Residents of eastern Henrico County are facing a new pollution scare after a valve malfunction at a medical sterilization plant near Richmond sent hundreds of pounds of a cancer-linked gas into the air in a single day, more than the facility is allowed to emit in a year.
The incident has sharpened long-running concerns from neighbors who say their community is already carrying too much industrial pollution.
What happened?
Sterilization Services of Virginia is permitted to emit 400 pounds of ethylene oxide over the course of a year. But on April 9, about 580 pounds of the gas were released from storage when a check valve failed, according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Chesapeake Bay Journal.
Even after the leak, DEQ has continued to allow the plant to operate. In May, the agency issued a consent order and fined the company $53,616.75, while the Chesapeake Bay Journal reported that the company has since replaced the valves and added equipment for periodic testing…