DOVER – Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Shawn M. Garvin has issued a Secretary’s Order granting an air quality construction permit for Walan Specialty Construction Products, LLC’s slag-grinding, drying and processing facility in Wilmington. The Secretary’s Order indicates that feedback received throughout the public comment period following a Nov. 20, 2018 DNREC public hearing has resulted in an air quality permit that includes a comprehensive fugitive dust control plan and control measures not included in Walan’s permit application.
According to the Order, numerous measures have been incorporated into the permit that will require Walan Specialty Construction Products, LLC to minimize offsite impacts from the company’s operation of the facility. These include the facility using state-of-the-art best available control technology (BACT) to control particulate emissions from the drying and grinding operations, and implementing best management practices to maintain a neat and orderly work environment.
Other measures to minimize environmental impacts include limiting truck activity onsite to paved surfaces. Truck loading of Walan Specialty Construction Products’ finished product will use a sealed chute going to enclosed trucks within a bay utilizing curtain doors in the loading areas. Prior to processing, granulated blast furnace slag stored onsite will be tarped. The permit also includes a throughput limit of 150,000 tons per year of slag (a 43 percent reduction from the permit application), resulting in lower permitted emissions than figures presented by Walan at the DNREC public hearing last November.
The facility has also committed to transporting products via truck routes that avoid neighborhoods, performing daily inspections of the hauling route to the facility, and promptly cleaning up any spilled material. These offsite measures as well as the onsite tarping and installation of curtain doors for the truck loading area are the direct result of feedback received at the hearing and during the public comment period.
The Secretary’s Order can be found on the DNREC website at https://dnrec.alpha.delaware.gov/secretarys-orders/permitting/.
