Asphalt Odor Brings Complaints

BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

Salisbury city officials are receiving complaints again about odors coming from the Inman Asphalt terminal on Jake Alexander Boulevard.

Meanwhile, the company’s top official said this morning from Roanoke, Va., that if the operation can find any filtering systems that help, it will implement them.

‘‘We’re doing all we can do,’’ said John W. ‘‘Bill’’ Kirk, president and chief executive officer of Associated Asphalt, the parent company of Inman Asphalt in Salisbury.

Kirk stressed that the asphalt odor coming from the plant does not represent anything harmful.

‘‘It’s just the nuisance of smelling the thing,’’ Kirk said. He added that the company isn’t violating any air quality standards, but it also doesn’t want to be a bad neighbor. He said nearby residents have a valid concern.

Last June, Inman Asphalt took several voluntary steps to reduce odors coming from its storage terminal for liquid asphalt. The liquid asphalt comes in by railcar, is stored in large tanks and is transferred from those tanks to customers’ trucks at the terminal.

In response to citizen complaints and a city and state investigation, the company said it would install a mist neutralizing system to reduce the asphalt smell. It also planned to install activated charcoal filter systems on its loading racks.

Those units were meant to collect vapors from the truck hatches during filling, while the carbon in the charcoal filters works to diffuse the odors.

Kirk confirmed this morning that those measures had been taken, along with more landscaping at the terminal.

Inman also said it would try to spread its tanker-loading schedule throughout the day to lessen the concentrations of smell. The terminal operates 24 hours.

For a time, the smells seemed to subside.

‘‘The asphalt odors are back,’’ Mayor Susan Kluttz said Tuesday. After receiving complaints from at least three residents in nearby Milford Hills, Mayor Pro Tem Paul Woodson and City Manager David Treme personally rode through the area last week to take a whiff for themselves. They confirmed a strong odor of asphalt and asked risk manager Richard Kelly to investigate.

Treme said the smell at times seemed to be worse farther away from the plant itself. Councilman Bill Burgin said he has noticed that the asphalt odor now reaches as far as Milford Hills United Methodist Church on Statesville Boulevard. He had not noticed it from the church in months past.

Officials should do something about the smell, Burgin added, ‘‘or else the city is going to smell like a reroofing project.’’

Kluttz noted that the company is not in violation of any state emissions law, but nearby residents can’t go outside without confronting the asphalt odor, she said.

Kelly informed Salisbury City Council Tuesday that the state’s Division of Air Quality conducted its last investigation of Inman Asphalt on Dec. 12, 1998. As it was earlier in 1998, the state found the company to be in compliance with air quality regulations.

‘‘However, based on the procedures observed,’’ Kelly reported, ‘‘it was reasonable to assume that Inman has the potential to violate odorous emissions.’’

Kelly said the state is requiring Inman to obtain an air quality permit for its existing liquid asphalt storage tanks. With that application, which was due Jan. 14, the Mooresville regional office also asked that odor control equipment for the asphalt tanks and the loading process be included in the permit.

Inman has submitted the application, but environmental engineer Bill Kissel told Kelly that it was incomplete because it failed to include ‘‘an effective means for eliminating odors.’’

The Mooresville regional office plans to forward the application to Raleigh with an addition requiring the odor control. Kelly said the Mooresville environmental officials believe Inman is working toward a solution, but they have promised to perform another inspection within 48 hours of receiving any more complaints.

Assistant Manager Foster Owen promised to keep council updated on the progress.

An April 1998 air sampling showed that the plant had significant emissions of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene) compounds coming from its railcar hatch and a storage tank vent. But the same state report concluded that the BTEX concentrations were ‘‘typical of, or cleaner than urban air.’’

Kirk acknowledged that the terminal is cranking up for a new season of road building in North Carolina and that the volume of business at the plant has been steadily increasing.