The West Virginia Public Service Commission traveled to Shepherdstown this week for a public hearing to address concerns about a pipeline expansion project in the Eastern Panhandle. About a hundred people showed up to rally before the event. Dozens went on to speak during the hearing – and many took the opportunity to mention the controversial Rockwool manufacturing company.
Martinsburg resident Stewart Acuff was one of several people who spoke against the pipeline and Rockwool at the PSC’s hearing Wednesday night.
“The people of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia have said over and over and over again in huge numbers, we don’t want this damn pipeline, and we don’t want Rockwool,” Acuff said.
Many attendees asked the PSC commissioners not to approve Mountaineer Gas’ expansion pipeline into the Eastern Panhandle.
That pipeline is being built between Berkeley Springs and Martinsburg, and construction began in March. It will be more than 22 miles long.
Project developers Mountaineer Gas and TransCanada say the pipeline will bring natural gas to Jefferson and Morgan Counties.
Mountaineer Gas has proposed to invest nearly $120 million for infrastructure replacements and system upgrades from 2019 through 2023, including roughly $16.5 million for ongoing investments to expand and enhance service in Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
But several residents at the hearing shared concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the Panhandle’s karst geology of sinkholes, springs and caves.
Speakers also mentioned a controversial insulation manufacturing plant being built in Ranson just a few miles from public schools and homes. The plant, Denmark-based Rockwool, will make stone wool insulation. The Ranson facility would feature two, 21-story smokestacks releasing chemicals like formaldehyde.
Rockwool has said the gas pipeline would be crucial for its operation.
“Rockwool has been working with Mountaineer Gas Company,” said General Counsel for Rockwool North America Ken Cammaroto. “And we have committed to being a loyal gas customer to Mountaineer Gas.”
Of the roughly 100 people who came out to the hearing, about five spoke in favor of the pipeline and Rockwool plant.
PSC Communication Director Susan Small says the commission will now have two months before making a ruling on December 28. The public can still submit formal comments on the issue online.
Gov. Jim Justice announced Wednesday that he fully supports the Rockwool development project in Jefferson County, despite the level of pushback to the project from local residents.
The company will manufacture stone wool insulation on previous orchard land next to an elementary school and up the road from three other public schools. The plant will feature two smokestacks releasing a range of chemicals like formaldehyde and benzene.
Thousands of residents are in an uproar over the project.
Justice said in a news release that the company has worked closely with state and local officials to approve the project. He noted the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has and will continue to follow it closely.
“Rockwool will provide West Virginia with another significant economic and jobs development project and I am in complete support of their efforts,” Gov. Justice said. “This is good news as we continue to bring viable businesses to our state and keep moving forward. We are excited that Rockwool has chosen us as the location for this plant site.”
“Rockwool has followed all the required procedures during the permitting process and the WVDEP will continue to review and make certain that the law is followed and that the health of our citizens and the environment remain as the top priority,” Gov. Justice added. “Rockwool has demonstrated for many years at other facilities they operate in Mississippi and Canada that they are a green company and that they take the steps needed to ensure that their manufacturing operations don’t endanger the health and welfare of the public or the environment.”
“Again, the WVDEP will remain diligent in making sure that all regulatory requirements are met,” Gov. Justice said.
The Denmark-based company’s Jefferson County project was first announced over statewide media in July 2017. The company received approval for its air quality permit from the state DEP in April.
The European-based insulation manufacturing company Rockwool held a handful of community open houses last week at the Jefferson County Community Center. The aim was to better-connect with residents, many of whom don’t want the company to locate in the Eastern Panhandle. Rockwool’s final open house drew a crowd of hundreds who rallied outside to protest the plant.
Dozens of “Stop Rockwool” or “No Toxic Rockwool” banners and signs lined car windows, trucks, or were held by protesters. They chanted and cheered, and even sang “Almost Heaven” by John Denver.
These residents say they’re angry and scared. They’ve voiced concerns about the plant’s impact on air quality and health, which is slated to be built just a few miles from four public schools and neighborhoods, and it will have two smokestacks.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Children will be affected by the toxins that are put [out by] this. I don’t care what Rockwool says,” said Harpers Ferry resident Linda Bishop. “This is not what we want here.”
The issue has also attracted nearby out-of-state folks like David Pratt of Winchester, Virginia. Pratt said the company will affect the entire tri-state region, not just West Virginia.
“The pollution from this plant will travel,” Pratt said. “It’ll travel 30, 35 miles, and no matter what promises they make, the bottom line is, it is pumping pollution in our air, and we don’t want it in our area.”
