Scrubber system to clean gas, odors emitted from Crimson Holdings to be installed Dec. 22

ADRIAN — One of the more recent pieces of equipment in an attempt to mitigate nuisance odors at an east side Adrian factory is expected to be installed today.

Per a proposed air permit draft submitted to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), Crimson Holdings LLC, has presented a plan going forward for how it will ensure it is not releasing nuisance odors into the air while within its operating hours.

Crimson Holdings is at 1336 E. Maumee St., on the east side of Adrian near the Lenawee County Fair & Event Grounds. It is within the former building that housed Dairy Farmers of America, which produced powdered milk. The operations now in place at Crimson Holdings are for making powdered eggs used in pet food.

The air permit that Crimson has sent along to EGLE details the steps the company is taking and will continue to take to mitigate any foul smells coming from its facility. Part of the permit application is for a packed-bed scrubber, which is an air cleaning device that uses a liquid to remove contaminants from a gas. The scrubber is scheduled for installation today.

To ensure the scrubber is operating properly, Crimson Holdings must log the pH of each stage of the egg drying process, as well as liquid flow rates, according to information provided to impacted Adrian residents by Andy Drury, permit engineer with EGLE’s Air Quality Division, during a public hearing and presentation regarding Crimson Holdings’ odor mitigation efforts that was held earlier this month.

The scrubber uses a packing system between the liquid and the gas to ensure contaminants are removed, Drury explained. When the gas is cleaned it exits the top of the scrubber through a mist eliminator that keeps the liquid from leaving with the clean gas.

More: 'Significant strides' being made in commitment to odor issues, Crimson Holdings says

The odor removal efficiency is anticipated to be from 77% to more than 99% effective, he said, depending on the specific compound used inside the facility.

Computer modeling was used to determine the effectiveness of the scrubber and how well it should control toxic air contaminants under worst-case scenarios. The modeling also was based on Crimson Holdings operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 continuous days of the year. Modeling did not take into account any operational restrictions placed upon the facility through Lenawee County District Court orders or limitations set by the city of Adrian.

Nothing in the permit application restricts the hours of operation at Crimson Holdings.

“As we remove more of the (odor) compounds, the odor will get less,” Drury said. “... We know the scrubber will reduce the emissions.”

The mix of the compounds being emitted from Crimson Holdings is what people in east Adrian neighborhoods have been smelling for more than one year, he clarified.

Air permits, like the one Crimson Holdings is applying for through EGLE, describe how a project will meet the air quality rules and standards designed to protect public health. EGLE’s Air Quality Division utilizes state and federal regulations to protect human health and the environment and regulates sources of air pollutants. Industrial sources, like Crimson Holdings, are regulated by the Air Quality Division.

EGLE has an Air Quality Division district office in Jackson that covers five counties in south-central Michigan, including Lenawee County, and is responsible for evaluating the compliance of an industrial facility with its permit conditions pursuant to state and federal regulations. Violations are issued if any air emissions, permits, etc., do not comply with state or federal regulations.

“The primary focus of the permit requirements at Crimson Holdings is the control of odors,” Scott Miller, Jackson District Supervisor, said.

More: Adrian residents march from Monument Park to Crimson Holdings in protest of egg smell

The odors that people smell coming from Crimson Holdings are from the facility’s main drying stack, which is being replaced with the packed-bed scrubber and will have its own stack. Odors coming from the facility must be controlled, Miller said, and must comply with the state’s nuisance odor requirements.

Numerous inspections and numerous violations at Crimson Holdings have been conducted over the past year, Miller said. Violations have included equipment that was not installed as specified in a permit, objectionable odors and the operations of the facility being changed from drying milk to drying eggs without getting a permit for the change.

In February 2006, Dairy Farmers of America was issued a permit to produce powdered milk at the east Adrian facility. The plant was later purchased by Crimson Holdings to produce powdered eggs.

More: Egg processing company acquires Adrian Dairy Farmers of America plant

Additional complaint investigations, inspections, records reviews and exhaust stack inspections all will be conducted going forward, Miller said.

Fines of $106,180 have been assessed by EGLE upon Crimson Holdings, Malcom Mead O’Brien, a member of the enforcement department within the Air Quality Division, said.

The penalty fines were considered based on several factors including the number and length of the violations, the size of the company and the company’s cooperation in implementing corrections.

The payment of a fine and stipulated fines are required to be paid by Crimson through a drafted consent order between the Air Quality Division and Crimson Holdings. Compliance plans that the company must follow are included in the consent order.

The compliance plan states Crimson Holdings must obtain the permit to install and operate a packed-bed scrubber of the dryer; that it cannot emit objectionable odors that cause unreasonable interference with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property; and must implement a nuisance minimization plan for odors.

The spring of 2022 is when odor complaints were received by EGLE, Miller said. From then to the present, dozens of site visits at Crimson Holdings have been conducted.

The facility has been cooperative during on-site visits, Miller added. Inspections have been held inside the facility and outside within the community.

“This has been a very resource-intensive effort,” he said. “Our staff is out there a lot, and we are talking with the facility all the time. The facility has met with us, the Air Quality Division, on numerous occasions.”

Although EGLE’s rules and regulations mandate they enforce human and environmental health concerns, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) deals with specific health issues, Jenifer Dixon, planning and policy coordinator with EGLE’s Air Quality Division, said. The state and Lenawee County health departments have been involved in Crimson Holdings’ odor concerns, Dixon said.

“We still are keeping an eye on this, and we want to make sure we are staying on top of this,” Dixon said, recognizing the process of remedying the odors coming the facility can be frustrating to many people and that it can take a long time. EGLE, she said, tries to move complaint investigations along as quickly as they can.

“The (100-feet) stack that the company put on was not the best solution,” she admitted. “We really feel like this scrubber is the way to go right now.”

Scrubbers are not new or novel, Drury added. A washing-dishes analogy is a good way to understand how the scrubber treats the air contaminants and will eliminate such scents as ammonia and sulfides being dispersed into the air.

Crimson Holdings will continue to be fined if violations continue. The Jackson District Office is the first line of defense, Dixon said. Residents can call in complaints to the After-Hours Pollution Emergency Alerting System (PEAS) hotline at 800-292-4706.

More: Adrian commission to seek public feedback on how to best use grant funds from Crimson Holdings

Because the Dec. 6 presentation, which was live-streamed at the Adrian District Library, also was a public hearing, it allowed for residents to submit comments regarding the proposed air permit application as well as the mandates set forth within the consent order. EGLE opened the public comment period starting Nov. 6, and will close the public comment window at midnight Jan. 8.

Public comment will assist EGLE in making decisions on how to move forward with Crimson Holdings. Written or verbal comments are accepted, as are email and voicemail comments.

An overall decision maker, that person being EGLE's Annette Switzer, will review all air quality comments received. Upon review of the public comments, Switzer may deny the actions of the air permit application and the proposed administrative consent order; approve as drafted or approve with amendments.

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More information can be found at Michigan.gov/EGLECrimsonHoldings. The website contains background information per EGLE’s involvement with Crimson Holdings, where health-based questions can be phoned into, how to submit an air quality complaint, recent updates as well as contact information for the Clean Air Assistant Program.

— Contact reporter Brad Heineman at bheineman@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: twitter.com/LenaweeHeineman.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Scrubber system to clean gas emitted from Crimson Holdings to be installed