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A France-based pharmaceutical company, which owns a production plant nestled along the edge of Cape Henlopen State Park’s trees and dunes, wants to set up production and warehouse facilities for an artificial sweetener at the site.
But for some Lewes residents who live near the plant, the company’s proposal sounds like a bitter pill they might be forced to swallow.
SPI Pharma on Cape Henlopen Drive, just beyond the Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal and close to the state park entrance, has filed an application to produce polyols, sugar-free sweeteners used to produce a range of products including pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements andoddly, coatings used on both jelly beans and paintballs.
The company has filed for a Coastal Zone Act permit with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
A hearing on the permit request was held Wednesday, March 28, at the Biden Environmental Training Center in the state park. About a dozen SPI company officials, a half dozen officials from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and about the same number of Lewes residents attended the first of what is likely to be a number of public hearings on SPI’s request.
SPI Pharma, the most recent owner of the facility that first was owned by the Barcroft Co. in the mid-1960s, uses water from the Delaware Bay, to extract magnesium hydroxide, the active ingredient used in the production of some antacid pharmaceuticals. SPI Pharma has continued production of the antacid product at the facility.
Stephen Freebery, SPI’s safety, health and environmental director said the company produces polyols at its New Castle County plant but has sold the production technology to Corn Products International. Freebery said SPI plans to stop producing polyols at the New Castle plant by the end of the year. He said the company is requesting the permit to install new equipment at the Lewes location where the operation would be housed primarily in an existing building. An 11,000-square-foot warehouse addition would be the only structure added to the plant.
Under Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act regulations, industries are required to offset air emissions resulting in an overall air quality improvement in the Coastal Zone.
Freebery said SPI’s permit proposes a reduction of about 652 pounds of air pollutants when it shuts down its New Castle plant and operates using new equipment in Lewes. He said the production of polyols requires heat. Steam created in the process is released into the air. He said unlike the New Castle plant, which uses a form of fuel oil as a heat source, the Lewes facility would use cleaner-burning propane.
Freebery said the production process would not generate any odor, noise or volatile chemical emissions noting the plant would require 1,500 gallons of water per day for production and up to 7,000 gallons of water per day – when necessary – for rinsing processing equipment. Freebery said a diatomaceous earth filter would extract solid waste.
Despite Freebery’s assurances that the new plant would not pose a risk to residents of nearby Cape Shores, skepticism was apparent.
“Why is Secretary Hughes allowing this to move from an industrial area to a pristine area? This is a pretty big change,” said Jack Dawson, a Cape Shores resident.
Dawson, a physician, said he’s concerned that some chemicals used to produce polyols, such as sulfuric acid and caustic soda, could be released into the air.
Freebery said the chemicals are consumed in the production process so there could be nothing released into the air.
“The only thing that you’ll see different is the BOD (biological oxygen demand),” Freebery said. He said although the BOD would increase, the rise would be minimal. The BOD is the amount of oxygen required by aerobic microorganisms to decompose organic matter. Freebery said water discharged from the polyol production process, and the plant in general, has a BOD level of 2.2. In comparison, he said, water discharged by Lewes’ Board of Public Works wastewater treatment plant has a BOD of about 15.
City resident Mike Tyler said the plant’s location, although zoned industrial, is no longer primarily an industrial area.
“I don’t believe it’s appropriate to expand the operation in this area,” said Tyler. He asked if rail traffic to the plant would increase because of the new production facility. Plant manager Ken Brittingham said the company no longer transports by rail. He said supplies for the process would come in by tractor-trailers and finished product would leave by tanker trucks. Brittingham estimated that about two additional trucks per week would be added to the three-to-four trucks per week that now travel Cape Henlopen Drive.
Cape Shores resident Edith Linnen said has concerns about the company’s proposed warehouse expansion. Freebery said that aspect of the proposal would be handled by the City of Lewes and isn’t part of the Coastal Zone requirements.
Robert Haynes, DNREC’s hearing officer, said the department has not formed an opinion on SPI’s request. Haynes reminded the group that one of the purposes of the Coastal Zone Act “was to keep Delaware’s coastline from looking like Pennsylvania’s and New Jersey’s.” Former Delaware Gov. Russell Peterson signed the Coastal Zone Act into law in June 1971 to protect Delaware’s coastal area from destructive heavy industrialization and offshore bulk product transfer facilities.
The Act is intended to protect the natural environment of the coastal areas and safeguard their use primarily for recreation and tourism.
Contact Henry Evans at hevans@capegazette.com
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