Pratt said he thinks the region, including the Eastern Panhandle, would benefit better from jobs in agribusiness and tourism rather than the manufacturing industry.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“What we didn’t do enough of obviously is engage with everybody,” said Rockwool’s North American President Trent Ogilvie at one of the open houses. “We missed a part of this community in our communication and didn’t answer their questions well enough. So, we’re doing that. We want to get everybody’s questions, get the facts, and try to earn people’s trust.”
The company touts itself as ‘green’, using state-of-the art technology to clean and melt down basalt rock and recycled slag, and ‘spin’ the fibers in a fashion, kind of like how cotton candy is made. The company plans to recycle water it uses and employ a storm water management system.
Credit West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
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The facility in Ranson is slated to offer 150 jobs, ranging from entry level operators, electricians and welders, to management positions.
Entry level positions will make $17 per hour. Managers will have an annual salary of around $85,000.
Rockwool said all employees will receive full, family health benefits, a 401k, and two-weeks paid vacation.
Rockwool’s Community Open Houses
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Rockwool held four community open houses last week.
Tables lined the Jefferson County Community Center’s gymnasium, and it was structured similarly to a job fair. Videos of testimonials looped on monitors. Product demonstrations and air quality charts were displayed. And several Rockwool employees from Canada and Denmark were available to chat.
But not many protesters went inside.
Some people did though, like Shepherdstown resident Lynn Wagner. She found it disturbing.
“It’s very pretty, and it sounds really good, but you have to look behind that and see what the reality is in terms of the toxic release into our small, lovely community that’s located in a valley,” Wagner said. “Jefferson County is an area that’s agriculture, it’s tourism, and [Rockwool] doesn’t fit into this landscape. Period.”
Other residents had a different reaction. Kearneysville resident Barbara Fuller was not a protestor, but shared concerns about emissions.
“The hard questions of, ‘are you going to poison us?’ were met with compassion. No snark. I was genuinely just…I was impressed,” she said.
Fuller said she’s not 100 percent on-board yet and wants to do her own research.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Rockwool’s North American President Trent Ogilvie said his company will be installing air monitoring stations near the Ranson plant that the public will be able to access.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
One of the stations at a Rockwool Community Open House. Rockwool’s insulation product is fire and water resistant.
“We’re going to hire and make sure the public knows that there’s an independent somebody, I don’t know who, to tell us where the most sensitive place [is] to put [the air monitoring stations],” Ogilvie explained. “We’ll make sure the information’s public. We’ll make sure there’s a third party attesting to the information and do everything we can to make sure people don’t think we’re just making up data or monitoring [ourselves], because it won’t be.”
He also hopes to foster better communication between Rockwool and Jefferson County residents, beyond the open houses and after construction is complete.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“We’re forming a stakeholder group of eighteen, a cross-section of the community,” he said. “Eighteen people that will meet every month, advise us, [and] tell us concerns they’re hearing. It won’t end after the factory starts either. We’ll always have a really enhanced community relations program.”
A Rockwool spokesperson said 200 people from the area attended the open houses. Meanwhile, one online protest group has grown to include nearly 8,000 people.
In a statement handed out by members of that group, members said Rockwool is “completely wrong for Jefferson County. There is nothing Rockwool can say that will change that. We will never agree that’s a good idea no matter how many open houses Rockwool holds.”
The Ranson plant broke ground in June and is expected to have completed construction by 2020.
There’s been contention in recent weeks in Jefferson County between thousands of residents and a new manufacturing plant being built called Rockwool. In response to the pushback, the Denmark-based company has scheduled community open houses through Saturday to engage with community members.
Rockwool is a European-based company that makes stone wool insulation. The product is made from basalt rock and recycled slag and is fire and water resistant. The facility in Ranson, Jefferson County is the second the company has built in the U.S., and it’ll offer 150 jobs.
Rockwool held the first of four community open houses Thursday at the Jefferson County Community Center in Shenandoah Junction.
Rockwool’s North American President Trent Ogilvie said he hopes to connect with residents to allay their fears.
“What we didn’t do enough of is engage with everybody,” Ogilvie said. “We missed a part of this community in our communication and didn’t answer their questions well enough. We want to get everybody’s questions, get the facts, and try to earn people’s trust.”
Rockwool filed for its Air Quality Permit with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection last year and was approved in April.
But residents are still concerned about the impact on air quality.
Ogilvie said the Ranson plant will feature air monitoring stations around the facility with publicly available data. He also hopes to foster better communication between Rockwool and Jefferson County beyond the open houses.
