'It's our turn': Southbridge residents say they're tired of being a dumping ground

Marie Reed’s first thought when she heard a grinding company had plans to build an industrial facility in south Wilmington was, “Here we go again.”

Reed, president of the Southbridge Civic Association, knew she wasn’t alone. The whole neighborhood “has been through so much,” she said. “We’ve had enough.”

Previous attempts were made to put a state prison and facility that temporarily housed cattle in the neighborhood.

Since April, Southbridge residents have opposed Walan Specialty Construction Products’ plans at civic association meetings and a state hearing.

They say the facility would bring damaging environmental and health effects to a neighborhood already dotted with brownfields and industrial sites, and plagued by chronic flooding.

They plan to voice those concerns at a Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control hearing this month, hoping to prevent the facility’s construction.

Walan, a small family-owned company based in Western Pennsylvania, has twice applied for an air quality permit from DNREC.

It plans to receive slag, a byproduct of steel manufacturing, at the Port of Wilmington and grind it into a powder at its facility, to be sold for use as a cement additive.

The company’s vice president said it will strictly follow DNREC’s emissions standards and that the powder will be contained in the facility before being shipped out on covered trucks.

Residents have fiercely argued that any amount of slag dust in the air would be harmful.

Some industry safety sheets say the product, called ground granulated blast furnace slag, can damage lungs if the dust is breathed in, and contains small amounts of materials that may cause cancer.

Residents have pointed out the proposed facility would be a stone’s throw from parks and churches.

“How much of this dust and dirt is going to get in [residents’] lungs, their air conditioners?” said B. Ivan Broomer, pastor of the Stronghold Deliverance Ministries, down the street from the proposed slag facility.

Southbridge residents said they no longer want the neighborhood to be a dumping ground for pollutants. They want new businesses entering the neighborhood to give something back to the residents, such as good jobs for a lower-skilled workforce.

“We want something that’s going to benefit the community,” said Diana Dixon, who owns a house less than a mile from the proposed plant and has lived in the neighborhood 18 years.

Reed put it more bluntly: “It’s our turn.”

'Trying to come back'

Surrounded by the Christina River and flanked by industrial land, Southbridge has seen environmental damage coupled with the “economic vulnerabilities” of a low-income neighborhood, said Victor Perez, a University of Delaware sociologist who has studied the neighborhood’s fight against flooding and climate change.

Its residents have put up their share of fights over unwanted neighbors. Reed remembers the late 1980s, when the state proposed building a 600-bed prison in Southbridge. The plan was scrapped in 1990.

In 2014, Peninsula Compost’s plant, on the same stretch of Christiana Avenue as the site Walan has leased, was shut down by the state after numerous residents’ complained of odors.

And two years ago, a port business proposed building a cattle-resting area up the street from where Peninsula sat, raising local concerns over the smell.

“We fought hard against it,” Reed said. “It’s the concept of, ‘Give it to Mikey, he’ll eat anything.’ ‘Put it in Southbridge, just throw it at them.’”

Residents point out the area is already considered a cancer cluster.

Last year, a report from a nonprofit science advocacy group listed Southbridge, a predominantly black neighborhood, as one of seven communities in Delaware where residents suffered cancer and respiratory illnesses at higher rates than their counterparts in wealthy, whiter Greenville.

Report: 7 New Castle communities at greater risk for cancer, respiratory illness

The state division of public health rejected the study’s conclusions.

Dixon believes local pollution contributed to her mother, who lives south of Southbridge along the Route 9 corridor, recently being diagnosed with breast cancer. Dixon said there is no family history.

For all its woes, the neighborhood could soon be turning a corner. Wilmington is funding a wetlands park and separating storm water and sewer pipes to alleviate flooding in the low-lying neighborhood. The city recently committed funds to a renovation of Eden Park.

The state is building a bridge across the Christina River to connect the booming Riverfront to the neighborhood, which could bring investment over. And the 76ers Fieldhouse is being constructed right next door. Reed hopes to partner with the owners so that residents could hold events there.

“Southbridge is trying to come back,” Broomer said. “If you’re going to dump things in Southbridge, give them something good for them.”

'We have to stay'

Walan, too, sees opportunity in the area. The company found the Christiana Avenue land, already zoned by the city for waterfront manufacturing, attractive because of its proximity to the port and truck routes, said vice president Lisa Dharwadkar.

The company applied for a state permit in January, and residents showed up at an April hearing demanding to know how the operation would affect them.

“We respect the concerns voiced by the community members,” Dharwadkar said in an interview. Walan pulled that permit application in July, she said, and presented plans and answered questions at community meetings.

The company has hired environmental consultants to assess its potential impact on the area, Dharwadkar said. In slides at the meetings, Walan listed its maximum projected emissions of regulated chemicals from the grinding facility as lower than the amounts found in DNREC’s monitoring of Wilmington’s air quality, and standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

There is little research on the effects of slag grinding operations on their surroundings. One study submitted to the state of New Jersey of a slag processing facility in Camden concluded the plant likely contributed about 10 percent of outdoor dust in the area.

Dharwadkar stressed the company is complying with DNREC’s rules and said Walan wants to be a good neighbor.

At a combined meeting of civic associations along the Route 9 corridor, including Southbridge’s, last month, residents were not convinced by Dharwadkar’s statement that Walan would be able to contain most of the dust.

“If you can’t contain it 100 percent, I don’t see why you put it in our backyard,” Dixon said.

Resident Sandra Smithers asked how the facility would benefit the area.

“What’s your commitment to the community, to make it a better place?” she said.

Dharwadkar’s father, company president Anil Bhadsavle, said he would create jobs in the area.

“We will make people skilled people,” he said. “Even if it’s two jobs for two families, it counts.”

Residents in the room scoffed.

In an interview, Dharwadkar said she anticipates initially hiring 10 employees for the facility. 

“At the end of the day, we are really excited to provide this crucial and valuable product to the state of Delaware,” Dharwadkar said, “We’re really excited about creating jobs and training and retaining local talent.”

Wilmington city councilwoman Michelle Harlee, who represents Southbridge, said she initially welcomed a business moving into the city but could not support the project if the residents oppose it.

Residents said a handful of jobs at the specialized facility would mean little in a neighborhood where many are not qualified for skilled labor, and said the health concerns outweighed all.

Reed envisions the site being used for “lighter manufacturing — nothing with chemicals,” or an Amazon-like warehouse where residents could work. She could see stores there, or a movie theater. Broomer suggested townhouses, or a recreation area. Residents said they wanted to change the industrial zoning around Southbridge, to better accommodate the population.

“You can’t zone it to be 80 percent factories and 20 percent residents,” Dixon said. “That’s not fair to people, and most of them are indigent. We have to stay where we can stay.”

Contact Jeanne Kuang at (302) 324-2476 or jkuang@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jeannekuang.

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