VINEYARD — State regulators on Friday asked remediation work to cease at the former Geneva Steel site in Utah County due to an unpleasant odor associated with the operation that is causing headaches and nausea among residents and business owners in Vineyard, Orem and Lindon.
This is the second time the Utah Department of Environmental Quality has pushed pause on the work by U.S. Steel due to complaints over the odor causing public health issues.
The odor is naphthalene, a hydrocarbon the state agency says that even in low concentrations emits a mothball like smell. The hydrocarbon is a byproduct of historical coking operations at the plant in which the material was then dumped on site. U.S. Steel is cleaning that up to be deposited in an on-site, lined landfill.
Levels of naphthalene at and around the site have not exceeded the health standard in place by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but that doesn’t mean they are not causing problems, said Jared Mendenhall, spokesman for the Utah Department Environmental Quality.
“One of the issues we run into, of course, is just because it doesn’t exceed what the standard is it doesn’t mean it is not affecting people,” he said. “That is why we asked them to shut down because it is clearly affecting people.”
U.S. Steel was asked to cease its remediation operations in November due to public health complaints. The state asked the company to develop a monitoring plan and install specialized monitors to measure levels of the contaminant.
None of the independent lab tests showed levels that exceeded the OSHA standard, Mendenhall said.
U.S. Steel was permitted to resume operations, but as complaints continued, the state asked monitors to be installed throughout residential areas and at parks a mile or two away from the remediation site in Vineyard. Those testing results are pending, Mendenhall said.
Mark Wadsworth, owner of Wadsworth Design at the northern end of a now remediated portion of the Geneva Steel site, contacted the media Friday out of frustration.
“I finally had enough,” he said. “I just don’t want to be in harm’s way.”
Wadsworth said he leaves work with headaches, and dust from the remediation work gets on vehicles and on businesses.
“I am not trying to stir up stuff, but I have invested a ton of money down here and have 40 employees. I want to make sure we are not impacted by what is in the air.”
He said even though the test results show there are not harmful levels of naphthalene, clearly he and others are being affected.
“It stinks out here again today,” he said Friday.
Mendenhall said regulators are working with U.S. Steel to devise remediation efforts that would help minimize the odors before work resumes again.
The former Geneva Steel site is 1,680 acres, of which about 30% has been developed.