“We’re forming a stakeholder group of eighteen, a cross-section of the community,” he said. “Eighteen people that will meet every month, advise us, [and] tell us concerns they’re hearing. It won’t end after the factory starts either. We’ll always have a really enhanced community relations program.”
There will be three more Rockwool community open houses located at:
Jefferson County Community Center, 235 Sam Michals Rd, Shenandoah Junction, W.Va.
Friday, August 24:
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 25:
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
A rally against the plant is also scheduled for Saturday morning at 10:00 outside the Jefferson County Community Center.
Updated Friday, Aug. 10, 2018 at 8:10 a.m. with additional interviews, plus reactions from local residents and the Jefferson County Commission, and FAQs from the W.Va. DEP.
A new manufacturing plant is being built in Jefferson County and promises to bring 150 jobs to the region. But there’s major pushback from the community.
A couple hundred people from the Jefferson County area recently gathered outside the local Charles Town Library holding signs with phrases like, “No Toxic Rockwool” or “Citizens Against Rockwool.”
Rockwool is a Denmark-based company that manufactures stone wool insulation. This type of product is used in buildings, industrial applications and acoustic ceilings. It’s a fiber-based insulation produced from natural stone and recycled content.
A year ago, the company announced it would build a second U.S. facility in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Their first U.S. plant was built in Marshall County, Mississippi.
But several Jefferson County residents are concerned, because the plant is being built just a few miles from four public schools and will have a smokestack that will release a range of chemicals like formaldehyde and benzene.
“How can we stay here and raise our kids here? We can’t. We will move,” said Charles Town resident Nathan Decker. “If this happens, we’re gone.”
Decker’s sentiments were echoed by other locals as well – pointing to health concerns and environmental regulations.
“The issue is that our regulations are weak,” noted 22-year-old Aaron Hackett. “We have to stop selling out West Virginia, take the ‘for sale’ sign off our state and create jobs and preserve clean air, clean water. They’re not mutually exclusive. We can absolutely do both.”
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A boy protests the Rockwool company with his family on Aug. 2, 2018 in Charles Town.
About two weeks ago, a Facebook group called, “Citizens Concerned about Rockwool-Ranson, WV” was created by local woman Leigh Smith. Within days, the group grew to more than 4,500 members.
“We don’t want smokestacks, we don’t want industrialization; that’s not what we moved here for, and that’s not what most people want,” Smith said.
Jefferson County Commission President Josh Compton said at a recent meeting that he’s also concerned and wants the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to visit his community, explain the air quality permit they issued back in April and describe how the facility will be monitored.
Credit West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
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“Over the next course of days, weeks, we’re going to see what powers we actually have and what we can do to resolve this situation,” Compton said.
No commissioners at the time of the meeting spoke for or against the plant, but, the following day, one of five Jefferson County Commissioners, Jane Tabb, stated in a post on Facebook that she no longer supported the Rockwool project due to air quality concerns and would work to “turn [the project] around.”
The DEP reports there will be continuous emissions monitors on key components of the facility. They also said the facility would be regularly inspected.
Air quality specialist Michael McCawley is a clinical associate professor at West Virginia University’s School of Public Health, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences.
He said it’s difficult to say how much impact the chemical emissions might have over the long term, but that ultimately, it is a gamble. If weather conditions remained fair year-round, he said the chemical impact would be insignificant.
“There’s a concern about what might happen and how quickly people might react,” McCawley said. “Can we do the health surveillance that’s necessary to make sure that we’re not going to get an effect? And the answer is, we really don’t know.”
Rockwool stated on Twitter that air quality is one of its top priorities and that the plume from the stacks will mostly be steam.
Air quality is one of our top priorities & primary reason for constructing tall stacks in Ranson. Tall stacks improve the dispersion of the steam plume and thus reduce particulate and other matter that might reach people on the ground.
Hello, our production line will have state-of-the-art emissions control technologies. The plume from the stacks is mostly steam with some particulate matter and other constituents in very low concentrations
Rockwool has not yet responded to requests for comment from West Virginia Public Broadcasting about air quality concerns or economic development. They did say, however, there would be a community open house at the end of August.
In June, the company broke ground and is expected to complete construction by 2020.
A stone wool insulation producer has broken ground on a $150 million manufacturing facility in West Virginia.
Rockwool North America held a ceremony Tuesday in Ranson. The company says in a news release the 460,000-square-foot facility will employ about 150 people. Production is expected to start in early 2020.
Rockwool has production facilities in Byhalia, Mississippi; Milton, Ontario, and Grand Forks, British Columbia. Stone wool is a fiber-based insulation produced from natural stone and recycled content.
