Currently running at about 80-percent capacity, Hetu said the Phenix City plant produces between 40 and 45 kilotons of CB per year. At full capacity, the plant produces between 50 and 60 kilotons per year, he said.
According to the ADEM, Houston-based Continental Carbon never made upgrades to air pollution control systems that were mandated following a March 2015 consent decree reached between CCC, the U.S. EPA and the Department of Justice.
In the agreement, Continental Carbon was ordered to invest or pay more than $100 million in plant upgrades, mitigation projects and civil penalties for by-product pollutants (namely sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide) being emitted in three cities, including Phenix City.
Plants in Ponca City, Okla., and Sunray, Texas, were included in the nearly 8-year-old consent decree, which was modified again in 2017.
Upgrades at the Oklahoma and Texas plants have been made, according to Continental Carbon. All told, upgrades across all three plants have run closer to $250 million for Continental Carbon, Hetu said.
Of the nearly $100 million CCC was ordered to invest or pay, $98 million was to go to plant upgrades at the three sites; $550,000 was to go toward mitigation projects in and around the communities where the plants are operating; and $650,000 was paid by CCC in civil penalties.
Between $10 million and $15 million already had been spent toward upgrades in Phenix City, Hetu said.
"We did not ask to be absolved of our requirements," he said. "We asked what everybody else asks for and that is an extension to put in equipment.
"We were open and honest with them, and the EPA chose to force us to close."
The Dec. 8 letter also infers that Continental Carbon has been seeking to close the plant for some time now.
"Because CCC has no legal authority to operate the Phenix City Plant after Dec. 31, 2022, and because CCC has expressed ... plans to cease operations, Major Source Operating Permit No. 211-0003 is void as of Jan. 1, 2023," the letter states. "Please return your copy of the permit to the department no later than Jan. 31, 2023."
Hetu said this is untrue.
"This was not in play and never was in play," he said. "We were never on the road to closure. We did entertain options at one point for purchase, but we have never entertained an option to shut the plant down.
"We have always been looking to meet our requirements set forth (in 2015)."
In requesting the extension earlier this year, Hetu said Continental Carbon offered to run at 80-percent capacity, using only low-grade sulfur feedstock, until all the upgrades were installed and operational.
"And if we did not spend the money by the required timeline the EPA would have the right to shut the project down," Hetu said. "These were three significant offers to which the EPA said 'no.' "
Hetu said other major carbon black suppliers have been granted extensions without offering compromise, some "up to a year-and-a-half."
"I do not understand why we couldn't be granted an extension after everything we offered," he said.
The 120 employees who work at the Phenix City location make tire tread-grade carbon black using traditional furnace black methods.
Continental Carbon has said that the plant contributes upwards of $6 million to the local economy and pays about $550,000 in taxes per year.
"I think the key is that ... this is a clear case of our U.S. government looking to take another manufacturing facility out of play under the guise of a cleaner environment," Hetu said. "When in reality, that carbon black now will be produced in China and Russia under very poor conditions.
"From a global perspective, this will be worse, as now those imports have to travel clear across the world. The overall carbon footprint actually increases with this move."