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The Tennessee Air Pollution Control Board (“Board”) issued a November 6th proposed Technical Secretary’s Order and Assessment of Civil Penalty (“Proposed Order”) to Tennessee Aluminum Processors, Inc. (“TAP”).
TAP operates a secondary aluminum recycling facility (“Facility”) in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee.
A Conditional Major operating permit was issued to the Facility in 2019. An amended permit was subsequently issued.
The Facility includes:
- Three Aluminum Rotary Furnaces
- Aluminum By-Product Crushing and Storage Operation including a Mobile Shredder in a Storge Building
- Gasoline Storage Tank
A Conditional Major construction permit was issued to TAP for certain modifications in 2022. This included the construction of an aluminum smelting furnace.
Tennessee Division of Air Pollution Control (“Division”) Department of Environment and Conservation personnel are stated to have conducted an inspection at the Facility on April 6, 2023.
The following violations were allegedly identified:
- A compliance determination of the material input rate could not be made for certain permit conditions.
- Use of a jackhammer to crush dross and handling process material outside in the open-air, creating airborne dusts, was stated to have occurred and therefore not meeting requirements of a certain permit condition.
- Failure to store slag in a manner that ensured that fugitive emissions were captured when removed from the furnace while cooling and off-gassing.
- Several damaged fire-retardant curtains on each furnace needed to be replaced.
A Notice of Violation was stated to have been issued on May 18th which detailed certain required corrective actions.
The Proposed Order assesses a civil penalty of $7,500. Further, TAP must submit the requested corrective actions identified in the Notice of Violation within 30 days of the receipt of the Proposed Order.
The Proposed Order provides certain appeal rights.
A copy of the Proposed Order can be downloaded here.
