from those against Rockwool have grown louder, but so too have those who do want Rockwool in West Virginia.

Mention Rockwool to anyone in Jefferson County, and you’ll likely get a range of responses. If you drive along almost any road in the county, you’ll find sign after sign that read, “Say No To Rockwool” or “Stop Toxic Rockwool.” In fact, along some roads, there are giant signs propped up on trucks and trailers saying that same message. It’s clear, many in the county do not want this plant built.

Pro and Anti-Rockwool Groups Emerge

Since pushback to the proposed Rockwool plant erupted almost a year ago, the community has only grown more divided. Those against the plant have taken their challenges to the courts.

But those in support of the plant have gotten more organized, too.

“I am the secretary of Jefferson County Prosperity. It is ‘prosperity for all of Jefferson County,’” Kearneysville resident Barbara Fuller told West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Jefferson County Prosperity formed as a result of the strong opposition to Rockwool and is the only pro-Rockwool group in the county, with 50 active members and more than 1,000 likes on Facebook.

“Everybody [in the group] wants [Jefferson County] to be back the way it used to where people weren’t at each other’s throats,” she said. “I mean, I can go into Walmart now, and they’ll know who I am. And you know, I’ll get nasty glares, which is crazy. And it never used to be like that. Jefferson County used to be so warming.”

Fuller first spoke with West Virginia Public Broadcasting at one of Rockwool’s open houses last August.

At that time, she wasn’t totally on board with Rockwool yet. But after doing her own research and going to the company’s open houses, she said she’s now strongly supportive and believes Rockwool will be a good neighbor, safe and stand by their promises.

“They want to give back. They want the people around to be happy. They want their employees to be happy,” she said.

FOIAs, Lawsuits and Election Upset

Denmark-based Rockwool makes stone wool insulation by melting down basalt rock and recycled slag, and then those fibers are spun to create a wool-like material used to insulate buildings, industrial applications or acoustic ceilings.

The company wants to build a 460,000-square-foot plant in Ranson, Jefferson County, and it would employ about 150 people earning wages between $35,000 and $85,000 a year. But it’s two, 21-story smokestacks would tower over a local elementary school.

Some in the county feel as if they were blindsided by state and county officials who invited Rockwool to locate here.

“You weren’t sure if this was scary or not,” Harpers Ferry resident Shaun Amos said. Amos is a board member of the leading Rockwool opposition group called Jefferson County Vision. The not-for-profit group formed out of a Facebook group called “Concerned Citizens Against Rockwool” that has nearly 11,000 members.

“People had questions,” Amos said. “And we weren’t sure how we had gone from nothing. And then sort of just this trickling of information about some Danish company that was coming, to, oh, my gosh, there’s a giant polluting factory about to be dropped down in the backyard, across the street from an elementary school.”

Jefferson County Vision’s mission statement includes fighting for clean air, clean water, and clean government. The group has filed legal action throughout the year; FOIA requests against the Jefferson County Commission and the Jefferson County Development Authority, or JCDA, all related to Rockwool. They’ve also filed lawsuits against the JCDA and the state.

One lawsuit questions the constitutionality of a PILOT agreement made between West Virginia and Rockwool. A PILOT agreement stands for “payment in lieu of taxes,” and it’s used as an incentive to attract businesses to West Virginia. Another lawsuit questions how the land was zoned on the location where Rockwool is expected to be built.

These lawsuits are still pending, but Amos is confident that Rockwool will be defeated.

“This factory is not coming here, because the citizens have decided that it will not be built here,” he said. “This will not happen here, and it’s just a matter of time before this water flood of citizenry finds the weak places in the wall and undermines the foundation that this thing came here on.”

The debate over Rockwool even sparked upset during the 2018 election. Some new Jefferson County Commissioners were elected, and two House of Delegates seats in Jefferson County flipped from red to blue.

Dels. Sammi Brown and John Doyle, both Democrats, were elected, and both are adamantly opposed to Rockwool.

“I would venture to say, if an accurate poll were taken; if you hired an expensive polling firm to do a thoroughly accurate poll, that the results would be something like 20 percent of the county’s population would be in favor of Rockwool, 60 percent against, and 20 percent undecided,” Del. Doyle said. “So, it’s essentially among those who have an opinion, it’s 3 to 1 against.”

Despite this though, Rockwool isn’t backing down.

What’s Happening Now?

Rockwool has been active within the county in the past year. The company has attended various community events and even donated $30,000 to the Shepherdstown Volunteer Fire Department.

“We really respect the commitment that we made to the community; to build the factory and create the jobs; that was the commitment on our side, and they made some commitments to us,” Rockwool’s North American President Trent Ogilvie said in a Skype interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Ogilvie said Rockwool will install two independent, public air quality monitoring stations for residents to check. Rockwool said this third-party group is an environmental consultant called ERM. Rockwool admits, however, they are still confirming this will be the consultant for the Jefferson County plant. Rockwool also said they are in the process of commissioning a third-party, human health risk assessment that will investigate the health impacts of the Jefferson County facility. Rockwool did not share the name of this group with West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

WVPB asked Rockwool if it was still worth locating to Jefferson County, given the level of pushback from so much of the community.

