FLINT, MI -- Lockhart Chemical, the company responsible for spilling thousands of gallons of an oil-based substance into the Flint River in June, has been cited for multiple violations of its operating permit by the state of Michigan.
“Lockhart continues to operate in a manner that results in discharges to the ground and surface waters of the state,” Cheri Meyer, a district supervisor with the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, said in a letter to Lockhart on Tuesday, Aug. 16.
“Since the June 15, 2022, discharge occurred, Lockhart has failed to improve its housekeeping and operating procedures to minimize spills and releases on-site, Meyer’s letter to Rejinder Minhas, president and chief operating officer of Lockhart, says.
MLive-The Flint Journal could not reach Minhas for comment on violation notices issued by EGLE this week and has declined to comment previously on the spill, which triggered an emergency cleanup that involved local, state and federal agencies.
The Aug. 16 violation notice and another issued on Thursday, Aug. 18, says the company:
- Discharged stormwater and groundwater contaminated with PFOS, 1.4-dioxane, arsenic, vinyl chloride, fluoranthene and phenanthrene above allowed water quality values.
- Has allowed for continuous discharge of petroleum products and white residuals into groundwater and/or the Flint River.
- Failed to report the release of wastewater to a secondary containment area and failed to formally notify the state of the release to the river.
- Did not formally furnish documentation after the polluting material was confirmed to have originated from Lockhart.
- Restarted boilers without fully delineating the direct connections or leaks to the storm sewer from the company’s operations.
- Submitted an updated stormwater pollution prevention plan that fails to address new and outstanding exposures at the facility.
The notice to Lockhart says the company continues to have secondary containment that is not in compliance with state rules, has an inadequate pollution incident prevention plan, and failed to report the discharges above the reporting quantity threshold in both June and July.
In July, more than a month after the June breach, a spill of Sulfomed A 450 occurred after an attempt to speed up the offloading process from a container by increasing pressure, resulting in an air bubble burping out of the top, covering the container in the material.
Meyer’s letter says on Aug. 2, she observed the container, which had not been cleaned or removed, left on a sheet of plastic and says rain eventually washed the material off the container.
Additionally, two spills of canola oil occurred Aug. 8, indicating “that better practices and equipment maintenance is needed to prevent spills from continuing at this frequency.”
The violation notice says that the company restarted its boilers since the river spill despite Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley’s announcement of a cease and desist order in the days following the spill.
That order said Lockhart had caused a pretreatment system bypass at its plant, which is prohibited, and the city ordered the company to cease sewer discharges. On Thursday, Aug. 18, the city modified that order, allowing the company to resume discharges under the terms of its permit but forbidding any liquid held in tanks on site from being discharged to the sanitary or stormwater sewers.
The modified order requires testing of discharges for total volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds, PFAS, PCBs and other materials.
Lockhart manufactures and markets chemical additives including sulfonates, emulsifiers, rust prevention additives, corrosion inhibitors and additives for metalworking fluids and greases in Flint, according to the company’s website.
After nearly a century in the steel and aluminum business, the company purchased its 13-acre manufacturing site in Flint in 1982, according to Flint Journal files.
State records show that concerns about the property date back decades, including a report by the city more than 18 years ago that indicated groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds was infiltrating into a city sewer from the Lockhart property, located at 4302 James P. Cole Boulevard.
The company was previously cited for maintaining incomplete training records for employees, improperly labeling hazardous waste in a satellite drum, keeping two totes of barium sulfate liquid waste with no protection from weather, and using concrete vaults with no leak detection capability to store liquid industrial by-products.
The most recent violation notices give the company until Aug. 26 to take a series of actions, including a report on efforts taken to prevent future spills or releases. It sets a Sept. 16 deadline for Lockhart to take other actions, including submission of a plan for bulkheading and permanent bypassing a storm sewer underneath its Flint property.
Read more at The Flint Journal:
State says Lockhart Chemical is likely source of Flint River chemical spill
Likely source of Flint River chemical spill had no leak detection on concrete vaults
Oil-based material that spilled in Flint River came from Lockhart Chemical
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