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Rockwool Reaches Out to Jefferson County Residents Through Community Open Houses

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.

But thousands in the community are upset. The plant will feature two smokestacks and will be located just a few miles from four public schools.

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.

Jefferson County Residents in Uproar Over New Insulation Plant

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.”

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.

“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.

— ROCKWOOL North America (@rockwoolna) August 3, 2018

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 North America (@rockwoolna) August 3, 2018

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.

Ground Broken for West Virginia Insulation Production Plant

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.

International Insulation Plant to Be Built in Jefferson County

A new manufacturing plant will set up shop in the Eastern Panhandle. Gov. Jim Justice announced it will create up to 150 new jobs in the state.

The new plant will produce stone wool insulation. This type of product is used in buildings, industrial applications, and in acoustic ceilings.

The plant will be built by ROXUL Inc. – a group based out of Denmark. ROXUL is part of the ROCKWOOL Group, which is the largest producer of stone wool insulation in North America.

The new plant will be based in Ranson in Jefferson County, on an estimated 130 acres on the Jefferson Orchards site. The plant will be the second facility ROXUL has opened in the United States.

It has manufacturing sites in Marshall County, Mississippi, as well as Milton, Ontario and Grand Forks, British Columbia in Canada.

ROXUL estimates the West Virginia project will cost around $150 million to build.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held in October 2017, and construction is expected to be completed by early 2020.