“We respect that some local citizens may have a different view and have a right to air their concerns,” Ogilvie said. “And there, all we ask, is to engage in constructive, fact-based, open-minded conversation. We respect concern, and we just want to make sure we can engage and be transparent and answer their questions.”

But Rockwool is facing a new challenge.

The Jefferson County Board of Education, in April, offered to purchase the land from Rockwool and use eminent domain if necessary. The Jefferson County BOE intends to use the site to build a regional student support center.

Rockwool filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education stating the move violates the company’s state and federal constitutional rights.

Despite the pushback and division within the county, Rockwool President Ogilvie said he expects the plant to be operational by mid-2020.

***Editor’s Note: This piece was edited to clarify and add details about the Rockwool v. Jefferson County Board of Education lawsuit.

Air Pollution Discussion Sparks More Concern About Potential Rockwool Plant Impacts

Community members from Jefferson County, West Virginia and nearby areas came together last weekend to hear from scientific experts from around the country about air pollution and its impacts. The event’s aim was to speak “plainly” about the issue, specifically as it pertains to Rockwool – a stone wool manufacturing company setting up shop in Jefferson County.

Ten scientists and researchers who study public health, air quality, and environmental health spoke in Harpers Ferry Saturday.

The symposium called “Educate, Empower, Protect: Our Health and Environment” was sponsored by the Jefferson County group, Rural Agricultural Defenders as well as the West Virginia Public Health Association.

“One of the purposes of the symposium was to be very welcoming to all points of view and not just anti-Rockwool point of view. They already have their position and so does everybody else, but science can sometimes transcend that,” Shenandoah Junction resident and lead organizer Patricia Stephenson said. “And maybe it is a grounds for us to open up a dialogue, so we can have a little more give and take about where the concerns are and the reality of the situation.”

Rockwool is a Denmark-based company that is in the process of building a stone wool manufacturing plant in Jefferson County across the street from an elementary school. It will feature two, 21-story smokestacks releasing a range of chemicals.

The issue has sparked heated debate within the region – especially over the question of how it will affect air quality and the school children nearby.

The consensus among Saturday’s speakers was that the plant’s emissions would affect the area in a negative way, but by how much and in what way would only be known over time. Speakers noted air pollution levels fluctuate every day and are affected by all sorts of things; from our cars, pesticides, plants, hospitals even, and of course industry.

And if two people breathe in air pollution – each person will respond differently.

“The problem is, what’s on [an air quality] permit and what comes out of a [smokestack] are not always the same,” Jaime Hart said. Hart was one of the ten speakers. She’s an epidemiologist and assistant professor at the Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard University Medical School and School of Public Health.

“I think it’s often the first couple years of an industry to know what’s really coming out, and is that what was predicted? Or are there factors that mean that even though somebody has done the work to put in the scrubber that was required, or controlled technology that were required; are they working?”

Hart noted it’s important to also look at the whole picture of potential air pollutants when trying to understand effects, and not just at what might be coming out of the stacks; to note things like weather patterns, temperature, the lay of the land, or increased traffic in and out of the plant.

Another speaker, Laura Anderko, is a professor and endowed chair at Georgetown University’s School of Nursing and Health Studies and the director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment.

Anderko said there’s always give and take when industry sets up in urban or rural areas – jobs versus pollution, and decisions have to be made when considering safety of children.

“There’s ways to do workarounds; bringing the kids in during those peaks in pollution, but in the end, is that really what we want?” she said. “We want kids to play outside, we want kids to enjoy nature and the outdoors and not worry that they’re going to develop asthma or ADHD, or any range of neurological deficits just as a result of going to school.”

Anderko said that while Rockwool may have followed the letter of the law in terms of federal and state environmental regulations, she argued these regulations are not protective enough of vulnerable populations like children and the elderly.

All ten speakers encouraged residents to work together and purchase their own air quality monitors and collect their own data now and after Rockwool is built. But they also cautioned to make sure data collected is accurate, otherwise state and federal officials would not take their research seriously.

Rockwool’s air quality permit was approved by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection last April. The plant is expected to be operational by mid-2020.

Lawsuit Over Insulation Plant Challenges State Incentive

A lawsuit in West Virginia is challenging a type of state incentive to attract industry.

The Exponent Telegram reports a nonprofit organization called Jefferson County Vision has filed multiple lawsuits to stop the construction of an insulation production plant in the Eastern Panhandle, including one that targets the state’s Payment In Lieu of Taxes program.

The Denmark-based company Rockwool broke ground over the summer on a $150 million stone wool manufacturing plant in Ranson.

Jefferson County Vision member Christopher Kinnan said Rockwool is the only business in the county that is enrolled in the program, which isn’t fair to other businesses.

The company filed a motion late Friday asking for a dismissal. The motion says the complaint “is a collection of political grievances rather than legal claims.”

Business and manufacturing officials say the incentive is necessary for economic development.