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Croda plant cleared to test operations temporarily

Croda, Inc.

The state announced Friday it’s allowing Croda to restart the ethylene oxide plant at its Atlas Point facility near New Castle, but only to test it.

This comes a little more than two years after the plant leaked massive amounts of the explosive and carcinogenic chemical into the air.  That leak caused  the temporary shutdown of the Delaware Memorial Bridge and cost the company a little more than $600 thousand in fines.

Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control says the plant will fire back up the first week of January to perform an emissions test, then shut back down to await a decision from the state on a path forward.

DNREC officials will allow the facility to run for a week before testing its ethylene oxide levels as well as the water pressure and performance of the plant’s scrubber.

Croda failed an emissions test back in September and received a Notice of Violation from the state.

At a public hearing last month state lawmakers and members of the public called for steeper penalties to Croda for its environmental violations.

 

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