COVINGTON, Ga. — The Georgia Environmental Protection Division issued a Notice of Violation of the Georgia Rules for Air Quality Control to Becton, Dickinson and Company for operating its Global Distribution Center , located on Lochridge Boulevard in Covington, without an air quality permit on Thursday, Dec. 18.
This warehouse stores medical equipment sterilized using ethylene oxide, or EtO, at the BD Covington and BD Madison facilities, as well as medical equipment sterilized at other BD facilities outside of Georgia.
Due to EPD’s continued oversight and as a condition of the Oct. 28, 2019 judicial consent order, BD provided estimates of fugitive EtO emissions occurring at offsite warehouses located in Newton County on Dec. 15, 2019. BD’s report identified one such warehouse — the GDC — and estimated GDC’s EtO emissions at 0.65 pounds per hour or 5,600 pounds per year, therefore, requiring a permit under the Georgia Rules of Air Quality Control.
The Notice of Violation seeks to prevent BD from placing any medical equipment that has been sterilized using EtO into the GDC from Dec. 23, 2019 through Jan. 6, 2020 to decrease the amount of product in the GDC and to allow BD and EPD time to develop a plan to lower emissions from this facility.
The Notice of Violation further requests that BD conduct ambient air monitoring around the facility and submit a permit application for the GDC that will include installation of air pollution control equipment to destroy no less than 99% of EtO emissions. In the Notice of Violation, EPD requests additional information from BD to inform future decision-making.
The Notice of Violation is the first step in EPD’s enforcement process. As prescribed by statute, the Notice of Violation’s conditions are not binding unless included in a consent agreement or other order. EPD will evaluate BD’s response to the Notice of Violation (due Friday, Dec. 20, 2019, 1 p.m.) as it considers potential next steps, including assessment of fines or other enforcement actions.
Current law requires that facilities with a potential to emit more than 4,000 pounds a year of EtO have a permit and install emissions controls. As a result of the analysis of EtO emissions at the GDC required by the Oct. 28 order, EPD has become aware that the GDC is above this threshold. GA EPD has alerted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of this situation.
The BD Report on Fugitive Emissions from the GDC as well as the EPD Notice of Violation can be found on the EPD EtO webpage at https://epd.georgia.gov/ethylene-oxide-information.
