Chinese industrial plant posed ‘danger’ to SC’s health and safety; huge fine levied

A Chinese manufacturing company that was praised for bringing hundreds of jobs to Richland County has been fined more than $460,000 over a series of significant environmental violations at the facility on Shop Road.

The fines against China Jushi USA are among the heaviest levied by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control in recent years, and agency records indicate many of the problems began not long after the plant opened.

Records show the fines result from more than three dozen air and hazardous waste violations DHEC says it discovered at the manufacturing plant.

The air pollution violations were so serious that the department took emergency action and temporarily suspended a company air permit, according to an enforcement order. The agency said the emergency action was necessary because air pollution controls were lacking, and there had been a spike in certain air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide.

Sulfur dioxide exposure can make breathing difficult for people with asthma, particularly children, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. At high concentrations, it can kill trees and contribute to the formation of acid rain.

After inspections last August and September, DHEC “determined that emergency action was necessary to address the danger to public health, safety and welfare presented by China Jushi’s operations, in the absence’’ of sufficient air pollution controls. the order said.

The department dismissed the emergency suspension soon after taking action when China Jushi said it had made repairs, the order said.

China Jushi, headquartered in Zhejiang, China, broke ground on the $300 million fiberglass manufacturing plant in 2016. The company opened about two years later with about 400 workers. The plan was to double the workforce when the plant expanded. China Jushi was the first tenant in Richland County’s industrial park at Shop Road near Interstate 77.

At the time of the announcement, then-Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt said China Jushi’s location near Columbia was the biggest economic development announcement in Richland County since the early 1980s, The State reported.

Then-Gov. Nikki Haley called the entry of China Jushi into South Carolina “a huge win for our state, and we couldn’t be more excited to prove to this fantastic company that its first US fiberglass manufacturing facility is in great hands in Richland County.”

Multiple efforts to gain comment from China Jushi were unsuccessful. One employee who refused to give her name said the company would have no comment.

Richland County did not provide a comment, but the department’s enforcement actions result from a series of inspections at the plant in recent years. All told, DHEC found 17 violations of hazardous waste rules, which produced a fine of $57,000. The agency found another 21 violations of air pollution control rules, resulting in a fine of $410,000, records show.

Among the air pollution violations: the company exceeded a limit on particulate matter pollution, or soot, for more than 200 days from early 2020 to mid-2022. China Jushi also exceeded limits on nitrogen oxide and it failed to control air emissions that were escaping the plant, DHEC records show.

Nitrogen oxide is a lung irritant that contributes to the formation of smog and acid rain, the EPA says.

The agency found poorly maintained equipment, while saying the company did not perform a series of air pollution control tests.

Another concern DHEC noted is that employees were poorly trained to handle hazardous waste.

“Employees could not identify what hazards and/or chemicals were in unlabeled containers,’’ DHEC’s media relations office said in an email after 7 p.m. Tuesday. “In the event of an emergency, first responders may not be aware of the hazards within the facility because they were not given a copy of the contingency plan. ‘’

In addition, China Jushi failed to inspect areas in compliance with hazardous waste laws, failed to post “No Smoking’’ signs in areas containing flammable waste, and failed to make sure leaking batteries were contained, according to DHEC.

The company is a subsidiary of China National Building Materials Co., whose parent company is China National Building Materials Group, which is a state-owned enterprise administered by the state-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission.

The company is a global fiberglass producer, making an array of products. The Jushi Group employs about 8,000 people worldwide and has assets of some $3 billion, The State has previously reported.