IDEM holds hearing in Kokomo on Jaewon air permit for cathode slurry

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Kokomo is contaminated. Ann Ihms knows this well. As a water quality tester and longtime resident of the community she has seen her share of toxins flowing through groundwater in the local area.

Government agencies and leaders didn’t protect the community decades ago when the contamination was created. Ihms doesn’t want a repeat of this negligence taking place with the advent of an electronic vehicle battery manufacturing complex on the city’s northeast side.

She, along with several other concerned citizens attended a public hearing earlier this month, held by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). The purpose of the meeting, held at Ivy Tech Community College, was to give people an avenue for asking questions and expressing concerns about a change in air permitting for Jaewon Industrial.

The permit, which is awaiting final disposition, pertains to the addition of two slurry lines connecting Jaewon’s facility to the StarPlus Energy EV battery plant. Jaewon is responsible for recycling and reselling the electrolytic chemical stew contained within an EV battery.

Representatives from IDEM’s Office of Air Quality fielded questions from the group at the April 11 meeting, which ranged from the types of equipment used to the monitoring methods and scope of the permit.

When it comes to the equipment used in operation of the slurry lines, IDEM representatives explained that its inspectors will examine the equipment and its maintenance records, and a preventative maintenance plan is required for the devices. Jaewon will be required to meet daily monitoring requirements to ensure public safety.

One resident, Melanie Vest, alleged Jaewon is not "crossing the Ts and dotting the Is" when it comes to construction of the facility in Kokomo. As such, she has concerns about compliance with state air quality standards.

"How are you going to hold them accountable?” asked Vest. “Are you going to have somebody from IDEM there, physically? Are you going to give (Jaewon) a checklist and have them do it themselves?

“Because I will tell you, as a person in the community that lives here, I'm very concerned about the corners that have been not followed in the development of this industry, of this particular business. And I am concerned about the air quality.”

The IDEM representative responded by confirming the IDEM inspectors will physically check records and the control devices, and they will review testing results required under the permit. It will not be left to Jaewon to police itself.

Local resident Joe Russo asked if IDEM had taken baseline readings of air quality near the factories before permitting, and he also expressed concerns about air quality within the facility. The latter issue was deferred to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) but addressed the baseline question.

“We did not place monitors to do a baseline,” the IDEM representative responded. “Indiana has a very extensive monitoring system. We have more monitors than required by EPA. The monitors are placed where they are expected to have the highest concentration of a pollutant.

“Pursuant to the Clean Air Act, what we're tasked looking at is the air outside the fence line of the building, because that is where the general public is, and that is who we're protecting.”

Ihms expressed specific concerns about air quality testing for cobalt and lithium. Neither are listed in the permit, though both are present in the EV manufacturing process. And local resident Bob Hoshaw inquired about other substances not listed in the permit.

“You're concerned with the six pollutants listed on this page,” said Hoshaw. “Do you look for anything else? Most of the chemicals used in this process I can't pronounce. Is anybody monitoring the air for the fumes from those chemicals?”

The IDEM representative explained that the federal Environmental Protection Agency handles the more exotic chemicals when it comes to regulating.

“I can't pronounce those chemicals, either, and I don't even try,” said the IDEM representative. “There are caps on hazardous air pollutants. EPA has a stringent program in place -- the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants -- and they have very stringent requirements that the company has to follow. It is a federal law.”

Already concerned about the facility, Hoshaw asked about the worst-case scenario: an accident or breakdown that releases toxins into the air. What if something breaks?

“We have an emergency response number you can call,” the representative said. “Our emergency response teams know who to get a hold of within IDEM and send them out to address that problem promptly.

“But the idea is not to have that happen. That is why I've talked about the preventative maintenance plan. That is something companies have to keep on record. Our inspectors are going to review it, and then they're going to check equipment and see that everything is working properly when they're in there.”

Jaewon’s Kokomo facility is expected to recycle a “cathode” slurry of aluminum, cobalt, lithium, and nickel, as well as n-methylpyrrolidone from StarPlus Energy’s EV plant. Those chemicals will be purified and then returned to StarPlus for reuse.

The permit for the two additional slurry lines will allow the company to reach its goal of producing 100,000 cubic meters of material annually.